If you’re around Ann Arbor, visit the Residential College Art Gallery at the University of Michigan to see some of my recent work.  The gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 6:00.  The building that houses the gallery (the Residential College) is secured around the clock, so unless you have a swipe card, you’ll need to sneak in behind someone else.  There’s plenty of foot traffic, so it’s quick and easy.  Once you’re inside the RC, the door of the gallery will be open.

Chris Hyndman: dogplaidhead, October 19–November 26

Residential College Art Gallery, University of Michigan, 701 E. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI, 48109  734.763.0176

If you’re near Chicago, I highly recommend a visit to the Mark Bradford exhibition at the MCA.  Mary and I caught his gallery talk (where Mary snapped the above photo).  He was fantastic, just like most of the work.  It was a real pleasure to hear him talk about paintings as “constructions.”  The show is up through September 18.

If you’re in the Detroit area, check out Painting Coast to Coast at Wayne State University’s Elaine L. Jacob Gallery.  The gallery itself is beautiful and there’s a lot of work to see.  The show is curated by WSU faculty members Adrian Hatfield (left above) and Margi Weir and includes pieces by:  Rollin Beamish, Linda Besemer, Morgan Craig, Adrian Deckbar, Angela Dufresne, Chris Gallagher, Dick Goody, Laurie Hogin, Ashley Hope, Chris Hyndman, Matt Martin, Larry Bob Phillips, Holly Roberts, Mark Sengbusch, Kevin Tolman, and Alison Wong.

Photos from the opening reception, courtesy of Tanya Britt, can be seen here.

Our building is hosting an open studios event on Sunday, Nov. 7, noon-6:00p.  If the open studios aren’t enough to bring you out, there’s also an opening at Julius Caesar gallery, starting at 4:00p.

If you’re in the Chicago area, please stop by.

3311 W. Carroll Ave., Chicago, IL, 60624

If you like Collings’ “Diary” for Modern Painters, you’ll surely enjoy his blog for the Saatchi Gallery website.  It’s titled, Put Downs and Suck Ups: Matthew Collings’ Weekly Ventings About the Art World.

If you happen to be in the Dallas area, drop by The Wit Gallery to see Top Ten, a group show curated by Brooklyn-based painter Lori Kirkbride.  You can see my latest painting, Study for “Boo” (above) and the work of nine other artists from around the U.S.  The show opens November 13 and runs through December 19.

During a recent trip to Kansas City, I visited the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art on the campus of Johnson County Community College. The museum building is new and beautiful and the collection is truly impressive—a must see for anyone interested in contemporary painting.  I was surprised to find such a strong collection at a community college, but even more surprised to find several significant pieces installed not in the museum, but in other buildings around campus.  The modest coffee shop in the student center has a painting by Jonathan Lasker and one by Linda Besemer; the Tomory Dodge painting pictured above (Lost and Found, 2004) is in the student center cafeteria!  If you like your art in quieter and less-trafficked settings, the museum galleries have excellent pieces by Elizabeth Murray, Do-Ho Suh, Kerry James Marshall, Karin Davie, Dana Schutz, Amy Sillman, Kehinde Wiley and Fred Tomaselli, among others.  Kudos to Bruce Hartman, the museum director and driving force (so I’m told) behind all things good at the Nerman.  Don’t miss it if your near Kansas City.

I know that this show was a while ago, but…

Whenever I question if it’s worth struggling over subtle variations in value, chroma and temperature (because currently it seems that nobody cares about such things), I look at David Reed’s paintings and my questioning stops. It’s worth it. The manipulation of temperature in his work is exquisite and his paintings serve as a forceful reminder that we can all benefit—makers and viewers alike—from giving greater and more critical attention to color. The painting above is #572, oil and alkyd on polyester, 105 x 49 inches, 2005-2007. Thank you, David, for the ongoing inspiration.

In lieu of a live view (at least until his next show), I recommend a visit to David’s website and a look at the following links.

David Reed at Max Protetch, November-December, 2007

A video review of the show by James Kalm

Two shows that I wish I’d seen this summer:

Tomma Abts at the New Museum, April 9-June 29, 2008

Christopher Wool at Luhring Augustine, May 9-June 21, 2008

In early June, Mary and I went to see the Québec Triennial at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal. Among the best work in the show was a video installation by Manon De Pauw titled Fantasmagorie lumineuse. The apparatus and the visual effects were complex and mannered enough to make it challenging, while the playfulness and experimental spirit of the investigations kept it lively and buoyant. Once I got a handle on what I was looking at, I found myself cheering along with the action: “Please make it green next…Come’on green!…ARGH blue!” or “Ooh, ooh….try the other diagonal now….YES!” There was a lovely new painting on the screen every few seconds and I couldn’t help but feel pangs of jealousy (mixed with delight) at the efficacy, immediacy and basic humanness of it all. Catch it before the trienniel ends in September.