Featured item from THE LIST: Luisa Rabbia, opening Friday at Peter Blum

by David Cohen

At once intimate and sumptuous, Zen and nerdy, aloof and intricate, Luisa Rabbia “Death&Birth” cycle is a monument to nuttiness—an existential comment, in itself, perhaps, upon the sublime absurdity of existence. A pair of gargantuan murals represents the moments of entry and departure, complemented by three of her LingamYoni series (pictured) at a relatively modest height of six feet, everything worked in a bewilderingly painstaking technique of layered colored pencil strokes building up to the eerie glow of outer-space or the inner recesses of the body. The author/executor of these visual marvels is at once a god of sorts and a mere cell in her own creation.

See THE LIST for details

Reminder: The Review Panel is this evening, February 6: David Cohen’s guests are Svetlana Alpers, Alex Bacon and Ken Johnson

artcritical’s legendary critics’ forum returns to Brooklyn Public Library for its third annual season. The program was hosted for its first decade at the National Academy Museum: Podcasts dating back to 2004 are archived at artcritical, and include the very first where Ken Johnson appeared with Maureen Mullarkey and Jerry Saltz. David Cohen has always moderated. Alex Bacon is making his debut in the series. Artists up for discussion include Jamian Juliano-Villani (pictured) on view at JTT. If you are in gallery going mode today we suggest James Cohan in Chelsea or Peter Freeman in Soho. For full details, see the announcement card below. As always, it best to reserve your seat: artcritical.com/reserve

Save the Dates:
Monday, March 5: David Cohen’s guests are Jennifer Coates, Karen E. Jones and Thomas Micchelli
Monday, April 9: David Cohen’s guests are Jessica Bell Brown, Jarrett Earnest and David Salle

New this week on artcritical

A show last year at Massey Lyuben Gallery

A show that dwells on the perversity of painting, closing February 4

His recent Studio School show brought together his visceral and pictographic modes

The occult gives way to novel approaches to what to notice in art.

The veteran painter reminisces in her New Jersey studio