Completely Biased Review

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

Artist Andrea McGinty poses in front of one of her performance pieces.

I am not an art critic. That’s why you don’t find negative reviews on this blog. You can decide for yourself what you hate. I want to tell you what I like and why.

Word Tree by Rachel Jantzi (detail)

Rob Campbell

Today I want to talk about a show you can’t go see. Seven of my fellow students and friends have just installed an exhibition in a private space in Chelsea. I watched them make this art in our joint studios and I wish it, and them, the best.

Sara Kriendler Installation

I also want to congratulate the company Tracx (which I think is a social networking data mining software company). http://www.tracx.com/news/exhibition-scientists-and-artists-unite. They have chosen to use their working offices as gallery space, and this show is the first of what they foresee to be three new installations a year. It’s good for their employees and clients to work with provocative art. It’s good for the artists to be seen by new eyes.

Anthony Donatelle’s painting in the Tracx conference room

I wish other companies would do the same. Art in galleries is great, but there isn’t room in the galleries for everybody. There need to be other options.

Art Vidrine’s Thread Painting

Denise Treizman's piece in the Tracx bullpen

a Denise Treizman piece in the Tracx bullpen

Maybe if you call Tracx (646) 448-5310 they will invite you to come up and look at the art. I honestly don’t know. But this art is worth seeing. (104 W 27th).

Good Artists Borrow

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

David Hilliard at Yancey Richardson Gallery

I am an old-fashioned artist. Or at least I always thought I was, toiling in obscurity, using archival materials, drawing and painting figuratively. I disdained factory artists with their fabricators and color-matchers, endlessly hiring art-school graduates and stealing their souls to make soulless art.

Then I took a real look around my studio: digital camera for making camera lucida drawings; my paintings turned into fabrics (by fabricators!) and wallpapers; the new tripod I bought for my iPhone so that I can make video documentation of some of my works in process. (Planning a big dish-breaking party this week – need shards for a new idea.) Sometimes I use Sharpies and acrylic paint. The horror!

Okay, so I’m not as pure as I’d liked to think. And just like other artists, I don’t just use modern materials and methods, I also use modern ideas. Especially ones gleaned from other artists.

Yes, apparently Picasso really did say, “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” That was hardly reassuring to Braque, I suppose, but it is the way of the art world.

So here are two artists, whose work I recently saw, and whose ideas I am borrowing. Today.

David Hilliard’s amazing show The Tale is True is on display at Yancey Richardson Gallery through February 16th (535 W 22nd). http://www.yanceyrichardson.com/current/. I’m not usually much of a photography fan until I see photographs so beautiful, evocative and masterful that they stop me dead. Go see the Hilliard show, and you’ll know what I mean. Often presented in triptychs, you think at first that you’re just looking at pictures. But look longer and you’ll see the overlap that implies time passing. Then you’ll notice what is in focus and what is out of focus and you’ll know that yes, that’s how we all think, but Hilliard has actually managed to show it to us. These are large photographs that you can get lost in, and you will.

What am I going to steal from him? If I’m lucky, the subtlety of his distortion, and his sense of loneliness and family.

Enrico Riley at Giampietro Gallery

At the Metro Show Art Fair (which was terrific and sadly ran only from the 24th to the 27th) I came across a wonderful painter, Enrico Riley, at the booth of Giampietro Gallery of New Haven. http://www.giampietrogallery.com/title.phpartistname=ENRICO%20RILEY&artistId=1012. Riley’s paintings are reminiscent of Willem de Kooning’s figures and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s wild-child paintings. They are simpler than both, sometimes more abstract, but sometimes less, with amazing color and line. They were just the reminder I needed that it was time for me to return to oil paint and oil crayons.

We all learn from each other, and I want to thank these two artists for pushing me into my studio this morning with new ideas and fresh enthusiasm.

Words Failed Me

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

Henry Darger

My thanks (again) to Elenore Weber from Ricco/Maresca Gallery who has given me a much better way to refer to the Henry Darger landscapes now on display than “book illustrations”. She says, usually “they are described as illustrations for Darger’s more than 15,000-page saga, The Story of the Vivian Girls in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal or the Glandelinian War Storm or the Glandico-Abbienian Wars as Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, (commonly referred to as In the Realms of the Unreal).”

That is why she is a Gallery Director and I am not. But doesn’t it make you want to see the paintings even more?

Saturday Art

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

Francis Alys,
Untitled, 2011-2012

There is so much art to see in New York that I almost never go to an exhibition more than once. There is always something new to see: something that might be wonderful or joyful or powerful or memorable, or maybe all four. Sometimes as I’m walking into a gallery I get a little butterfly inside because the possibility exists that I’m about to have a life-changing experience. It’s a childlike feeling, akin to thinking that maybe today the Good Humor Man is giving out free ice cream. And balloons.

I like that feeling.

