Almost nine summers ago, I met the painter Chris Martin, known for his colorful, often glittery abstract works, at a group show at a rented house in Bridgehampton, N.Y. Martin's contribution - an ocean-blue background with vibrant orange shapes that looked like either reeds growing out of a salt marsh or alien spaceships catching fire as they entered the earth's atmosphere - was hung outside, on the house's porch. When I asked him about this placement, he told me, in so many words, that paintings are tough and can handle more than one might expect, even exposure to the elements. It was a brief encounter that has stuck with me all these years. But I'm especially thinking of it again now, with a new online group show that Martin has curated for Timothy Taylor gallery called Painting the Essential: New York, 1980-Present. Largely made up of works by those in the painter's milieu - including his former roommate Katherine Bradford and his friend Amy Sillman, who both share Martin's penchant for lush colors and outré scene-setting - the show maps an alternate history of New York's art scene, in which painting, a medium that is perpetually falling out of style, argues that it's tougher than whatever we can throw at it.
Painting the Essential: New York, 1980-Present is on view online through June 20, timothytaylor.com.
