Category: Culture

Sachar Mathias Windows 2006 newspaper [detail of installation]

Willamsburg may have lost some very good galleries in the last two years (most in moves to Chelsea), but fortunately there seem to be just about as many new ones settling in. Because of the rent pressures created by gentrification, these new spaces aren’t usually going to be found near the Bedford Street/L train crossroads, but this means they can, or must, be just about as resouceful or scrappy (read, “edgy”) as those which have pulled up stakes.
One of the new guys in town is actually just down the road. Outrageous Look is an attractive space in a beautiful, landmarked pale green, cast-iron building on Broadway, Williamsburg’s old crossroads, where Sachar Mathias has taken over the sunny window spaces for her update of the Japanese legend describing the wish fulfillment properties of 1000 folded paper cranes. On the third anniversary of the most unnecessary of wars Mathias uses paper* American warplanes, in the words of the press release, “to evoke both the image of war and the wish for peace”.
From the gallery:

The planes will be sold for a minimum donation of $25 to the NYCLU Foundation in support of civil liberites litigation. 100% of all proceeds go directly to the foundation.

*
(the NYTimes International and National sections)

Michael Linares Oasis 2006 wood, screws, enamel, plastic, assorted beers 2′ x 5′ x 5′ [installation view]

The beers were gone by the time we arrived yesterday, but we got the idea. It’s a beautiful sculpture, even absent any knowledge of its congenial concept. The work is by Michael Linares, one of six exciting artists working in Puerto Rico who are represented in the current show, “The Lovers”, at CANADA Gallery.
The rooms on Christie Street are one of our favorite New York destinations, and the gallery is now doing an exchange with San Juan’s very impressive* Galeria Commercial. About the time this show ends [the announcement reads this Saturday, although it may be extended] a group of Canada artists will begin a show in the Puerto Rico space.
CANADA explains the New York installation in this excerpt from their press release:

Though not intended, the group of works in The Lovers
resembles an adulterated version of a bar. The sum of
art put together for this exhibition spins a jukebox,
a cooler, a pool table and a hippie bead curtain.
. . . .
Michael Linares’ piece, titled Oasis (2006), is a
pedestal stuffed with beer. Strategically located
between other works in the exhibition, it works
simultaneously as gathering and refreshment area. The
seemingly abstract forms contrast with the open-ended
relational formations produced by them.

*
After our return from the Miami fairs last December Barry wrote: “Several galleries impressed with their overall programs. One was Galería Comercial, which is located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It exists somewhere between the non-profit and commercial gallery worlds — but on purpose unlike some galleries! At NADA, they showed posters and other works by Pedro Vélez, plus a number of other artists working in media ranging from painting to video.”

POST CARD


Patrick Grenier Entering Art Exit 2004 paper, flourescent light fixtures, metal channel and vellum 120″ x 120″ x 12″ [installation view]


Patrick Grenier Atmosphere of Influence 2006 enamel, FomeCor, plastic, vinyl and wood with single channel DVD 96″ x 120″ x 96″ [detail of installation]


Patrick Grenier I’d Eat Heart Worm 2005 neon with transformer 24″ x 32″ [installation view]

Patrick Grenier, and certainly everyone else who makes it to Freeman Alley this month, is enjoying his second solo show at Silo. Grenier remains concerned with the (corrupting) relationship between the artist and the public venue of the art, with a particular interest in architecture.
The exhibition is definitely not the dry exercise the premise might suggest. The second image above is of an installation which includes a videotaped documentation of a “showdown between replicas of newly-canonized structures, such as the Walker Art Center addition in Minneapolis by the Herzog & de Meuron and Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao.”

Tom Sanford The Triumph of Passion over Reason 2006 oil/acrylic on canvas 119.5″ x 119″ [installation view, with thumbnail detail*]

We had first seen his work at 31 Grand in Williamsburg several years ago. Today Tom Sanford continues his celebrity odyssey in paintings and drawings installed at Leo Koenig. In his first show in the 23rd Street gallery, it appear that Koenig himself may be replacing Tupac as his muse.
The press release is a big help here. Excerpt:

The experience of viewing these paintings are somewhat like watching a car wreck. One simply cannot turn away, yet the image burned into one’s consciousness is undeniably disturbing. It is this attraction/repulsion that is the impetus for Sanford’s work and reflects the artist’s ambivalent relationship to the culture he not only depicts, but of which he is also an avid consumer.

Tom Sanford Stephan Marbury 2005 oil/acrylic on wood with basketballs 89″ x 50″ [installation view]


Tom Sanford Follow the Boys 2005 oil/acrylic on wood 74″ x 84″ [installation view]

The faux metal plates at the top and bottom of the frame around the image above read, respectively: “ANNO DOMINI MMIII” and THE VALIANT LEO KOENIG DEFENDS THE HONOR OF FAIR DEBORA WARNER BY PUMMELING THE SCOUNDREL RICHARD ACERBEEK”

*

“Triumph” detail

Eduardo Sarabia Guadalajara (country) 2005-2006 hand-woven wool tapestry 94″ x 124″ [large detail of installation]


Eduardo Sarabia A thin line between love and hate 2005 hand painted ceramic vases and silkscreen boxes, dimensions variable, each unique [detail of installation]

I think these images from the current I-20 show can just about speak [very well] for themselves, but it may be useful to know that Eduardo Sarabia, although born and raised in Los Angeles, has lived in Guadalajara since 2003. The press release continues:

Eduardo Sarabia is highly influenced by the intricate poetics of the black market and northern Mexican folklore. His current work creates romantic visual narratives in regards to illegal matter, fine arts and commerce.

