Category: Culture

Tonight at the School for Visual Arts MFA studio event we talked to a student who had changed his mind about “painting” while working in his studio over the last [two?] years. He said that he had earlier dismissed it as irrelevant to his own experience, but now felt really good about the medium and expected it would pull together his whole life, absolutely everything he felt strongly about, and likely for – ever.
His enthusiasm was absolutely serious and totally believable.
Joe Fig doesn’t seem to have ever had any doubts about painting. He began as a representational painter himself, but years ago he developed into a “painter” of painters, beginning with the abstraction heroes. Today Fig models the studios of artists he admires regardless of their style – where the magic happens – but what he creates are less models than portraits of the hugely diversiform acts of painting themselves.
The close-ups of some of the seventeen pieces included in the current show at Plus Ultra which I have uploaded below show that Fig still knows how to wield a brush himself. His reduced-scale [all are contained in a plexi box less than twelve inches cubed] reconstructions of artist painting tables are magnificent, but Fig himself doesn’t have to yield to anyone in his understanding of color or his handling of paint.


Philip Pearlstein


Barnaby Furnas


gregory Amenoff


Karin Davie


Bill Jensen

As American dissenters we hardly have to be reminded that we can’t survive on demonstrations alone, especially when a cynical and incompetent regime can freely ignore millions of people taking to the streets (at this point I’m more inclined to demonstrate against the cynicism and incompetence of the Democratic Party and the Fourth Estate).
We will always need the sustenence of good political cabaret: We need the words, we need the song, and we need the laughs, and we need to be reminded of our history if we hope to have a future.
On Monday, May 8 The Civilians will bring the cultural legacy of The Left back to life with:

PATRIOT ACTS: AN AMERICAN VAUDEVILLE a one-night-only celebration in words and music of a great American tradition; proving there’s another side to patriotism, the show revives the forgotten progressive history of many icons of American culture.

It’s a benefit for this wonderful ensemble. See bloggy for more images and all the details. Check this post for a report on last year’s show.
This group knows its stuff. Resistance, the Left and progressive ideals are not American monopolies (in fact it seems that today they are pretty scarce here). An earlier, brilliant production brought its audience inside the 1871 Paris Commune. Its effect was mesmerizing, and sheer political dynamite.




[images from The Civilians; the last two are from a production at the Jolla Playhouse, photograph by Manuel Rotenberg]

Tom Meacham Brian Blade is a Better Kisser Than Me 2006 acrylic on canvas 90″ x 60″ [installation view]

Every single work in this delicious at Oliver Kamm’s 5BE show can be appreciated for its thing-ness as much as its painting-ness. Looking doesn’t seem to be enough, but I did manage to keep to my side the hand which was not occupied with the camera.
I don’t understand how all the physical stuff came about, unless it had something to do with the particular conceit of the show: Two gallery artists were each asked to choose another artist who would be included in an intimate show of four. Tom Meacham chose Gary Stephan and Cheryl Donegan selected Stephanie Campos.
Everything works. The art is all very fine and the installation is perfect.
See Bloggy for an excellent image of one of Cheryl Donegan’s pieces in the show.

Jade Townsend Sound, Survival in “Cause and Effect” 2006 mixed media [view of installation]


Susan Lipper Hollow 2006 video composite [still from installation]


Jeffrey kilmer Skinny as a Skyscraper 2006 mixed media [detail of installation]


Sarah Lasley Evening and Morning 2005 oil on canvas [installation view of two painting pairs]

Yes, there really is art life on today’s [greatly-reduced] Lower East Side, as more and more of New York’s most interesting galleries and at least one museum pop up or wander into colorful precincts south of Houston and east of Bowery. But the space at 131 Chrystie Street where the equally colorful show, “Leave New York“, is currently installed is not quite of usual order. It’s a bold exhibition in a temporarily-vacant store arranged by a group of enterprising artists who decided not to wait for the gallerist to show up.
One of the artist/curator/workers, Jason Cole Mager, wrote this statement to set the tone for the enterprise:

