Author: jameswagner

Duke Riley Burgees attributed to seditious faction of Marblehead Militia 2007 [detail of vitrine displaying items salvaged from the vessel, including “Tooth of giant sperm whale believed to have been engraved by Davis”]


Duke Riley After the Battle of Brooklyn 2007 ink on canary paper 87″ x 86″ [detail of installation]


Duke Riley Curtains for the Free World 2007 ink on canary paper 74″ x 111″ [detail of installation]





Duke Riley The Acorn Submarine 2007 approximately 8′ x 6′ [installation view]

[detail of the The Acorn cabin seen through the lower porthole revealing ship’s library, evidence of exhausted rum ration, and hull damage suffered during seizure of the vessel by the Coast Guard]

[detail of The Acorn cabin revealing ship’s library]

By this time readers of this blog won’t be surprised to hear that Barry and I were at Thursday’s opening of Duke Riley’s show at Magnan Projects, “After the Battle of Brooklyn: East River Incognita II”.
This time we are treated to the story of the interrupted voyage “The Acorn”. The gallery press release explains that Riley’s gallery projects are presented in gallery spaces in museum-like settings, with “artifacts of questionable provenance and mock documentaries . . . presented alongside drawings and mosaics”.

This exhibition, After the Battle of Brooklyn, revolves around historical obscurities that took place in New York during the American Revolutionary War. In addition to drawings, mosaics and videos, Riley constructed a replica of the first primitive Revolutionary War submarine (“The Turtle”) that is propelled by a hand crank and submersible for up to 20 minutes. In 1776 George Washington’s Continental Army used these subs to target the British flagship The Eagle. Putting a contemporary spin on this idea, Riley launched his submarine (“The Acorn”) while the Queen Mary 2 was docked in the Brooklyn Harbor and captured the attention of the Coast Guard, NYPD and major newspapers.

Riley’s art appeals, and succeeds in its appeal, on virtually every level. He shows a remarkable degree of comfort with both his materials and his subject, and he uses it to describe a very personal relationship to a mélange of regional geography and history, the twenty-first century’s politics of disaster and absurdity, the inescapable claims and demands of the media (including a self-referential look at news coverage of his arrest with the “Acorn” submariner), the shape of our environment and the complexity and the complications of a contemporary community, a rich surviving mythology and a healthy and very graphic omnisexuality, all of these embedded in an infectious wit. That sounds like a lot of ground to cover, but it really is all there, and it’s regularly delivered to us with enormous charm, in both visual and performance art forms.
Superficially each of these pieces may at first have the aspect of a homey, antique craft and the performances may look like stunts, but it’s the art that survives our scrutiny and in the end his hand skills and his adventurous exploits are revealed to be only some of the many tools Riley recruits to create this vigorous body of very creative work.

Because of the nature of the exhibition and the relative narrowness of the museum/gallery, your humble correspondent has had to confine his visual documentation to detail images of some of the displays. He would like to assure the reader that the work handsomely rewards a much less abridged examination.
The installation continues through December 22.

J. J. Garfinkel Myriad Quay 2007 acrylic and oil on panel 45″ x 48″


[detail]


J. J. Garfinkel Scribble Terrace 2007 acrylic and oil on panel 45″ x 48″


J. J. Garfinkel Clingman Rope 2006 acrylic and oil on panel 30″ x 24″

Although it took a few minutes of walking about the space and talking to Martin, probably the sweetest gallery dog in New York, I eventually became so taken with this work that I found it very difficult to leave. That doesn’t happen very often, no matter how much I like a show.
Nine paintings by J. J. Garfinkel are currently installed at Hogar Collection in “View Sheds” the artist’s first solo show with the gallery. Every one of them is terrific, with a very strong presence. They’re two-dimensional, except for some closely-outlined fields of wavy-textured brushwork, but the viewer sees – and feels – more than just a surface. The combination of the artist’s elegant pallet of colors, both muted and dazzling, the variety of his surface finishes, and his layering of images in combinations as disciplined as they are organic suggests nine fantastic miniature jeweled landscapes inside three-dimensional illuminated dioramas.
Because the exotic, sophisticated beauty of the paintings can’t be isolated from Garfinkel’s skill in representing their material properties, nothing can replace the experience of standing in front of them, but I’m hoping that these images, especially with the inclusion of one detail shot, will help account for my excitement.

Adam Stennett Girl in Bathtub 2007 oil on wood 48″ x 48″

[detail]

It’s not just another pretty face. I’m having a hard time getting this painting out of my head. I can’t explain it, especially since I’m just about one hundred percent gay. I know it’s not just what Adam Stennett does with the illusion of polished chrome, of wetness and of water itself, because it’s not just this painting that gets to me. While I was in 31 Grand last week I made an effort to capture only this particular work from among the four others in the artist’s current show, each an image of a beautiful woman swigging from a bottle of Tussin DM cough formula as if it were some kind of candy cocaine, but I now find its siblings at least as compelling. Go to the 31 Grand site to see what I mean, and if you are able, get to the gallery before November 10.
And what happened to the cute little rodents so prominent in Stennett’s earlier work?
The gallery press release explains:

With this show he continues his exploration of the intimate dramas of the everyday, and the precarious balance of awareness and oblivion. His subject matter has evolved—the adventurous mice that had been his trademark are now replaced by images of girls poised precariously near turbulent water and various medicinal products put to queasy, off-label uses.

I don’t think photorealism has ever looked so seductive, but I’m almost as excited about the abstract beauty which shows up in a closeup image.
Oh, my own photo image of the complete painting couldn’t come close to the perfection of the gallery’s own jpeg, which I ended up using here. I scuttled my own photo and settled for showing only the detail.
Stennett also has a short video in the room at the rear of the gallery. It’s quite strange, and quite wonderful.


