Janice Caswell

Mapping is everywhere in the arts these days and for good reason: maps organize information and illustrate relationships, and we have access to an extraordinary amount of information. Moreover, technological advances are shifting the way we see—and thus map—our universe. Probes send home pictures of newly discovered star clusters; satellites can zoom in on individual […]

Basic human function rests on the brain’s ability to recall physical and mental action. A lucky minority of humans is born with a so-called photographic memory, some, unfortunately, lack a healthy functioning memory, while the rest of us rely on our varied capacities for retaining information. Although memory can make or break you professionally, socially, […]

Mapping is everywhere in the arts these days and for good reason: maps organize information and illustrate relationships, and we have access to an extraordinary amount of information. Moreover, technological advances are shifting the way we see-and thus map-our universe. Probes send home pictures of newly discovered star clusters; satellites can zoom in on individual […]

Landscape is primal in the human imagination. No wonder: Our environs play a role in everything from basic needs — food, water, shelter — to culture and sense of identity, to spiritual beliefs and myths. Throughout history artists have documented the landscape, and in so doing, mirrored and shaped how we see ourselves. Think how […]

“Lines” at Limn: The group show “Lines and Curves” at Limn Gallery — never mind that mathematically all lines are curves — warrants a visit because it contains new work by a few familiar names and introduces a couple of unfamiliar but intriguing newcomers. Sid Garrison shows several of the obsessive colored pencil abstractions for […]

Anne Barrault extends an invitation to American gallerists Schroeder Romero. Luckily, they brought Janice Caswell with them. Last year Anne Barrault showed sample work from her artists’ stable in one of the numerous galleries in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Today she returns the favor to Schroeder Romero, her American fellow gallerists. What could have easily turned out […]

Want to Collect? These unpretentious artists are ideal first buys Sometimes it seems like the art world just doesn’t want you, with those too-cool–for-school gallery staffers, ,and conceptual installations you’d never want in your house. (A box of broken TVs? No thanks!) But not every New York artist is a snob. And many galleries are […]

Caswell’s elaborate designs using plastic-topped pins, which she calls Small Towns, have an appeal similar to that of wire sculpture; modest linear means in extravagant shapes that sometimes evoke objects, sometimes not. The lines curve and swirl, often intersecting, like so many ants following their capricious leaders, and casting shadows that make them look much […]

Indeterminacy, chance, and the careful courting of the destructive effects of natural forces also figure in the panel paintings of Jaq Chartier, a mid-career artist now based in Seattle, whose second solo show at Schroeder Romero, called “Sun Tests,” continues through Oct. 11. The artist, a paint tester for Golden Artist Colors, fruitfully brings her […]

Maps are gorgeous but notable artists are rarely invited to render them. They wouldn’t make sense in a language of pure subjectivity…or would they? In fact, we invest boundless excitement in maps, marvel over their tiniest details, anticipating the exotic promise of foreign places. This projection qualifies maps as conceptual rather than purely representational, opening […]

As the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary breaks ground, a 22 foot fallen tree lives under glass in the original structure. “Vivarium” means many things. For one, the tree is an ancient symbol for life. For another, a tree with live insects crawling through it symbolizes the merging of art and natural science in the 21st […]

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Funny how the word globalization hasn’t been used much during the last year and a half. Not since Afghanistan became known as a maze of caves and underground passageways, and television images of Iran confounded rather than reassured us, have these places seemed so far away. The world isn’t so small anymore.The earth seems full […]