2/25/10

Okay so a whirlwind night of openings. I brought my camera, still testing the waters on whether this blog is better with pictures or not. I don't like shooting at an opening, per sae, but maybe its worth it.

Nari Ward at Lehman Maupin:

This is a fabric piece on the floor . . .

He was included in NeoHooDoo at P.s.1 last year, with an inverted liquor street sign with  some lights out that spelled SOUL. (Remember that?) Also, Nari will be visiting the Vermont Studio Center this summer, so maybe you'll see him there, if you happen to be chillin in Vermont.

This was the centerpiece of the show. Ambulance with letters painted white, and flashing lights. Apparently there was smoke inside the vehicle. I missed that somehow...

I saw a young boy explaining to his mother what this was. It seemed like he saw the logo before she did. This was felt and vinyl I believe. I like his use of materials.

titled "Church and State"

Ana Cristea Gallery:

The next two are from a group show titled In Standard Time at Ana Cristea Gallery; I think it's a new gallery. Wasn't really loving the work, but I took a coupla shots...



This painting, ok I admit, I liked. It's by Richard Wathen, titled Lavinia. The background is unpainted canvas, and parts of the woman's skin are nearly raw untreated canvas as well. It's a nice skill on display, I'd say.

I rolled into James Cohan, but it turned out to be a private affair. Just as people behind the desk were "Um Sir" -ing me to leave, I saw my friend Theresa behind the desk. Which is wierd because she doesn't work at James Cohan. But the affair was for NYFA, which she does work for. From outside the window, I got a glimse of a Yinka Shonibare MBE piece, surrounded by fancy folks.

Oh here's a David Maupin giving an interview. As I past by, I heard him talking about how he was happy to "have Mickalene Thomas in so and so's collection." She's fantastic.

Derek Eller Gallery:

As promised last time, I visited Derek Eller to see more Jessica Jackson Hutchins. They give me mixed feelings. Somehow using ceramics gives her a pass to reinvestigate Rauschenburg? Working with clay, she brings in this whole other language that is so passe and overlooked in the Artworld. But she doesn't take the time to understand the skills or techniques employted in the discipline of ceramics. Some of the pottery is just plain old clay smoothed onto chicken wire (its hidden, but its in there). Rauschenburg is kind of passe or overlooked too, his style was sort of  particular to the moment. I still don't know what to think but I do like the random details:

Like this one with the artist's face and her baby (presumably), both half hidden. And this photo itself is a small detail of a much larger canvas [below]:

This may be my favorite, with the pot falling through the chair. What can I say, I like supposed one-liners:

Winkleman Gallery:

My second visit to Jennifer Dalton's and William Pohida's #class at Winkleman Gallery: I came for a performance by James Leonard that had to d0 with giving a Military-type press conference to sell psuedo War Bonds that would help the artist make an army of 10000 little green handmade soldiers. It was listed as going from 6 - 8 pm, but it was over by the time I got there at 6:40ish. It only lasted 40 minutes or so.?  I wish I would have known that before I trudged through the snow to get there (its like the farthest gallery in Chelsea), but still it was nice to check out all that had been written on the chalkboards. I added my own text . . .

(see my previous post about this project, or go here

Yossi Milo Gallery:

I forget this artist, and it's a poor reproduction, but I like the concept. It's a real tree with a huge white tarp hung behind it. Art made in nature, or bringing the white cube to the forrest . . .

The show here was by Pieter Hugo, titled Nollywood. Nollywood is the Nigerian Film Industry, larger than Hollywood and second only to Bollywood, according to the press release. "1000 straight to video releases each year.
They are large format, and it was hard to get a good shot without a glare.
The films lean toward the macabre and melodramatic, with narratives rooted in local symbolic imagery and traditional storytelling.
Themes and subjects often include "the supernatural, with plots centered on romance, extortion, prostitution, witchcraft, or religion." Yossi Milo press release. As documentary images, they are fantastic and educational.

ClampArt Gallery

This show, The Museum of Unnatural History, was CRAZY packed. I don't know how I took this picture and held my wine at the same time without bumping into somebody . . .

A lot of artists making work about, or involving, diarama setups like those in the Natural History Museum. I liked this one above

...and the baboon was cute. Sorry I didn't get the artists' names. And I didn't take pictures of the other work. Combination of: I wasn't that interested, and it was claustrophobic at the opening.

Cue Art Foundation had a show by Carrie Olson. I found these porcelain dust masks to be intriguing/compelling, but not much else. . .


To me, they were nice as one, or two. Just lining them up like this takes away from their preciousness. And they are sitting on this jetprinted wallpaper. I think I can say without a doubt that I have yet to find a computer jet-printed wallpaper application in an installation that I found appealing. Just saying.

Bortolami Gallery

Michel Francois, a Belgian, made these nice pieces. Some were more evocative than others. All relied on a few basic ingredients.
Here, colored plasticine and glass
I liked how each and every person had a different view, like being in a different place on a map.
All of his pieces seemed mobile, barely held together, or rebuilt for each installation.
This was a fantastic piece: chains of different sizes and magnets. A gallerist allowed us to touch it and show that each chain could be pulled off. The sculpture was flexible.

Reminds me of Chris Burden's Medusa's Head, or those magnet filings pieces by Mona Hatoum

This one is again magnets holding rods onto the wall

Horton Gallery

Where everyone is drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon... This photo grabbed me real quick. (sorry for the glare, better version here.

Eve Fowler photographs lesbians touching each other through glory holes or sniffing boots. I thought they were really good. There was a send up of Valie Export's Action Pants: Genital Panic, where a girl named K8 posed in crotchless denim.



Okay because I'm still getting used to Blogspot, there's a mix up in the next photos. some are from the excellent show "Ghana" by Lyle Ashton Harris at CRG Gallery. and some are from a Faith Ringold/Aminah Robinson show at ACA Galleries.

The Ghana show at CRG, is my hot pick of the week. short and sweet it had installation, videos, & painting. I thought it was a group show, but it was a solo show by Lyle Ashton Harris.

oops that's Faith Ringold

Faith Ringgold fantastic fiber mask, made the year I was born , 1976 . . .

(it's holding up better than me)

more Faith
and a Ringgold quilt. The work spanned drawing, painting, sculpture, and quilts, (with a lecture and booksigning thrown in).

Okay now this was back to the Ghana show. this is actually paint on a printed fabric. So it's not so far from Faith Ringold at all... interesting

There is not a glare in this photo. It's a projected video on a screen that also has a still image silkscreened on it. Somehow the artist achieved the right balance of tension, light, and drama to keep my interest.

A 3 screen installation of guys lifting weights and showing off their pecs. Again, it had an audience spell bound. Like the Nollywood show, the artist is just showing some daily routines of a niche group in an African culture. With all the media in our lives, this just shows how our common sources of imagery are limited in scope.

Back to Aminah Robinson at ACA


Faith Ringgold at ACA. The sculpture is a basketball player
Aminah Robinson, ACA.

Its late, so I'll say adieu for now: Adeieu.