Author: jameswagner

Marian Goodman has beautifully installed a four-channel video, “The Hour of Prayer”, by the Finnish artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila in the South Gallery. Alright, it’s essentially a story about a girl and her dog, but it’s much more. You don’t need the press release to know it’s “a short tale of [several kinds of] attachment and loss” as this beautiful film steps onto three continents.
The images above represent, in sequence, scenes in New York, Finland and Benin.
I wanted to add two additional images from the Finland section, for their beauty alone. Since they would only be a distraction from the simple sequence shown above, I’ve installed them separately below, as thumbnails.

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“I Love My Scene: Scene 1” [detail of installation]

Mary Boone has asked Jose Freire of Team to curate a series of three shows at her uptown gallery. The idiosyncrasies of the first installment “I Love My Scene” promise a continuing, very personal tour inside a very active mind. In any event, the promise alone brought us into an uptown space for the first time in months.
The first installation closes Saturday and includes a surprising group of works by Lothar Hempel [in forground above], Keith Sonnier [in middle distance], Weegee [on wall], Cecil Beaton, Pablo Bronstein and Banks Violette.

Lucky DeBellevue Untitled 2005 chenile and tinsel stems 98″ x 109″ x 101″ [detail of installation]

I should have gotten an image of one of the paintings [a new medium for the artist?] included in the show at Feature, but Lucky DeBellevue’s sculptures were at least as distracting as usual. Before I turned to look at the walls more carefully the gallery lights were already going off following the opening on Saturday night.
We were very lucky to aquire a small drawing by DeBellevue several years ago at a benefit, and the open lines in the large piece pictured above in detail is probably the closest I’ve seen any of his sculptures come to both the delicacy and the violence of that ink sketch.

Ryan Humphrey [various titles] 2005-2006 acrylic on canvas, dimensions vary [three detailed views of installation]

Ryan Humphrey pulls out all the stops every time he does an installation, including near-arrest scenarios [think of selling guns on the street, even terrifically-fake guns, and even if you’re an artist, should you happen to be peddling your stuff near an insecure gallerist].
I like his style, but I always stay for the execution and the intelligence of his work. Humphrey’s art has never lacked targets, but this time he created real, target-practice targets. Then he went and labelled each one, referencing, according to the press release, “adverse events with individuals, the pettiness of the ‘art world’ and engagement with larger entities.” He completed his project by pulling them out of the studio and shooting them.
Humphrey’s show has been beautifully installed at DCKT Contemporary on West 24th Street. There’s a larger variety of work to be seen in the gallery than what I’m showing here – more than just the targets. I think I just got totally distracted by the beauty of these injured objects.
A sampling from the 150 or so titles:
Patriotic treason
Sliding scale of ethics
Any reference to impressionist painting
Soft-handed architect
SUV stroller steamroller
Numbing effects of nothing newcasts
Urban hillbilly
A place so nice they named it twice
Trust fund failure
Sweatpants and work boots
Strip malls and box stores
Town car disservice
Yoko Ono
Take what you can and leave the weak behind
Prosthetic charisma
Glossy pages of nothingness
911 Weiss (bubba bear)
Music so thin that it is difficult to hear
Vampire diner
Mediocre meteoric rise
Icky, jazzy, sticky, uck.
Diamonds
Extinguished flame
Worse to be exposed as a failure than to be one
Hoser poser
Transcendent lameness
Strengthened grasp of undertow
Pain enhancer habits
Battered brother
Humble beginnings that last forever

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Thomas Nozkowski Untitled (8-76) 2005 oil on linen on panel 23.25″ x 29.25″ [detail]


Thomas Nozkowski Untitled (8-68) 2005 oil on linen on panel 23.25″ x 29.25″ [detail]

Thomas Nozkowski has opened another gorgeous show at Max Protetch. These oils look luscious at any distance, but I couldn’t resist emphasizing [a couple of] close-ups here; the gallery site can show you the entire image, but best to see them for yourself.

