LOOK INTO MY OWL

“Intricacies”, an eleven artist group show is in it’s last weeks at the Lohin Geduld Gallery in NYC. The exhibit was curated by Emily Sessions.

Sarah Lutz, Burst, oil on canvas, 2009.

The show is comprised of artworks that highlight small details that draw together into larger forms. Works of this character tend to change dependent on the distance of the viewer from the surface. Approach an unassuming abstract shape and vanish into the microcosm.

Adam Fowler, Untitled (7 Layers), graphite on paper hand cut and layered, 2009.

The world we inhabit and the vessels that contain us exist from the same construct seen in this exhibit. On some level, this show could be considered naturalistic. Experiencing this art in person will accurately edify the senses. If possible stop in at the gallery and indulge in the particulars.

Olalekan Jeyifous, The Cyclical-Cities of Impact-Craters, digital print on watercolor paper, 2009.

Laura Battle, Josephine Durkin, Matthias Düwel, Margaret Farmer, León Ferrari, Adam Fowler, Robert Jack, Olalekan Jeyifous, Sarah Lutz, Anne Neely, Mayumi Sarai
Intricacies
23 July – 4 September 2009
Lohin Geduld Gallery
NYC

I’ve stood in the Marcel Duchamp area of the Philadelphia Museum of Art for many hours. Visitors often mistake the artist’s final work for a service entrance. “Étant donnés”, the exhibition marks the 40th year since the piece was installed in Philadelphia. This is a great opportunity to shed some light on the world behind the door.

Marcel Duchamp, Exterior: Étant donnés: 1 la chute d’eau, 2 le gaz d’eclairage (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas), 1946-66.

In the mid 1940’s, Marcel Duchamp publicly gave up on art to pursue his passion for the game of chess. Privately, the master would work on the creation of “Étant donnés: 1° la chute d’eau, 2° le gaz d’éclairage (Given: 1° The Waterfall, 2° The Illuminating Gas)” for twenty years. The influential artwork was discovered shortly after Duchamp passed away in 1968.

Marcel Duchamp, Interior: Étant donnés: 1 la chute d’eau, 2 le gaz d’eclairage (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas), 1946-66.

The exhibition contains all known studies and reference relating to the piece. Examining this material in it’s totality is a treat for the public and scholars alike. A fully illustrated 450 page catalogue written by Michael R. Taylor is available online here. I just ordered my copy.

Marcel Duchamp, Landscape collage on plywood (study for landscape backdrop of Étant donnés: 1° la chute d’eau, 2° le gaz d’éclairage), 1959.

The museum will also be showing a number of Duchamp’s “Erotic objects.” Many of these sculptures utilized the same casting technique employed by the artist for the reclining nude in the celebrated assemblage.

Marcel Duchamp, Torture-Morte, 1959.

Marcel Duchamp
Étant donnés
15 August – 29 November 2009
Philadelphia Museum of Art

“Ephemera”, a solo exhibition of photography by Ayoung Kim is up at I-MYU Projects in London.

Ayoung Kim, Headless body found in Thames, 21 April, 2007, Digital C-Type Print, 2007.

These intricate constructions were made with the intent to photograph. The arrangement and lighting of the two-dimensional pieces present the illusion of an uncanny dream space.

Ayoung Kim, British teacher found buried in bathtub of sand, 28 March, 2007, Digital C-Type Print, 2008.

The content is pulled from some of the more gruesome headlines that unfortunately occur with regularity. Kim chooses to photograph angles that parallel our detachment from these events but also draws us in with the vantage point of the onlooker. The artist is in control of this world, at once personalizing the tragedies and shaping our response.

Ayoung Kim, Mystery of the poisoned spy, 1 Nov, 2006, Digital C-Type Print, 2007.

Ayoung Kim
Ephemera
24 July – 15 August 2009
I-MYU Projects
London

The fourth incarnation of “Raised Eyebrows / Furrowed Foreheads” from John Baldessari is on view at Mai 36 Galerie in Zürich.

