LOOK INTO MY OWL

That’s right, thirty years of collage work from Genesis Breyer P-Orridge can now be seen at Invisible-Exports on the Lower East Side.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, English Breakfast, mixed media, 2002-2009.

P-Orridge has been operating on the fringe since the late 1960’s. H/er creative operations have become manifest in many media including performance, music, writing and art. Consistently on the edge of rational thought and living life under h/er own terms.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Electric Newspaper, Issue Two, mixed media, 1995.

These collages display the irreverent nature that has become the artist’s mainstay. The snarling middle finger has always been pointed somewhere, any other course for P-Orridge would have been unnatural. Don’t let h/er disdain for the status quo fool you, the production is based in an intellectualism that few have dared to tread. Should the name conjure little more than a blinking stare, please read up on this incredible life/career.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Untitled (mail art to Ana Banana, mixed media, 1977.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
30 Years of Being Cut Up
9 September – 18 October 2009
Invisible-Exports
NYC

The current exhibition at London’s Pilar Corrias Gallery is mixed media works from Benjamin Saurer. There is only one week left so if you are in the area, make tracks.

Benjamin Saurer, Onament und Verbrechen (Ornament and Crime), mixed media on fabric, 2009.

The bulk of the exhibition is accented with small black and white collaged characters. The little people seem to inhabit each painting as a world existing in solitude. The use of internal framing devices and repetitive ornamentation serve also to keep these “terrariums” enclosed.

Benjamin Saurer, Das Wasser immer saurer (The water is becoming increasingly sour), mixed media on fabric, 2009.

The subjects of these works are comfortable in their confines. Leaving their brightly colored world would lead to a dark corner. This contrast of beauty and horror is another great theme in these pieces.

Benjamin Saurer, Der Himmel voller Arschlöcher (Heaven full of assholes), mixed media on fabric, 2009.

Benjamin Saurer
8 July – 5 September 2009
Pilar Corrias Gallery
London

“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