Author: jameswagner

Ulla von Brandenburg Jupe 1 and Jupe 2 2006 ink on paper, diptych 22″ x 30″ each [installation view]


Hany Armanious Unrealistic 2007 cast Polyurethane 37″ x 24″ [installation view]

Sometimes a group show just looks right, although the curatorial theme may be elusive – sometimes even after a look at a press release. That probably says more about this visitor than the curator’s efforts, since I have a habit of using gallery texts more as “instruction sheets” (for difficult work) than guides.
With our without extra help, Foxy Production‘s current show, titled “Surface Wave”, does it for me. Both the installation and the individual works are first-rate. I realize that my statement about theme comes from someone whose apartment “group show” betrays no recognizable thesis either, but I’d also like to think that the choices Barry and I make are just as unmistakably idiosyncratic in their own modest way as those regularly exhibited so brilliantly on this stretch of West 27 Street are for the directors Michael Gillespie and John Thomson.
It’s a small group this time: The artists are Hany Armanious, Matthias Bitzer, Louisa Minkin and Ulla von Brandenburg. They are represented by ten elegant works on four walls.

Jesse Lambert Soft Shelled Vehicles 2007 acrylic on canvas 38″ x 48″


Jesse Lambert Tropical Shale Shatter #1 2007 35″ x 35 ”


Jesse Lambert Segments and Broken Tubes 2006 32″ x 44″

Barry and I first saw Jesse Lambert’s work when he was included in a small group show curated by the excellent Lauren Ross at White Columns in the fall of 2004. We were very fortunate to be able to be part of a reception where each of the invited artists described her or his work and we were particularly charmed by his gentle presentation, by the simple ordinariness of his [almost-abstract] subjects and by his explanation of the color combinations he had chosen (basically, as I recall it, Lambert tries for the most unlikely, most improbable or most difficult combinations possible).
It may only be coincidence but today the artist’s subjects are even more closely related to his palette than ever before: Lambert has been scouring volumes of esoteric printed biology material for both information and inspiration. Most if not all of the latest paintings now incorporate the shapes of micro-organisms which are not the least bit restrained about calling attention to themselves when subjected to the lens of a scientific instrument. Lambert brings this world closer to the rest of us with these luscious acrylics (and these gorgeous gouache drawings as well).


[studio corner]

Last December at the Wagmag benefit in Williamsburg we were delighted that his generosity to the Williamsburg art community helped to make one of his paintings our own, and two weeks after that we found ourselves in his Long Island City studio because we had decided to see and learn more about what he is doing now. The images of these rich garden carpets which I show here came back with me from Queens, but there is much more on his site, including a visual chronicle of his work showing how it has developed over six years.
Lambert is currently in a small group show, “BROOKLYN ABSTRACT”, at eyewash@Supreme Trading in Williamsburg, where he is represented by two terrific and quite recent canvases. (this large space on North 8th Street has recently been very nicely cleaned-up and now looks like a proper European Kunsthalle)

Cathy Begien Black Out 2004 single-channel video, audio on DVD [still from installation]


Cathy Bergien My Favorites 2004 single-channel video, audio on DVD [large detail of installation including artist’s props]

We did make it a top pick on ArtCal, and everyone seems to love it. The show runs for only one more day, so at least some of you still have a chance to see Cathy Begien’s terrific work at Winkleman Gallery.
A description of two of the artist’s three installations excerpted from the gallery’s press release:

In turns hilarious and devastating, [“Black Out”] features the artist (blindfolded and seated facing the viewer) retelling of a heavy night on the town with her friends. The narrative is delivered rather monotonously as several people continuously hand her drinks, cigarettes, and other props, acting out the evening’s excesses. As the story grows ever more messy, however, the stark set and low-budget production values serve to balance the overwhelming heartache of the episode’s climax, offering the viewer a rare, but safe, window into a raw, exquisitely sincere sentimentality.
In the second installation, Begien recreates the interior of a home-style Vietnamese restaurant as the setting for her video of her continuously eating her favorite foods. The obsessiveness suggested by her systematically eating meal after meal stands in stark and funny contrast to the cheesy furniture and menu photos of the referenced eatery.

Robert Gober Blanket Sample 1 2006 gypsum polymer and watercolor 10″ x 9″ x 3.25″ [installation view]

The show is now gone, and in the end I only saw the 22nd Street space, but this image, which was not shown or mentioned on the gallery site, is the one which remains with me. Matthew Marks showed spare installations of sculpture and drawings by Robert Gober in a show which closed March 10.
If I may paraphrase the press release, Gober’s work continues to render our vulnerabilities visible, referencing a shared history which is within living memory, and always employing a very American vernacular.

UPDATE: a description of the painting’s material specifics, furnished by the gallery, has now been added below the image and the comment from Caryn Coleman includes a general description of Robertson’s works in series


Chad Robertson Mash Up 3 2007 oil on paper 21″ x 30″ (25″ x 33″ framed)

Several entries back I wrote about Heather Cantrell’s work in the L.A. gallery Sixspace‘s booth at Pulse and referred in passing to the work of Chad Robertson. This will probably be my last post on the February New York art fairs, but I really thought I should upload this image before wrapping things up, since I don’t see it anywhere else, even on the gallery’s own site. I’m assuming it’s a very recent painting, but because at the time I was so distracted talking to artists, gallerists and friends (with some overlapping there) and, yes, with scanning a certain amount of art as well, I didn’t manage to get the specifics on this medium-sized, somewhat apocalyptic-looking canvas.

Shaun O’Dell Song of 60 Million Buffalo Ghosts 2006 gouache on paper 29″ x 69″ [installation view]

[detail]

Houston’s Inman Gallery showed this awesome large drawing by San Francisco-based artist Shaun O’Dell in their booth at Pulse. For a number of reasons, a few I suppose not directly related to the art itself, I found it very difficult to walk away.

Elena Blasco Pequeño Universo 2007 mixed media on acetate sheets 39.5″ x 58.25″ [detail of installation]

[full installation view]

Madrid’s Galerie Fúcares showed this gorgeous collage by Elena Blasco at Pulse.