iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 14h

Luis Edgar Mejicanos "Pizarra", 2023 Oil on canvas 50 x 74 1/2 in.

A photorealistic, nearly wiped clean, green chalk board at roughly 4 1/f feet by near 7 feet, indexes both pedagogy in painting, perhaps art history, and certainly the history of large scale gestural abstraction. The chalk boards wooden frame serves as conceptually layered frame, in addition to be a figural one.

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 15h

Kym Day "Lo Mein Western", 2020 Oil on canvas 48 x 30 in. A self-portrait from the artist's "Low Mein Western" (2019-2024). www.kymday.com/lomeinwestern

010

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 15h

Kym Day "Star Spangled Steer", 2026 Oil on canvas 42 x 54 in.

This painting by Greenville, South Carolina artist Kym Day seems innocuous in a way that belies the questionable character of the United States' economic reliance on beef production and consumption on the whole. Day is an academically trained artist in the truest sense, receiving rigorous foundations training *and* an immersion in various strata of art theory and art history at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. There is a strong commercial bent to her work, but it consistently reaches back into European modernism and 20th century avant-garde strategies conceptual deployed in painting and drawing, eg, surrealism, dadaism, and other kinds of irrational subversion (much like her MICA alum antecendent Jeff Koons.) The brown and white 'stars' are arranged flag-like on the side of the steer (the side of beef as it were), blending in with spots on the steer, of which one shape is vaguely reminiscent of North America.

022

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Henry Rothman "Untitled", 1979 Paper collage 5 3/4 x 7 3/8 in.

The diminutive scale of this collage, by the late Henry Rothman (1910-1990), is belied by this full bleed photograph of the work. The gestures are proportionally broad, the colors are primary and secondary, and the residual line work created by the mounted strips of paper upon strips creates a seemingly compressed image field.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Russell Maltz "Ball Park XLVIII (Needle Series)", 2020 Polyurethane and Acrylic on Glass Plates (3) Suspended from a galvanized nail 111 x 3 x 4 in.

Russell Maltz is New York City based artist, who was born and raised in Long Island, NY. Probably besty known for his site specific works, two bodies of work of his are of great appeal to me - his "Needles" (one shown here) and his painted glass "Stacks" which a few can be seen on his website. Russell and I are friends, but further deeply appreciate the value systems embedded in his art. Working with finely cut long pieces reinforced glass, and painting on them renders an extraordinary take on relief painting, panel painting, installation art, photography and the materiality of color.

020

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Mel Rosas "The Day of the Panther", 2015 Oil on panel 48 x 48 in.

Painting by figurative/representational painter Mel Rosas. The painting offers a subtle surreality, presenting a foregrounded desolate urban scene that features a portal to a lush green space, across which strides a pitch black jaguar. The animal punctuates the image and posits a counter to the evidence of human technology emblematized by the automobile only in partial view in the lower left corner of canvas frame.

020

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Scott Richter "Dark Cloud #2", 2012 Oil on canvas 68 X 64 in.

Painting of a man thinking in a suit standing between black rain and white lightning bolt.

030

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Frances Cohen-Gillespie "Lydia’s Vase, White Chyrsanthemums", 1981 Oil on board 60 × 60 in

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Roger Brown "Lost America", 1989 Oil on canvas Painted wood frame 86 x 49 3/4 in. governorsmansion.illinois.gov/exhibition/a...

Painting by Alabamian born and raised artist and collector Roger Brown', is a surrealist portrait of Abraham Lincoln. The link to the governors mansion of Illinois, where the painting housed, is below dimensions and medium description in the caption: summary of the works meaning and context can be found there.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Gregory Gillespie "Untitled (Artist)", 1985-98 Oil and plexiglass over wood 41 x 30 1/4 in.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Gregory Gillespie, "Studio Wall (Still Life with Self-Portrait)", 1976 Oil, printed paper collage, pencil, Magna on wood, in four parts 96 x 124 in.

This mixed media on board imagery by figurative painter Gregory Gillespie features items and details from the artist's studio. There are four self-portraits rendered within the large scale work. It is a study in highly rendered descriptive representation with pencil and paint, being integrated into a comprehensive composition that includes details imported via collage.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Anne Ryan "In a Room", 1946 Woodcut on black paper 14 x 15 1/2 in. (image)

Anne Ryan (1889-1954) was a multi-disciplinary artists who wrote, worked in theater design, and printmaking. She posthumously became best known as a collagist.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Nolan Simon "The Eye, F/W 2019", 2019 oil and dye sublimation on linen 70 × 61 in.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This is the book cover of the monograph "Queer Constellations from the Aronowitz Family Collection", documenting the eponymous exhibition on view at the Columbus Museum of Art, October 16, 2026 - March 21, 2027. www.grmandco.com/titles/queer... www.columbusmuseum.org/newsroom/pos...

This is an image of a book cover that features a black/white/grayscale photo montage of male body parts layered in a surrealist mode, with limbs and torsos placed in such orientation that the bodies depicted seem to embrace each other in a rotating fashion. The subjects very in skin tone/color. The cover image sits within an orange border upon which the text above the image reads "Queer Constellations"; and below the image in smaller type it reads "Photographs From The Aronowitz Family Collection."

010

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Michael van Ofen "The Virtue Turn 2", 2015 Oil on canvas 28 3/8 x 26 3/4 in.

Painting by German painter Michael van Ofen who is a conceptual artist who makes paintings based on photography. This image appears to be based on a photograph of a woman wearing a broad brimmed hat at the turn of the 20th century. The related and tertiary colors of blue, green, yellow, grounded in the stark contrast of white and black offer a crisp graphic character in spite of the evident brush strokes. The painting's economical use line, shape and color straddles representation/figuration and geometric abstraction.

011

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

John Edmonds "The Hero", 2018 Inkjet print 30 × 24 in.

This portrait photograph features a medium fair man with short cropped hair and close cut beard. He is shirtless with tattoos on his biceps, and in three lines of script on the left side of his chest. He wears jeans with unbuckled belt. His right arm rests on his elevated right knee holding a red handkerchief.

The photograph is one of many featured in the exhibition "Queer Constellations: Photographs from the Aronowitz Family Collection" on view at the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio, October 16, 2026–March 21, 2027.

https://www.columbusmuseum.org/newsroom/posts/cma-presents-queer-constellations-photographs-from-the-aronowitz-family-collection

010

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Vivian Springford "Cosmos Series VSF&31", 1985 Acrylic on canvas 70 x 70 in. www.alminerech.com/artists/323-...

020

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

John Stezaker “Marriage (film portrait collage) XXI", 2007 Collage 9 13/16 x 8 1/8 in

The post is a photograph of the collage, by the English collage artist John Stezaker, reproduced in the monograph "At Home/Not At Home - Works rom the Collection of Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg." The monograph features work curated from their collection by Matthew Higgs. The book was published by the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College/Hessel Museum on the occasion of the exhibition in 2010.

010

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Reginald Madison "Red Top", 2000 Oil on canvas 36 x 48 in.

Painted by late friend, the painter/sculptor Reginald Madison. It features an ethnically ambiguous head lying on a mound. The face is painted deep burnt orange with parted dark brown-to-black hair pulled back, perhaps into plaits, but the hairstyle is unclear. The mound on which the head lays indexes a table, abstracted human anatomy (perhaps a female's breast) and/or a rising hill or mountain on the earth's surface. Immediately beneath the head is a flat white circle that ostensibly falls on and follows the contour of the mound - it also looks like a clerical collar.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Henry Taylor "Brother, Brother, Brother", 2009 Acrylic on suitcase 28 × 9 1/4 × 21 in.

011

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

David Diao "My Favorite Image of Her", 2016 Acrylic and silkscreen on two canvas panels 100 × 42 in.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Wine label Design by Willem Snitker "Drapeau 1900 - 1980" for Chateau Toutigeac, Bordeaux, 1978

Artist/graphic designer designed a wine label for Chateau Toutigeac, likely commissioned by wine maker, vintner, vineyard owner René Mazeau. The artisanal analogue of the craft, nuance and poetics of winemaking and those qualities in art has a long tradition that continues with products made in regions all over the world. This particular image by Snitker is reproduction of original imaging that used both watercolor and etching for mark making.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Aubrey Beardsley "Enter Herodias", 1893 Ink on paper 8 1⁄4 × 6 1⁄4 in.

120

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Richard Hunt "Life Force", 2007 Welded bronze 31 1/4 x 21 5/8 x 15 3/4 in.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Nakayama Tadashi "Hana to Shojo (Girl with Flowers)", 1956 Color woodblock on paper 15 1/2 x 14 1/2 in.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Hamra Abbas "The Piece Might Be Abstract, But its Made of Rubber and Looks Like the Male Organ", 2012 Stained glass 35 3/8 x 23 5/8 in.

020

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Robert Kelly "Invisible Cities XIX", 2011 Oil and Mixed Media on Panel 19 1/4 x 15 1/4 in.

010

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Gilbert Hsiao "Lucky Strike", 2013 "Acrylic on shaped panel 21 x 22 in.

010

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Dorthea Rockburne "Lamenting Angels #2", 2021 Aquacryl paint and gouache on paper 30 x 23 in.

010

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Charles Pompilius "In Her Room", 2025 Oil on cradled panel 30 x 40 in.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Reginald Madison "New Slant Old Story", 1992 Oil on canvas 76 x 55 in.

030

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Robert Earl Paige "1OAK Love", 1998 Hand Painted Batik Dyed Silk Crepe 30 x 44 in.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Saul Chernick "Limerick", 2015 Acrylic ink, permanent marker, collage, gouache on paper 20 x 15 in.

040

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Mary Lovelace O’Neal "Running with Black Panthers and White Doves (from the Panthers in my Father’s Palace series)", ca. 1989-1990 Mixed media on canvas 81 x 138 in.

021

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Laini Nemett "Crooked", 2011 Oil on linen 36 x 48 in.

020

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Eberhard Havekost "Solitude B09/10", 2009-2010 Oil on linen 47 1/4 x 31 1/2 in.

020

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Piet Mondrian "Passion Flower", 1908 Ink, watercolor, on paper 28 1/2 x 18 3/4 in.

000

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Gloucester Caliman Coxe "Exodus # 7" Oil on canvas 46 1/4 x 32 in.

031

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Stephen Westfall "Ornithology", 2025 Oil and alkyd on canvas 60 x 50 in. artworld.snapeditions.com/2026/05/21/o...

020

closereading.bsky.social @closereading.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Susan R. Johnson "Large Combine No 15 (The Metaphysics of Ordinary Things)", 2026 Acrylic and wax painting over archival pigment prints on watercolor paper mounted on wood panels 42 x 24 x 1.5 in.