Six Solo Shows Compressed into Two New York Galleries in November 2014

Two New York galleries presented six solo exhibitions concurrently in November 2014. The Painting Center at 547 West 47th Street featured works by Lois Dickson, Elisa Jensen, and Ying Li from October 28 to November 22. Dickson's abstract painting Backstage demonstrated subtle paint handling and allegorical symbolism. Jensen's large-scale urban scenes, including Yellow Skirt, Brooklyn, employed a flat, linear style reminiscent of Ben Shahn. Li's City Series #3: Blue Curtain, painted in her studio after her husband's death, conveyed solitude through fierce color and texture. Across town, George Billis Gallery at 525 West 26th Street hosted Jeffrey Reed, Mary Ijichi, and Dan Mills during the same dates. Reed's small landscape panels like Soft Rain, refined from studies in Maine, Pennsylvania, and Ireland, depicted light and air. Ijichi created modest-scale drawings and collages blending string tape with acrylic paint on Mylar, showing influences from Paul Klee and Agnes Martin. Mills painted over printed maps, with Bleed (52) and Outtake A's (2013) standing out. These cluster exhibitions provided artists with solo listings while offering galleries efficient scheduling solutions. The Painting Center operates as an artist-run institution, and George Billis Gallery had recently expanded its space to accommodate a large stable of artists.