June 1st, 2007
by Joe Walentini, New York Views is published twice monthly.

Parting Shotz

So, yet another art season wraps up and as is the custom here at Abstract Art Online we are dodging out a bit early like workers sneaking out of the shop a few hours before quitting time on the Friday prior to a long holiday weekend.  Every year it is the same thing for me - with all the writing I’ve literally typed my fingers to nubs. Fortunately I’m self-possessed of a genetic defect in which over a period of time that ironically coincides with the summer months, they regenerate like some worms that do the same when cut in half.  But of course all that is an uninteresting story that has been told time and time again in numerous medical journals.  Therefore, with the coming of summer the staff and myself look forward to some well needed (if not well deserved) R & R, which as always completes with an extended 2 week vacation in Jersey City.  We return from this glad to be back to work.

On the cusp of completing the season I would like to thank everyone that played a large part in making this site possible and great over the last year beginning with my beloved and long suffering Assistant Editor, Janet Shapiro.  I’m also grateful to the artists and galleries that have been so generous as to allow me to photograph and reproduce images of their work along with providing other supporting materials.  A huge objective for the journal is to offer a rich array of visual images which I’ve always considered more important than the writing.  And finally a tip of the hat to NJ Transit for providing mobile office space in comfortable half-hour increments in which I’ve been able to do everything with the site except publish to the web.

Looking forward to next year our format will shift a bit in that the New York Views column will be published on a monthly basis instead of twice a month.  Some of this addresses relieving the pressures involved with meeting the demands required for publishing at that level of frequency.  But the primary reason is that we will be launching a new online gallery in the fall as part of this site.  Given the effect required for this new effort it will be necessary to cut back on existing activities.  The purpose

Corpse of Time, Galeria Janet Kurnatowski

Scott Richter, Elizabeth Harris Gallery

of the new gallery is to provide an annual exhibition venue for artists we wish to promote that currently do not have gallery representation in New York.  I’m especially excited about this new venture because it will allow me to select art I want to show versus the art I have available to write about.  So stayed tuned in the fall, with launch of the September issue of Abstract Art Online we will include our first exhibition and details regarding the new gallery.

I hope everyone reading this has a great summer whether you are able to get away or not.  As always all the reviews we’ve published over the past year continue to remain accessible in their entirety via our Archives page.  See you again in September and please continue to spread the (good) word about Abstract Art Online.

In an essay for this show, curator Ben La Rocco makes a compelling case regarding the timelessness of art in relationship to the finiteness of human existence.  While I might quarrel with some of the more absolute Post- Modernist aspects of his argument, the art work he has assembled for this show supports his concept.  None of it is messy, emotional or chaotic and all of it is such well