John Baldessari, Raised Eyebrows / Furrowed Foreheads: (with Apple), 2009.

In the late 1960’s Baldessari removed his hand from the art making process. He abandoned the physical surface of paint in favor of the appropriation of commercial imagery. The game became the rule and left Baldessari free to roam the conceptual expanse. Paint remains a component of the procedure in a reduced form of monotone colored shapes.

John Baldessari, Raised Eyebrows / Furrowed Foreheads: Three UFOs Aloft, 2009.

Raised eyebrows exist in opposition to the furrowed forehead. It is one or the other, an attempt to carry both expressions resolves in a look of confusion. The struggle of opposing attitudes has kept Baldessari busy and his followers transfixed throughout his career. The equation may be repeatable but each new piece manifests as unique. In the art world, the division between “high” and “low” has subsisted despite continual intermingling. The artist celebrates the middle ground with examples that derive power from irreconcilable antagonism.

John Baldessari, Raised Eyebrows / Furrowed Foreheads: Woman (with Semaphore Flags), 2009.

John Baldessari
Raised Eyebrows / Furrowed Foreheads:
7 June – 8 August 2009
Mai 36 Galerie
Zürich

In two weeks Ron English is opening “Lazarus Rising” at the Elms Lesters Painting Rooms in London.

The paintings in the exhibit were all created within the past year. English has kept up the saga of his familiar characters for these recent works with an aesthetic twist. The technical aspects of many of these paintings have taken a great leap forward. The simple faded backgrounds present in earlier works have been replaced with an intricate network of collage elements that weave the surface to a new level of finish.

Ron English will be on hand at the gallery on May 9th to sign copies of the book that was produced to accompany the exhibit. The 48 page monograph is limited to one thousand copies and features varying paper stock and inks. If you can’t make it there in person, unsigned copies are available online at the gallery store.

Ron English
Lazarus Rising
8 May – 6 June 2009
Elms Lesters Painting Rooms
London

The small scale paste-ups by Barbara Kruger make up the current show at the Skarstedt Gallery in NYC. “Pre-Digital” exhibits forty-four works dating from 1980-1992.

The pieces are composed of photographs and type on paper.The largest of the collages in this show measures eleven by thirteen inches. Many of the works were photographed and enlarged to the monumental scale that developed into Kruger’s personal canon.

Barbara Kruger has spread her art into many media including billboards, merchandise, video and audio installations. Her instantly recognizable style has been received and expounded upon by a new generation of artist. “Pre-Digital” is an excellent opportunity to examine the seminal declarations on an intimate scale.

Barbara Kruger
Pre-Digital 1980 – 1992
18 March – 18 April 2009
Skarstedt Gallery
NYC

The mixed media collage works of Jane Maxwell are on view through the end of March at the Caldwell Snyder Gallery.

In these canvas and panel works Maxwell explores the ideals that Western culture imposes on the female figure. Food issues are acutely imparted in the choice of antique produce crate labels as collage material. It’s a cunning play on the common practice of objectifying body parts as selections from the grocer. The artist reminds us that beauty is not uniform, allure can be found in otherwise castaway material.

The textured surfaces are built up with layers of beeswax and methodically deconstructed with rigorous sanding and peeling. The figure ground reversals that take place in the compositions reflect personal translations of societal pressures.

Jane Maxwell
Recent Works
1-31 March 2009
Caldwell Snyder Gallery
San Francisco

The contemporary tapestries of Margret Eicher are on view at Bernhard Knaus Fine Art in Frankfurt. The title of the show is, “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” with each position in the trinity being thoroughly explored.

In the past wall tapestries were a luxury reserved for the wealthy. The carpets were hand stitched and often took years to complete. Eicher has short circuited this lengthy process by piecing together collage elements in a computer and weaving them with a digital loom.

The content of these large wall coverings is current and often comical. Margret Eicher pays tribute to the ancient history of the tapestry with a muted palette, canonical compositions and ornamental borders.

Margret Eicher
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
29 January – 14 March 2009
Bernhard Knaus Fine Art
Frankfurt, Germany