Scott Treleaven Lustre 2006 super8 and digital video [still from installation]

This image by itself will tell you almost nothing about Scott Treleaven’s masterful show at John Connelly Presents, and it doesn’t even say much about the beautiful ten-minute film from which it is excerpted.
But it’s very beautiful, very disturbing, and very smart, like everything that comes from Treleaven’s hand, in spite of or perhaps very much because of the suggestion of violence (never realized).
A first exposure to this artist’s work will inevitably leave the viewer/inductee/collaborator feeling like she or he has been missing out on something very foreign – and familiar. Some will want to know more. The best route toward what must be described as a kind of anti-enlightenment is to see more, and this is now made easier with the book. But a short excerpt from this show’s press release will help.

Based on his experiences publishing a densely collaged punk/occult zine of the same name, the film fleshed out the artist’s core obsessions: that a dark, anthropological current unites a number of contemporary youth subcultures; that the latter-day punks and mystics in his photographs and films represent an obsolete (or simply sleeping) warrior class; and that occult and symbolist language still remains the most accurate way of describing and dignifying the human condition.

The current show includes the new film and a number of works on paper, notably collage, as well as photography and sculpture, but it was “Lustre” which brought me back to the moment I first encountered his work almost three years ago, with a screening of “THE SALiVATION ARMY” here in New York.
The gallery has nearly two dozen images on line, including some not a part of this show, so I don’t feel obliged to add my own. Well, just one, for a taste or a tease.


Scott Treleaven Lear, III vi 2005 Collage on paper 18.25″ x 13.75″ [large detail]

I can also show an image of a sculpture not on the web site and not even identified on the preliminary checklist provided last night at the opening. The material is simply a jumble [pack?] of coyote skulls, a reference to the cast and character of an adaptable beast of famously ambiguous status often seen in the artist’s work. Tiny cutouts from the same Japanese chiyogami paper which appears in the collages on the walls of the gallery have been glued to every surface – other than the very white teeth.


Scott Treleaven skulls 2004-2005 humanely-acquired canine skulls, paper, alkyd; dimensions variable [installation view]

Scott Treleaven’s zine (the entire very limited collage edition) seen in a vitrine at Printed Matter

You may have read the original zine, watched the 2003 film, seen the more recent, very beautiful collages and even, possibly, seen the new photographs. The very latest of everything can be seen beginning tomorrow evening at John Connelly Presents, but if you’ve been missing out so far, or if you’re already totally hooked, as I am, on what Scott Treleaven‘s been doing, you won’t want to miss the book.

“THIS IS THE SALiVATION ARMY” was originally intended to run for only eight issues, from 1996 to 1999. With its unique combination of punk aesthetics, Blakean mysticism and sexually explicit, radical queer posturing, the zine immediately attracted press, suspicion, and a loyal cult following. During its initial three year run, the Salivation Army spawned a number of spin-off zines, set up headquarters in Toronto, Prague, London, and New York, and held a series of public and private occultural events aimed at putting the Army’s magical theory into practice.

You can pick up a copy of “THE SALiVATION ARMY BLACK BOOK” at Printed Matter. Serious enthusiasts may never want to ever leave home without it, and besides, it’s an absolutely gorgeous object, with a very practical, washable black plastic cover. [Although those who already bought out the special editon pictured above are going to want to be more careful with theirs.]


the edition which will be snapped up by the ranks

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Ralf Ziervogel OFU 2006 ink on paper 54.5″ x 106.75″ [detail]


A new (but not really so surprising) addition to the huge Chelsea gallery list appeared on 19th Street last night. The young German curator opened his shop with a show of work by the Berliner Ralf Ziervogel.
Schlechtriem slaps a “temporary” sticker on all his announcements because, he says, he doesn’t know how long he really wants to be a gallerist, but he says he’ll give it at least a year.
Unfortunately we had to leave early this time in order to make an opera curtain on the Lower East Side [yup], but on the basis of the quality of the drawings I saw last night I’ll definitely be back at least as often as Schlechtriem decides to keep this thing going.