David Humphrey FREDRICKS & FREISER Pap Souleye Fall BLADESTUDY Mark Greenwold GARTH GREENAN

James Kalm begins the 19th season of reporting on the New York art scene with a round robin tour of current shows. The 2025 edition has commenced with an artic blast, that’s frozen the streets and forced your correspondent to hunker down for warmth. But, the attraction is too much to deny, so we bundle up and head over to West Chelsea to take in David Humphrey’s “Por Traits” at Fredricks & Freiser. The front gallery is a selection of paintings (all six by five feet) that develop Humphry’s mingling of abstract brushwork and flattened out goofy figurative narratives. The second gallery, curated by the artist’s wife, presents a mélange of studies, works on paper and sculpture that allows viewers to follow the developments of ideas from spontaneous inception, to their conclusion. “INANUTSHELL” by Pap Souleye Fall at Bladestudy is a gallery filling sculpture composed from found paper, tools, books, fabric and objects. This installation refers, to quote from the press release, “The Crépissage de la Grande Mosquée an annual festival in Djenné, Mali, where the entire community comes together to re-plaster the exterior of the Grande Mosquée de Djenné, the world’s largest mud-brick building.” These intentions are all presented in the guise of a giant peanut shell. Finally, we head back to Chelsea to visit “The Human Condition” a selection of recent hyper-realist tableaus by Mark Greenwold at Garth Greenan. While the title may refer to Hannah Arendt’s book, and the impossibility of avoiding human frailties, and tragedies as one proceeds though life, Greenwold’s fantasy images knit together images from headlines, war reporting, erotic fantasies, and Hollywood clichés. These over wrought narratives are rendered in a masterly yet gritty technique requiring extended close study to appreciate. A musical introduction is provided by Ben Hulbert. This program was recorded January 12, and 16, 2025. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk