When my friend, artist Judith Eisler texted to say she’d be coming back home to New York for an exhibit of her work, along with Bryn McConnell and Mariah Robertson, it prompted me to leave my downtown hub for the shopping area inhabited by Prada, Burberry, and Bergdorf’s. Those stores would normally attract me visually to that area, but this time, the art — especially Judith’s work — made the trip a sensory delight.
Judith — who has been featured in the Saatchi collection and now teaches painting at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna — is renowned for utilizing scenes from films and other media, then painting her own ethereal version, often magnificent, with surprising detail. All the profiles in this slideshow are hers. The painting that resembles an astronaut walking towards the light is really Blondie, the singer, in what seems to be a fab Seventies jumpsuit. The abstracts are Bryn McConnell’s work. As for the flying suspended lady sculpture, that’s the late great Louise Bourgeois. All worth a trip to the Greenberg Van Doren Gallery — now through August 27th — 730 Fifth Avenue at 57th Street.