Leave New York
Simply meant to elicit the response, “why?”
We as artists hope to answer as best we can, through our individual representations, the role our local landscape and art politics play in our daily lives.
We do not suggest that anyone stay or leave simply because an outside source dictates that one must do so to succeed.
We only hope to encourage others to remind themselves why they have or have not chosen to be here, and if it is necessary to stay.
Disillusioned by the idea that hype and hip have replaced new and progressive, we rekindle our interests in beauty and the lasting.
Dismayed by a society that walks down a street without looking up, we remind you to do so before another building is replaced.
The city is our love/hate affair.

In addition to work by the four artists included above there is good stuff* by Brody Baker, Christopher Baker, Charlie Foos, Steve Green, Harif Guzman, Jeremy Liebman, Jason COle Mager, Melissa Martin, Jon Parker, Anthony J. Pontius, William Powhida, Ted Riederer, Ryan Schneider, Jim Wright and Michael Yinger.
The show continues until May 15, but I hope some fairy godparent will keep the space from turning back into a pumpkin patch.

*
the camera was very unhappy with much of the lighting during the opening reception, so once again I should state that what does not show up here was determined at least in part by factors not related to critical choice

Gustav Klucis Moscow Spartakiada, Swimmer 1928 design for a poster

This morning’s NYTimes includes a review by Alan Riding of the Victoria and Albert Museum show, “Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1939”. When Barry showed me this image he mused sadly on how quickly even the aesthetic promise of the early Soviet era was confounded.
Not to mention the comrades’ early rejection of the prudish restraint of the past. Great loins.

*
If we can accept the Wikipedia account, Klucis’s fate itself embodies the tragedy of a destroyed ideal.

Klutsis taught, wrote, and produced political art for the Soviet state for the rest of his life. As the political background degraded through the 1920s and 1930s, Klutsis and Kulagina came under increasing pressure to limit their subject matter and techniques. Once joyful, revolutionary and utopian, by 1935 their art was devoted to furthering Stalin’s cult of personality.
Despite his active and loyal service to the party, Klutsis was arrested in Moscow on January 17, 1938, as he prepared to leave for the New York World’s Fair. [Valentina Kulagina, his longtime collaborator and his wife] agonized for months, then years, over his disappearance. In 1989 it was found that he had been executed three weeks after his arrest.

[image from The Guardian]

Eric Heist Artist Talk 2005 MDF, paint, blanket, papier-mâché, wire, wig 76″ x 66″ x 46″ [large detail of installation*]

Eric Heist is a wonderful artist working with great skill in mediums traditional and perhaps not so traditional, but if you are conscientious and as interested as he is in the social and political issues which inspire his work you’re likely to be a bit distracted at first by the drama of his extraordinary conceptual installations. The current show in Schroeder Romero‘s new space in Chelsea is no exception.
One year ago Heist had installed a sobering show, “Travel Agents”, in the gallery’s Williamsburg quarters addressing Western military and economic hegemony. Representations of traditional tourism institutions and tourist destinations were overlayed with direct textual references to U.S. military operations associated with areas which are the traditional focus of luxury or adventure travel.
The current show, “Interfaith Center”, deals with the institution with the most powerful influence on individual behavior every where in the world: organized religion – in all of its confessional forms. Once again the “furniture” elements in the gallery will not disappoint, but don’t miss the pencil drawings (in the office area) and the gouaches. They’re not as scary or as outrageous as the sculptures and collages, but they have an extraordinary and perverse [for their subject] beauty of their own, and they should have staying power at least equal to the institution which stimulated them.


Eric Heist Interfaith Center: Crystal Cathedral interior 2005 gouache on paper 30″ x 22″

*
the press release describes this pulpit as the centerpiece of the installation.

At first glance it appears empty, but when the viewer looks behind the base he/she discovers a figure huddled in a blanket. Titled Artist’s Talk, the piece comments on artists’ unwillingness to articulate contemporary issues directly in their work while often treating artistic practice as a substitute for religion.

