Kristen Jensen, Ben Dowell at GEARY and Keltie Ferris at MITCHELL INNES & NASH

James Kalm tools down to the western side of SoHo to visit “Everything Speaks”, a two artist show at Geary Gallery. Kristen Jensen presents a new body of work that combines low fired ceramic vessels with plump fabric cushions that seem to refer to body parts. With the second part of this show a lingering question that your humble correspondent has been asking “REAL PAINT (?)” might be confirmed. There appears to be a “movement”, “sensibility”, or “trend” among young painters to go “chunky”. Ben Dowell shows thickly worked oils from his “Facial Recognition” series. Meanwhile pedaling north to Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Keltie Ferris has added slabs of ½ inch thick paint to her sprayed and stained canvases for a striking contrast in surface materiality. If artists represent the desires of their era, then maybe this signals a need to return to the “real”? (No more “virtual” painting or internet art) Perhaps this relates to moving beyond illusions like “fake news” or “fake painting”? Somehow, a chunk of oil paint on a canvas has an emphatic presence that negates illusion, and encourages a reevaluation of the ideas of representation and materiality? Video of this gallery crawl will pop at the James Kalm Report shortly… A musical introduction is provided by Mr. Rugar. This program was recorded April 12, 201 Geary Contemporary http://www.geary.nyc/8. Mitchell-Innes & Nash http://www.miandn.com/