Category: Culture

Adrian Ghenie Fragile 2007 oil on canvas 19.75″ x 37.5″


Cristi Pogăcean The Abduction from the Seraglio 2006 woolen carpet, manufactured 43.25″ x 70″ [installation view]


Victor Man none 2006 oil on canvas on board 10.5″ x 13.25″; Victor Man mmm, remember anthia, nick? 2004-2006 oil on canvas 18″ x 23.5″ [installation view]


Alexandra Croitoru Untitled (Prime Minister) 2004 lambda print 31.5″ x 26.5″ [installation view]

For me one of the most pleasant surprises at the Armory was the presence of galeria Plan B, an 18-month-old Romanian gallery making its first appearance at the show this year. In fact when the owners and directors originally formed the gallery they installed themselves not in that nation’s capital, Bucharest, which might have seemed the obvious choice, but in an elegant old building in Cluj, the provincial capital of Transylvania. All six of the artists which project director Mihal Pop showed here are themselves Romanian.
Romania, with its natural links to both the Latin West and the Greek, Slavic or even Islamic worlds, can boast of a much more sophisticated history and culture than even the most informed Americans would ever imagine, especially since even in its modern history most of it was hidden from or ignored by the capitalist West for almost fifty years. It’s good to be reminded of what we (and much of Romania) have missed, and to be made aware that nothing now prevents this nation and its people from adding its own strength and cultured genius to Europe and a larger, vibrant contemporary art world becoming increasingly less geographically limited.
All of the work shown in Plan B’s booth here last month was very, very good, even if I can only show a few images here. The artists were Alexandra Croitoru, Adrian Ghenie, Victor Man, Ciprian Mureşan, Cristi Pogăcean and Gabriela Vanga.

Erik van Lieshout drawings [detail of wall installation]

The Antwerp gallery Stella Lohaus, appearing at the Armory for the first time, devoted their entire booth to the drawings of a single artist, Erik van Lieshout, who is increasingly known in Europe for his ambitious installations.
It was an excellent move, for the work is very good, and being also very striking (not always a corollary) it managed to attract considerable attention even without the larger bells and whistles of which van Lieshout seems more than capable. This shot of a part of one wall of the gallery’s booth is necessarily a very inadequate representation of the artist’s New York installation, and it’s totally incapable of even suggesting this native Brabants artist’s complexity.

Anya Kielar Untitled 2007 mixed media 39.5″ x 31.5″ [installation view]

Anya Kielar, Untitled 2007 mixed media 39.5″ x 31.5″ [installation view]

Daniel Reich was showing these two wonderful scrim-layered collage pieces by the young New York artist Anya Kielar at the Armory.
Small note: These works, by an artist known as much for her sculpture, have such a physical presence themselves that I was slightly surprised to discover, as I copied their sizes from the gallery list just now, that a third dimension was not included.

Carsten Höller Kabine 2003-2007 acrylic glass 54″ x 18″ x 21″ [installation view]

Casey Kaplan had this seductive piece by Carsten Höller lying on the floor outside the gallery’s Armory booth, just waiting for this blogger nut, with his obsession about minimalist transportation designs, to pass by and scoop it up – metaphorically, of course. I love this piece, but I probably cannot account for my passion in art terms alone.
For those who can’t quite make it out in this picture, inside the teardrop-shaped capsule there is the suggestion of a perfectly-reclined seat awaiting its lone time-and-space passenger/operator.

This austerely-handsome, if baffling, piece by Kevin Zucker was in the Greenberg Van Doren booth at the Armory. Unfortunately I passed without getting any details, but its a medium-sized painting of, I’m surmising here, acrylic (and transfers?) on canvas.

Rebecca Morris Untitled (#03-07) 2007 17.25″ x 14″ [installation view]

Berlin’s Galerie Barbara Weiss showed this small exquisite Rebecca Morris painting in their booth at the Armory.
There are more images of Morris’s work on the Berlin gallery site and on Google, but while looking (unsuccessfully) for the artist’s own website, I realized where I had last seen her work. Go to the “Abstract” link in this entry for images of her work in a Mitchell-Innes & Nash show of just a few months ago.

Hany Armanious Wall Rubbing #1 2007 clogged sandpaper 8.5″ x 10.5″ (12″ x 16″ framed) [large detail of installation]

Foxy Production showed several small, ethereal drawings by Hany Armanious in their booth at the Armory [large detail of one shown here]. The artist alters simple pieces of black sandpaper (emery paper?) by carefully orchestrating their contact with white wall surfaces. The result resembles a photographic image of a distant galaxy, but with an anomalous textural life inhabiting its surface. Each piece rests near the plexi on the bottom of a deep fillet inside its frame, and then leans back on the mat; they are as much sculptural objects as drawings.
Armanious is currently in a small group show at the gallery, titled “Surface Wave”. It opened February 25, but I haven’t yet seen what looks like very interesting work from artists new even to this gallery of new artists.

Butt Johnson Qualb tenah Maksour 2006-2007 ballpoint pen on paper 16.5″ x 23″ [installation view]


Butt Johnson Another Study for Scientific Creationism 2006 ink on paper 11.75″ x 8.5″ [installation view]

CRG displayed stunning booths at both ADAA and Armory. At the latter, a powerful group of incredibly delicate drawings by Butt Johnson were among the highlights of the entire fair for me.
Even without the problem of reflections on the plexi, this work is difficult to show in reproduction but I’m going to risk uploading one more image. The picture below is a rough approximation of the artist’s exquisite foil piece, in an edition just completed. If you’re looking at the real work it has more of the presence of an enameled miniature than a stamped print:


Butt Johnson Slam Dunk ’87 2007 7-color hotstamp foil and 3-color enamel screenprint on 4-ply museum board 15.5″ x 18″ [installation view]

Jimmy Robert Untitled 2006 archival print 35.5″ x 27.5″ [installation view]

The Amsterdam gallery Diana Stigter was back at the Armory this year with more work by Jimmy Robert. I found myself attracted to this and another print the gallery was showing before I realized they were by the same artist I wrote about one year ago.

Continuing with entries showing images I’ve retained from the late February art fairs, at least until I run out of breath or get distracted elsewhere, this is a beautiful painting shown by Zach Feuer at The Armory Show. The work is by Tal R, an artist who refuses to be defined by any one style, or in fact by any number of styles.