REVIEWS
THREE EXHIBITIONS TO SEE IN NEW YORK THIS WEEKEND
March 26, 2021
Karma has given all three of its locations—two galleries and a bookstore
in lower Manhattan—over to Ann Craven for her three part solo-show,
which arrives just in time for spring. As the city’s plants, animals, and
inhabitants emerge from what may have been the longest, loneliest
winter of our lives, we are greeted by this ebullient body of work.
Craven is known for her paintings of moons and birds, and here she
mines these motifs as well as dipping into an unapologetic nostalgia
for fantastical childhood musings, with 7ft-tall paintings of horses
galloping before flowers, glamorous peacocks, and bear cubs who
peer sweetly from tree branches. The compositions are repeated
exactly in multiple paintings throughout the three-venue exhibition,
as if each were a prayer. Craven’s belief in the power of beauty, and
the unique earnestness, skill, humour, and charm on display here,
prevent the works from delving into saccharine territory, instead
keeping them ever enticing.
IMAGE:
Ann Craven
Portrait of Two Cardinals (after Picabia), 2021
Oil on canvas
84 x 72 inches
