Painterly Paintings

Cleveland Institute of Art graduate, Craig Kucia, does what I sometimes call, the "Laura Owens effect". Not that she was the first to do brightly colored child-like paintings where the paint is laid on extremely thick (my former Dean at CalArts seems to think so for some reason) but just that when she became an "it" thing in the art world I have a feeling art schools around the country started pushing students into that direction as it seemed a profitable trend. Dana Schutz is another example -- a Cleveland graduate too. Anyways, Craig is one of the few that takes this approach, but does it well, as most paintings I've seen in this style I find boring or just contrived in a sloppy way. Craig will be having a solo show starting June 16th at Shaheen Gallery
I'm assuming the reception will be on Friday the 20th, contact the gallery for more info.


One of my favorite Cleveland artists, Thomas Froniti, has been up to quite a bit the past year. A trip to Hong Kong in the Fall of 2007 has been a big influence in his latest body of work, and he has done a series based on Ohio birds. You can email him about pricing and studio visits: thomas@thomasfrontini.com