Thursday's parting shot

Here's one of the paintings by Bill Rice featured in the exhibit, "Around the Corner" at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, 208 Forsyth St. between Houston and Stanton. (Previously mentioned here.)

Here's a snippet of a review of the show via Hyperallergic today...

Bill Rice's paintings ... are glimpses of East Village life — the old East Village of crime, abandonment, and cruising, of obscure figures with good muscle tone, surreptitious oral favors in the parks and alleys, stoop-front sales, and hanging out. His surfaces are slowly built up from thin layers of oil paint with an occasional putty-like vector or a colored stripe or, at times, a skeletal architecture or diamond-shaped fence pattern. Looking at his works we are moving constantly, roving, scanning the neighborhood where he had lived since 1953, when rent controls were still in place and you could get by on a few welfare checks and some decent luck.

Rice lived on East Third Street for more than 50 years and opened a gallery there in the 1980s. 

The show runs through May 13. Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, noon-6 p.m. or by appointment.

'Around the Corner' with Bill Rice at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects

Bill Rice (1931-2006) "was one of the central figures in the various bohemian enclaves that gathered and overlapped in the Lower East Side of the 1960s," per Brooklyn Rail. 

Rice lived on East Third Street for more than 50 years and opened a gallery there in the 1980s.

Starting this evening, you'll have the opportunity to see the work of the artist, actor, and scholar at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, 208 Forsyth St. between Houston and Stanton. 

Here's more about the exhibit, "Around the Corner" ... 

Bill's depiction of New York with his Proustian attention to detail creates a kind of visual mythology of the city. He gives equal attention to the bodies and lives of men he loved as to the landscape of taxis, automobiles and storefronts which inhabit his paintings, drawings and notes, interacting with the city through a distinctly erotic gaze. In centering the tangible and the visual Rice creates an ode to the city like a more "out" version of Whitman, using his memory and experience to construct a narrative of his surroundings.

I am interested in what happens around the corner of the surface. My paintings are not designed to be viewed only from the front. The edges are important, I like the feel of paint and canvas and paper. Ideally, I would like to invest the rectangle — the basic unit in any cityscape — with the sensuality, color, texture I find in the streets. — Bill Rice 

The opening reception tonight is from 6-8. The show runs through May 13. Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, noon-6 p.m. or by appointment