Karen Heagle at SARGENT’S DAUGHTERS Merrill Wagner at ZÜRCHER GALLERY

James Kalm is out for a Sunday afternoon cruse through the Lower East Side when he decides to visit a pair painting shows that seem to span the gamut of the painting medium. Karen Heagle’s “Invocations” presents recent examples of the artists works “exploring…sexuality and queer identity, feminism, power, history…Referencing Dutch still lives, Pasolini, the Book of Revelations and Greek Mythology.” These works many on paper, employ an exotic mix of collage, acrylic, watercolor, graphite, gouache, pearlescent paint, gold and silver leaf. Merrill Wagner’s “Works from the 80’s” is a witness to a time of intense theoretical investigation into the medium of paint, the notions of what a painting is, how a painting is made, and what the meaning of this painterly process actually is. Working on slabs of slate and other surfaces (often found or scavenged black boards) Wagner tests the various concoctions of ultramarine blue paint to see how this mineral pigment responds to these brutally material surfaces, and the coloristic and factual results are enlightening. This program was recorded March 24, 2019. A musical introduction is provided by the Alex LoDico Ensemble.