[lower image from Eric Heist]

Jeff Wyckoff AIDS altar-piece 1993 36″ x 78-90″ photosculpture* [installation view]

[opened]

We were in the back room of 31 Grand recently when we spotted Jeff Wyckoff‘s extraordinary altarpiece, created in 1993.
I could hardly take my eyes off of it.
Thirteen years ago, at the time the piece was completed, the AIDS epidemic might be said to have peaked both in the amount of criminal negligence in the world’s response to the crisis and in our general despair of effective treatments. I did not see Wyckoff’s sculpture then, but from the perspective of someone who was active in ACT UP at the time and who has lived with the virus for decades, I believe it must be almost as powerful now as it ever was. If this is the case it’s certainly about the art, but it’s not least due to the fact that for most of those around the world affected by AIDS not much has actually changed.

*
the tinted photo prints are on the kind of paper with a three-dimensional surface used by studios early in the last century to suggest painting

Brian Belott Boom Box #73rd 2003 acrylic on glass 15″ x 18″ [installation view]


Kevin Zucker Untitled 2006 digital C-print, 32″ x 40″ [large detail of installation]


Tim Davis Combatant Balls (My Life in Politics) 2004 C-print 20″ x 24″ [large detail of installation]

Monya Rowe has a beautiful show of still Lifes in a rich range of styles and mediums (although, no surprise when the subject is inanimation, there’s no video). The title of the exhibition is “Available (A Still Life Show)”.
I chose to upload these three images because they are more presentable as photographs than others I attempted (try to ignore the reflections), but I have to admit they each hold their own in the good company of Richard Callner, Kevin Christy, Dawn Clements, Anoka Faruquee, David Humphrey, Vera Iliatova, Dona Nelson, Kate Shepherd, Lynn Talbot, Wayne Thiebaud, Ben Woodward and “an anonymous contributor”.
I’ve been fascinated by reverse painting on glass since first encountering it on 18th-century furniture decades ago. I’m delighted to know that the technique survives – so very excitingly well in this case. The green pentagram on back of the glass door of my old shelf clock can’t begin to compete with a boom box with a worry face.
As for the Zucker, your eyes insist that you’re looking at a realist oil study even when you’re standing directly in front of it. What’s that mean?
Tim Davis is just plain brilliant. He reminds us over and over again that photography really is about painting with light.

Robert Boyd Xanadu [two stills from a three-screen video installation, and below those, a still from a second, single-channel video]

Robert Boyd has been working on his three-part epic video, “Xanadu”, for years. We’ve seen two sections in earlier installations and they are literally, figuratively and emotionally dazzling. The completed work is now handsomely installed at Participant, in the gallery’s main space. A second, related work is projected onto the floor of the lower level.
The larger piece uses thousands of image bites which the press release tells us were “culled from hundreds of hours of archival footage including that of Doomsday cults, iconic political figures, and global fundamentalist movements [to construct a] series of MTV-style music videos within a setting reminiscent of a discotheque”.
The installation upstairs suggests a dizzy post-modern Cinerama, but without the 1950’s optimism. Actually, in the rhythmic way the visual images are woven or composed Boyd’s work more closely resembles a highly-kinetic wartime symphony, or maybe an insane tone poem, than any cinema form, conventional or otherwise. The disco sound track adds an oddly sophisticated counterpoint to the doomsday visual line, but you still won’t walk out singing.

POST CARD


Jennifer Toth Fertility 18″ x 21″ [installation view, showing a bird shape extending above the top edge of the piece]


Jennifer Toth [installation view showing “Commitment Phobic” on the left and “Inner Artist on a String” on the right]


Jennifer Toth Temper Tales Two 20″ x 22″ [installation view]

Jennifer Toth‘s paintings should have been running off the walls inside Holland Tunnel‘s gallery shed. They’re that good. It turns out that Barry and I had seen her work several years ago in a show curated by Orly Cogan at Paul Rogers/9W.