Adam Stennett Harmful or Fatal if Swallowed 2007 video [still]

[first and third images from 31 Grand]

detail of Duke Riley’s enormous mosaic of the current British flagship in New York waters*

We managed to slip into Magnan Projects this afternoon for a peek at the Duke Riley show, “After The Battle of Brooklyn”, opening in just two days. Of course I was totally smitten with the work, even if much of it was still being put together. Don’t miss it, even if you can’t make it to the opening reception.
I almost never do this sort of thing and I’m not quite sure why I’m now posting this particular preview. It’s not as if the artist needs the extra attention, especially thanks to the advance work of the NYPD, the US Coast Guard and the NYTimes. It’s already pretty unlikely there will be any room to move inside the gallery on Thursday evening.

*
we note the carefully-rendered port-a-john and drink cup floating in foreground

Tonight Barry and I will be in conversation with the writer and critic Brian Sholis at the arts education and support forum, CUE Art Foundation, as part of its career development program for artists called “Meeting Artists’ Needs”.
The announced topic for the evening is “In the Public Eye: The Role of Today’s Critic”. The event, scheduled from 6:30 to 8 pm, is free for CUE members and $5 for non-members. CUE is located at 511 West 25th Street on the ground floor. Tickets may be reserved here.

[image of logo from CUE]

Michael Williams Solitaire 2007 oil on canvas 38″ x 58″

[detail]


Michael Williams Cave 2007 oil on canvas 38″ x 58″


Michael Williams Loddie oil on canvas 24″ x 35″


Michael Williams Starry Night 2 2007 oil on canvas 38″ x 58″


Michael Williams Cancuned 2007 oil on canvas 38″ x 58″

[detail]

Artists like this drive some people crazy. They can’t figure out the difference between what he does and what they think they can do. I won’t pretend I could explain it even to myself, but I won’t question the difference is there when it’s expressed as proudly as it is in Michael Williams’s gorgeous, eccentric and absolutely delightful new oils.
We should all be able to approach color like this every day, as if it had just been invented. We should also be able to draw the world described by that color as he draws it here – like we had just been born and had opened our eyes for the first time.
Canada gallery is currently showing ten recent paintings by Williams in its handsome, newly-enlarged space on Chrystie Street. Before Saturday, when I visited this show, I had basically seen only one work by Williams, and Barry and I bought it a few hours later. If we had deeper pockets we’d be bringing home a companion for our “At Mr. McCook’s” when this show ends November 18, but now that so many others can see and share in what excited us last winter that might be a little selfish.
I really like these paintings. They’re a sheer delight on every level, and I can’t stop looking at them. Part of it may be my affection, one I think I share with this Rhode Island artist, for the nonconformist New England character and aesthetic. There’s also the reminder that I wasn’t around when the Impressionists, the Post-Impressionists and the Abstractionists first made their impact, and I still want to be surprised, and stirred. Looking at the elements of Williams’s floors, walls and skies and I can appreciate what it must have been like to be shown, say, a work by Van Gogh in 1890.
The colorful dabs and waves, the details, which enrich so much of the surface of these paintings are not just dabs and waves, details and surfaces; they’re building blocks creating something quite new, and I’m glad I’m here this time to watch it happen.

Saori Tsukada, Katie Brook and Joseph Keckler: Everywoman/Everyman, Birth, Death

We saw John Moran‘s latest music-theater-dance work, “What If Saori Had a Party?“, last night at PS122. This latest treasure by the composer responsible for the operas “Jack Benny!”, “Book of the Dead (2nd Avenue)” and “The Manson Family: An Opera“, among others, is put together on a very small physical scale and I think it must have lasted all of 40 minutes. The modest size is especially remarkable because “What If” addresses the largest question we are capable of addressing as human beings – our own mortality – even if it is inspired by Japanese anime/children’s TV. It may be almost as baffling to us as its original inspiration is to an unintended audience, but I haven’t been able to forget either the music or the moving images.
A computer voice tells Saori early in the libretto/score, “You should look at the calendar”. It seems we can’t have birthdays without dying in the end, and in the end that may actually be all for the best, even if it still leaves a lot of room in between for negotiation.
Performances continue at this East Village venue through next Sunday, November 4.

“No she ditn’t!” says the girl in the opera to her friend, over and over again. Now we’re back on 2nd Avenue, but actually we could be just about anywhere in urban America.
When we had returned home and were sitting down to supper we put on Moran‘s “Book of the Dead” (we have every CD he’s ever produced) and listened carefully to every word, every sound, once again. With this underknown genius, words and both ambient and concrète sounds are the composed music itself; there is no distinction. I only wish I had also been able to see it when it was produced at the Public Theater in 2000 (the blurry stills I’ve seen are a terrible tease). Once again we immediately found ourselves totally immersed in an orchestrated world Moran has been able to make oddly both more familiar and more exotic than the one we normally inhabit.
The timing must be just a coincidence, but I seem to have put off my pumpkin shopping: I can’t think of a more fitting way to begin a celebration of the eve of All-Hallows’ Day or All Souls Day or, yes, the Day of the Dead, than a visit to “What If Saori Had a Party?” on 1st Avenue and an observance of [the] “Book of the Dead”.
For more on Moran and an account of the last piece he had shown in New York, scroll halfway down through this entry. There’s also this NYTimes piece from last year.
Moran’s CDs are very hard to find, unless you manage to get to a performance, but inside my copy of “Book of the Dead” there’s a small slip of paper with the suggestion that those who are interested could write to johnmoranmusic@aol.com, and fill in the subject-header: “CD-Orders”. I don’t know whether this will still work.

[image by Rachel Roberts from PS122]