LOOK INTO MY OWL

An extensive retrospective highlighting the career to date of Cindy Sherman opens today at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #512, chromogenic color print, 2011.

Cindy Sherman has often traversed the line that separates fine art from popular culture so she has for some time enjoyed minor celebrity status. Still, it can’t hurt to offer a bit of reference to her motives and methods.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #425, chromogenic color print, 2004.

Sherman works alone in the studio to create these mesmerizing photographs. She is a photographer, surely, but that is only part of the work that she invests in her finished products. The authority over model, scene, makeup and lighting have been the strength behind her success for decades.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #175, chromogenic color print, 1987.

It was a real privilege to experience, under one roof, the wide range of permutations that the artist has undergone through the years. Major pieces from her most compelling series work are presented including all sixty-nine black and white prints from “Untitled Film Stills” (1977–80) which the museum added to the permanent collection back in 1995.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #216, chromogenic color print, 1989.

Cindy Sherman has long stood for many things that she never intended to rally for or against. Her obsession and brilliance began in the fantastic world of “dressing up.” The childlike playfulness has not been lost through it all. She still likes to engage the camera as though it were a mirror and knows that the photo is right when she has lost herself.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #264, chromogenic color print, 1992.

Visitors are met at the entrance to the exhibit with a monumental photographic mural. Five characters, eighteen feet tall each, stand guard over the retrospective in a scene that recalls the small temple at Abu Simbel. MoMA has produced the short video below detailing the installation of the mural. In a departure from her normal method, Sherman has tastefully employed the use of digital techniques to alter her facial appearance for the piece. It is clear that she is considering some new directions and they could be huge.

Cindy Sherman
26 February – 11 June 2012
Museum of Modern Art
NYC

Images and video courtesy the Museum of Modern Art.

Traditionally, the art world “shuts down” for the Summer. It is a broad market perspective that sends the art collector for a well deserved ocean respite. It’s also a good time for art world transitions.

I’ve been involved in several off-season moves that will intensify my career as artist, dealer and art writer. New York City is on the very near horizon and I should be in position soon to conduct more studio visits, museum previews and exhibition reviews.

The Summer has also brought about the founding of my personal artist website. I’m offering up a new signed and numbered, archival, limited edition pigment print seven days a week. All of my artistic pursuits are updated daily on the site. Check in regularly to examine progress on my portfolio, ongoing projects and store. Please sign up here to receive a weekly digest via email highlighting all of the action.

Scroll down for a small selection of my work from this year. Two prints, a pair of photographs, a couple of projects, some paintings and now, yes, I have been branded with my own logo.

Scott Lickstein, Spectrum Sipper, archival pigment print on 300 gsm, 100% cotton, acid & lignin free paper, 20.25 x 17 inches, 2011.

Scott Lickstein, The Hawk, archival pigment print on 300 gsm, 100% cotton, acid & lignin free paper, 17 x 17 inches, 2011.

Scott Lickstein, Life and Death in the Forest, c-print, 2011.

Scott Lickstein, Mystics and Tides 014, c-print, 2011.

Scott Lickstein, When I’m Gone 036, 2011.

Scott Lickstein, When I’m Gone 044, 2011.

Scott Lickstein with Ian Gamache, Let’s Play Hostage, 2011.

Scott Lickstein with Ian Gamache, Boring Summer Movie, 2011.

Scott Lickstein, Speechless, 2011.

Scott Lickstein, Moonwolf, 2011.

“People,” from Gillian Wearing, is the first major NYC solo show for the artist since 2003. The exhibit encompasses a wide variety of media and fills both floors of the Tanya Bokandar Gallery on West 21st Street.

Gillian Wearing, Me as Warhol in Drag with Scar, framed bromide print, 63 3/8 x 51 1/2 inches, 2010.

The work collected for this display includes video installations, photographs and sculptures. This diverse array blends seamlessly as the viewer is introduced to one acquaintance after the next.

Gillian Wearing, Gervais, painted bronze on plywood plinth , 15 1/2 x 4 7/8 x 6 3/4 inches, 2010.

Identity skates very thin ice in all of these works. In the shuffle, it can be easy to lose a sense of self when empathy takes root. You can’t hear it in these still images but words are the pure energy that ribbons through all of the media. The Art here is experiential, get to the gallery and make the breakthrough.

Gillian Wearing, Secrets and Lies, video for monitor with sound, 53 minutes, 16 seconds , 96 x 69 x 97 inches, 2009.

Gillian Wearing
People
5 May – 24 June 2011
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
NYC

The Barbara Gross Galerie in Munich is currently holding their first exhibit with Finnish photographer, Anni Leppälä.

