Critics are Talking
ABOVE: Source: Spring 2015, By Anne Rudder - GALLERY&STUDIO (p. 7)
“Elaine Weiner-Reed also portrays the abstract human form but in introspective gestural assemblages. Female figures are placed carefully in relationship to each other, paint layered on the canvases to create feelings of enigmatic transcendence over the mundane. In this exhibition the acrylic and latex depictions of faceless females provide a sense of emotional universality where the emphasis is on psychic interrelatedness. The paintings consist primarily of a lone female figure in the foreground of each with anonymous smaller figures placed in groups in the distance. Only one painting contains discernible color washes while the rest display ghostly sheens. Perhaps Weiner-Reed refers to the Greek fates in these groupings, with the future mysteriously unknown. However, this is just my conjecture.”
BELOW: February/March 2014 GALLERY&STUDIO (pps. 9, 23)
Art review of Elaine Weiner-Reed’s works as Featured Artist in January 2014 International Contemporary Exhibition at New Century Artists Gallery (Chelsea, New York) entitled…
"Awakening"
"One of her ((the show curator's)) main criteria seems to be selecting artists with fertile imaginations and inexhaustible creative resources such as one sees in the work of the Abstract Expressionist painter Elaine Weiner-Reed. Although based in Annapolis, Maryland, Weiner-Reed works in the tradition of New York School “action painters” like Willem de Kooning and Grace Hartigan, applying her vigorous brushwork to nonobjective and figurative compositions with equal spontaneity and zest. Like Hartigan’s famous painting “Delancey Street Brides,” Weiner-Reed’s “Red, Black, and Blond” achieves a successful synthesis of both, with a bold image of a voluptuous woman in a shoulderless red top and black slacks evoked in flowing, succulent strokes. Although the figures are not defined and her surroundings are indicated in a broad undetailed manner, the picture appears to be a self-portrait, depicting the artist in her studio, the manner in which she merges with her surroundings, suggesting her passionate engagement with her vocation.
“Here, Weiner- Reed’s ability to suggest so much within the self-imposed limitations of a loose gestural style calls to mind another member of the New York School: Robert de Niro, Sr., late father of the well known actor. Similarly generalized, yet possessed of individuality nonetheless are the three figures in another canvas entitled “Group Dynamics.” Working mainly in line, with key patches of color, applied with characteristic vigor, to knit the composition together at key points, Weiner- Reed employs the linear technique to suggest the physical and emotional connections, as well as the inevitable psychological tensions, of family life to which title alludes. Equally formidable in a more formal but no less intense manner are Weiner-Reed’s purely abstract compositions, such as “Vision Quest,” and “Unraveling Mysteries” in which she takes on more inner-directed subjects and metaphysical concerns." -Byron Coleman
June/August 2013 GALLERY&STUDIO
Art review of Elaine Weiner-Reed (EWr)’s works as Featured Artist in June 2013 International Contemporary Exhibition at New Century Artists Gallery (Chelsea, New York) entitled…
"UP-SURD"
"Studio and Gallery" art critic Maurice Taplinger appreciated the relationship of Elaine Weiner-Reed's paintings as a type of improvisational dance, concluding that "...as in a Pollock, the sense of a rhythmic dance remains an integral element of the painting long after it has left the artist's studio..." Taplinger noted that Weiner-Reed's work showed "a strong formal orientation...in the neocubistic structuring that serves as an armature for her composition 'Sands of Time,' where vertical linear configuration acts as a 'spine' supporting various rectangular forms...." Taplinger added that "...other softer looser abstract expressionist compositions such as the mixed media work on canvas called 'Blue Notes Soliloquy' reveals the kinship that Weiner-Reed feels with jazz improvisation."
Acknowledgments
Henry Niese:
“(EWR) is a colorist, ranging from savage to suave and delicate. Her experiments in pushing two dimensions into three, with forms projecting off the canvas in both rugged and subtle ways intrigues and fools the eye, the color sometimes belying the 3D forms, making them seem 2D, an interesting idea.” [HN - April 2013]
In response to a specific work ("Jazz Trills"):
“…your (EWR) work is not just drop-dead, in-your-face Abstract Expressionism, but there is a rich, sensitive subtlety and color to it….” [HN - April 2013]
William “Skip” Lawrence:
“Making art is an exploration, of techniques, traditions, personal taste, non-sense, and determination. Elaine Weiner-Reed (EWR), as student and friend, has traveled that road with hard work and smiles. Her present work is the most expressive and personal I have seen and the finish line is still ahead. It has been my pleasure to be a part of that journey.” [WL - April 2013]
