Fred Valentine "Toward Grandfather Mountain" at STUDIO 10

Veröffentlicht am 27.02.2015

Suffering from severe "cabin fever" James Kalm is ebullient when the Arctic Vortex's grip on the city is loosened, and the weather becomes more tolerable for cycling. His first destination is an exhibition by Fred Valentine. Valentine has been a quintessential member of the Williamsburg/Bushwick art community since the early 1990s. He's an art activist as well as accomplished painter, and pioneered the Ridgewood Queens neighborhood with his VALENTINE gallery. This show presents many small scaled paintings featuring the artists heavily worked surfaces, and rich warn pallet. There's a sly, mischievous quality to the work due to the artist's knowingly tweaking and manipulation accepted painterly tropes, and genres. Your correspondent also discusses Valentine's work as a gallerist, and the opening of the new VALENTINE gallery.