Anni Leppälä, Shirt (hand), pigment print on aluminum, 12 x 17″, 2010.

The recent imagery coming from Anni Leppälä has been carefully stripped of identity. These anonymous portraits are solemn investigations into the objectification of the body. The removal of distinguishable traits enables the viewer to commune with the models on a level that recalls personal experience more than an external voyeurism.

Anni Leppälä, Garden, c-print on aluminum, 24 x 33″, 2007.

An uneasy feeling rolls over those that witness these small scale photographs. The fragmented anatomy plays with our desire to complete. Our eye follows leading lines that cause the mind to exhaust contextual possibilities, for better or worse.

Leppälä is a member of the Helsinki School, a strong selection of young artists from the region that has gathered some attention through their collective. Be sure to click on the link and check out her comrades.

Anni Leppälä, Two Daughters (in a boat), pigment print on aluminum, 12 x 17″, 2010.

Anni Leppälä
1 April – 14 May 2011
Barbara Gross Galerie
Munich

“I am Erwin Wurm,” a showing of mixed media works from Erwin Wurm is currently on display at Galleri Bo Bjerggaard in Copenhagen. The artist worked closely with the gallery along with the Brandts Art Hall in the city of Odense which is hosting a concurrent exhibit of larger scale works.

Erwin Wurm, Big Coat, aluminum and paint, 88 x 32 x 25″, 2010.

The photographs and the sculptural elements both evoke an unnerving sensation as Wurm introduces chaotic touches that force adjustments to nearly universal perceptions. There is a sense of the artist waiting for these ideas to emerge over time. Simple moments of genius do not abound, they require patience and demand discipline. Erwin Wurm has been at this practice for some time and he keeps getting better.

Erwin Wurm, Untitled, c-print, 45 x 57″, 2009.

“I am Erwin Wurm” the title of this exhibit demonstrates the confidence in intellect that is required to produce these works. In an often dramatic and generally over sensitive “art universe” Wurm is one of the good guys that reminds us that the mind, his and yours, is a funny place.

Erwin Wurm, Idiot III, c-print, 36 x 29″, 2010.

Erwin Wurm
I am Erwin Wurm
11 March – 25 June 2011
Galleri Bo Bjerggaard
Copenhagen

“Unhuman” is the second solo show that Trevor Paglen has had with the Altman Siegel Gallery. His recent photography is on display at the San Francisco gallery and will remain there through April 2nd.

Trevor Paglen, They Watch the Moon, c-print, 48 x 36″, 2010.

Paglen defines his interest with photography as the “practice of seeing with machines.” The directness of this approach has yielded some stunning results. Amplified vision and time sensitive visual representations offer impossible views of this world and beyond. Something unknown is always being seen with our new tools and this artist is marking the changes.

Trevor Paglen, Trevor Paglen – Artifacts (Spacecraft in Perpetual Geosynchronous Orbit, 35,786 km Above Equator) (Detail, part two of diptych), c-print, 50 x 40″, 2010.

The body of work in this exhibition has the camera turned inward and outward. We get to watch the watchers using the same dirty tricks we’ve come to expect. “Unhuman,” as represented in this context does not refer to a shortcoming of technology as it may have in the past. It’s a descriptor of the new found comfort level with our increased capabilities. For better and worse, it is a sign of what we have become.

Trevor Paglen, Reaper Drone (Indian Springs, NV Distance ~ 2 miles), c-print, 36 x 30″, 2010.

Trevor Paglen
Unhuman
10 February – 2 April 2011
Altman Siegel Gallery
San Francisco

Eight large photographs from Christopher Bucklow make up the current show at Danzinger Projects in NYC.

Christopher Bucklow, Tetrarch 3:38 PM 8th October 2008, unique cibachrome print, 2008.

These life sized photograms (a process invented by Man Ray) are made in a four step process. First, the artist traces the shadow of his model onto a thin sheet of aluminum. The defined silhouette is then run through with small holes, one for each day that the subject has been alive. The metal is placed over a large sheet of photographic paper and exposed briefly to the sun.

Christopher Bucklow, Anima 7, unique cibachrome print, 2009.

The direct “negativeless” approach to photography may be in danger of disappearing along with other forms of the traditional chemical method. It’s nice to see that some artists still work within the medium and are achieving great results. These portraits capture something more than a shape, Bucklow references this in connecting the amount of light to the age of the sitter. The prints are limited to one each. The radiation sensitive material is exposed creating an image as unique as the person it captures.

Christopher Bucklow, Tetrarch 2:29 PM 8th October 2008, unique cibachrome print, 2008.

Christopher Bucklow
10 September – 23 October 2010
Danzinger Projects
NYC