The gallery’s new space with its huge wall of windows along 23rd Street is perfectly designed for a show which addresses our relationship to the seductions of things, especially the exotic.

Vidal’s multiple exposure

We’re going to the mall on Saturday. It will be my very first visit, since the day I exited a highway in Victorville, California looking for a place to pee, to a representative example of Middle America’s substitute for the urban experience.
I won’t just be looking for the sanitary facilities at Dress Barn this time. Instead, it’s going to be all about art.
Jacques Louis Vidal is creating a sculpture/event he describes as a “surrealist county fair” at the Metro Mall in Queens this Saturday. I don’t think anyone who manages to get out there is going to be disappointed, regardless of the degree of her or his familiarity with the form or the place.
Somebody’s PR gods have been working overtime: Timely supplementing the young artist’s own wacky event website, the NYTimes has both a story and a picture in today’s METRO section. An excerpt:

On Saturday, which is April Fools’ Day, Mr. Vidal is staging a public art spectacle there. “The mall creates this absurd space where all is equal,” he said.
Inventors, artists and hobbyists will joust, in the form of double-sided posters (“the anti-painting: can’t hang it on the wall”) and trifold cardboard sculptures. Among the curiosities: “The chewing gum brain,” a drawing of a pink wad and a collection of watch ads that all tell the same time. There will be an exhibit on a quasi religion based on the link between art and science.
“People will be making volcanoes erupt all day,” Mr. Vidal said, referring to a series of planned miniature baking-soda-and-vinegar catastrophes. Mentos and diet soda, he added, work too.

[image by James Estrin from the NYTimes]

Paolo Arao and John Miserendino Cabinet 2006 tube televisions, DVD players, plywood, screw, flashe paint, blue extension cord [detail of installation with still from DVD]

It’s like walking into a wonderful playhouse populated by four very good, gentle friends. But the installation and the images might just possibly be even more beautiful than the party itself.
Jeff Bailey has installed in his gallery (or has seen installed) “Intermission“, a delightful mix of photographs and drawings surrounding a sculpture of a very unBabel-ish tower. It’s basically Paolo Arao’s show, but together all of his images document a weekend road trip which included the artist John Miserendino and two other very good friends, Patrick and Dennis.

John and Paolo and Patrick and Dennis went on a weekend road trip to the Catskills. The drive took far longer than they’d thought it would, but despite various mishaps along the way they had a good time. By the time they arrived at the cottage, all four were faint with hunger. Of course, restaurants are scarce and close early in small Catskill towns, so they cooked what they could find at the Stewart’s convenience store in the next town over. The meal came out marvelously. Microwave pizza, ice cold beer, and even a six-pack of Smirnoff Ice!
The four decided to have a party. They sang songs and danced and drank and got very drunk.

Innocent affections are rarely represented with such grace as they are here. You’ll probably wish you went to the Catskills with them, as I certainly did, but this gallery show offers something almost more satisfactory.
Until now I’d only seen Arao’s works on paper.
As the low lighting made documentation virtually impossible last Saturday, I’ve gone to the gallery site itself to upload one of the drawings.


Paolo Arao Patrick with Lamp 2006 graphite on paper [dimensions not given] [large detail]

And I’ve uploaded below an image of one of the works which I think I had seen last year in the back of the gallery.


Paolo Arao Untitled (Ted) 2005 oil, flashe and charcoal on panel 11″ x 14″

[the two lower images from Jeff Bailey Gallery]

Barbara Probst Exposure #11A: N.Y.C., Duane & Church, 06.10.02, 3:07 p.m. 2002 Ultrachrome ink on cotton paper, 2 parts: 16″ x 23.5″ each

It’s so simple, but so very beautiful. This was just one of the multiple-image pieces Barbara Probst showed at Murray Guy earlier this month. Her process is only slightly more complex than it appears to be, but rarely is the result so delicate as it is here.
From the press release:

In Barbara Probst’s photographs, the subject of the work becomes the photographic moment of exposure itself. Using a radio-controlled release system, she simultaneously triggers the shutters of several cameras pointed at the same scene from various viewpoints. The resulting sequences of images suspend time and stretch out the split second.

[image from Murray Guy]

Fiona Banner [detail of installation, including various graphite drawings on paper and the reflection of the set of three neon sculptures, Backfire (a force of nature)]

As difficult as it may be to add superlatives to what this bookstore already means to the arts community, Printed Matter is making itself even more indispensable every time it integrates the work of a new artist into the corners of its wonderful shop on 10th Avenue.
Right now AA Bronson and his collaborators are sheltering Fiona Banner‘s installation, “All the World’s Fighter Planes“.
The work is striking and very smart. But as I think about the terrible, very dispensable inspiration for this work and the real-world scale of the monsters which appear here only in small representations*, I think I’m going to be sick again.
While there are sculptures, drawings, text works, source materials, a window installation and posters, appropriately for a bookstore it all starts with a matter of print.

The book, All the World’s Fighter Planes 2006, is a compilation of found newspaper images representing every type of fighter aircraft currently in commission anywhere in the world. The name of each plane is listed on the front and back covers, 170 in all. The book compiles newspaper clippings of each of the different aircraft models. The clippings (as well as the aircraft) come in a variety of shapes and sizes, both small and large, some cut following the contours of the planes, others ripped carelessly from their source, some scattered haphazardly across the open pages, others in full page close-up.

*
with the single exception of this actual cutout from a trainer/fighter plane:

Fiona Banner Nature Painting 2006 cut metal section of Jet Provost 28.5″ x 58″ [installation view]