Clarence Schmidt at RICCO MARESCA and 4 Artists at FREDERICKS & FREISER

James Kalm sometimes gets the opportunity to present startling juxtaposed art exhibitions that illuminate and obfuscate at the same time. And so it is with this late June Chelsea stroll. Clarence Schmidt was already a local legend around Woodstock New York when the history shacking music festival happened. He’d moved upstate from his home turf in Queens in the 1940s, and by the mid sixties had built one of the most ambitious examples of “outsider architecture” in the North East. This show presents some of the remnants of his practice, and gives viewers a chance to enjoy the tar and paint encrusted sculptures he created from 1952 until the destruction of his masterwork, the House of Mirrors, in 1972. Then we pedal north to take in a group show titled 4 Artists, at Fredericks & Freiser featuring works by: Felipe Baeza, Jenna Gribbon, Anja Salonen, and Vaughn Spann. If there might be an approach that unites these artists, it’s the notion of collage or the idea of mashing up diverse materials. It’s most obvious renditions are the twine and paint soaked drawings of Baeza, and the fabric collages of Spann, but the visual combines of Gribbon, and Salonen also press unexpected subjects and figures together for a mysterious yet satisfying expression of a vibrant version of contemporary painting. This program was recorded June 21, 2018.