Thomas Micchelli reviews Karen Schwartz: Down the Rabbit Hole at Life on Mars Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn, on view through May 31, 2015.
Micchelli writes: "Despite the recognizable humans, birds and animals floating in and out of Schwartz’s canvases, Morgan argues that her work is more strongly connected to Abstract Expressionism than to a likelier source, the figurative imagery of 1980s Neo-Expressionism. Compared with the latter, which 'was primarily generated in Europe' and 'contained a cynical edge,' Schwartz’s practice is guileless, open and instinctual... Whatever the image, it speaks the language of paint — no symbols are assigned, and meaning is recognized (as in the psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva’s notion of intertextuality) as outside of the author’s control."