But today I revisited several galleries because having seen the shows, I couldn’t forget them. They haunted me.

There is a quality of inevitability to excellent art. I notice the decisions that the artist made, but I can’t imagine any improvement. Sometimes it looks effortless, sometimes agonized, but in either case, the end result has triumphed over the process of creation and now the work exists independent of how it was made and by whom.

I feel that way about the Francis Alys video Reel-Unreel (at David Zwirner 525 W 19th). http://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibition/francis-alys-ny-2013/. I discussed the film last week and still highly recommend it. This week his paintings had a stronger impact on me. They are clearly connected to the film, showing desert landscapes struggling to exist in the same space as film color test patterns. Such a simple idea, and yet so profound when we consider a country (Afghanistan) in which the authorities have tried to censor all outside media influence.

Diana Cooper,
Turf

I also returned to the Diana Cooper show My Eye Travels at Postmasters Gallery (459 W 19th) http://www.postmastersart.com. Ms. Cooper’s witty assemblages of photographs, and objects leap off the wall to trick the viewer into believing the impossible. They look dimensional where flat, drawn where manufactured, and continue to refer to the gallery space in which they are exhibited and the art world at large. These are serious works made with a sense of fun and astonishing skill. I stood far away, I stood as close as possible, I tried to peer behind, and I was desperate to touch them (but I didn’t). Several times I laughed out loud (art gallery numbered pins as design elements). Honestly, I might have to make a third trip before the show closes on February 9th.

Henry Darger

One show that I haven’t had the chance to revisit, but which remains on my mind is the Henry Darger show at Ricco/Maresca Gallery (529 W 20th) http://www.riccomaresca.com/exhibitions/exhibitions_current.htm. I had the good fortune to speak with Gallery Director Elenore Weber today, who reminded me that the Darger works on display were originally book illustrations, and therefore drawn on both sides of the paper. The gallery is having a “turn-the-paintings-around” event this coming Friday evening, February 1st, so that we can all see the opposite sides. I can’t imagine the logistics involved, but I’m grateful for them.

A Good Critique Day

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

Occasionally the sun shines. Occasionally my hair behaves. Occasionally I have a good critique.

Eleven people, plus my teacher, crowded into my studio to look at my pictures. My stuff. My ouevre. My work. Rules: I could answer questions directed at me, but should otherwise remain silent during the discussion. Fine by me. My talking rarely helps.

My classmates were initially overwhelmed by my space. (Possibly because I have used two different wallpapers and hung way too many paintings.) They called it loud and said there was so much to look at that they were unable to focus on the individual pieces. Overall, they felt that most of my art was lost in the bright colors and the general noise.

Thank you.

I intend to hang my art and hide it at the same time. I mean to create a faux-domestic setting in which my secrets lie under the surface. In private. Just like in my real home. Just like in my real life. Just like in your life, too, I bet.

Do You Remember When Art Was Fun?

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

Monday at Ikea

There was a time when I drew and painted because I loved to, and not to complete an assignment, or please a teacher, or make something that might be important. There was a time when I created things without first thinking about how they would need to be installed, who would eventually see them, and what those people would think. Sometimes my work was truly awful, but I didn’t care because I wasn’t afraid to screw up. Sometimes it was great and I usually couldn’t tell the difference.

I have problems because I am trying to turn what I love into a career. So now critics and critiques matter, and “because I like it” is not a sufficient answer to “Why did you make that?”

I spent this morning in a silk-screening studio, making a terrible mess, soaking myself with the sprayer at the sink, dripping ink on my clothes, and finishing with an image that wasn’t quite good enough to turn into bad wallpaper. But it was fun.

I spent yesterday out in public, drawing pictures of people walking so fast past me that I couldn’t get a likeness, just a vague image with a sense of movement. I gave hair to bald men and put hoodies on society ladies. Why not? They didn’t care and it was fun.

For me, fun might be the most important forgotten ingredient in what I make. So I wonder, if I care less about everyone else’s opinion, will my art be better? Or will I just like it more? And will that make a career in art possible, or out of the question?

Another Chelsea Afternoon

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

Frank Owen’s Herald at Nancy Hoffman

I was in the gallery district this afternoon, trying to keep up with new shows, interesting shows, and recommended shows, and even after the sun shone brightly and then disappeared, I had a good afternoon. I found myself liking things I didn’t expect to, and ignoring things that should have fascinated me. I love when art is surprising, and I love especially being reminded that ANY genre, approached with wit and intelligence, can be captivating.

Asya Reznikov
My Vanity
at Nancy Hoffman

I started at Nancy Hoffman Gallery to see the show 40 Years, a retrospective and celebration of the gallery which opened in Soho in 1972 and moved to 520 W 27th in 2008. The show is truly delightful, beginning with a very large Frank Owen painting in the front gallery and continuing with 30 more artists representing painting, sculpture, photography, and video. I was charmed by Asya Reznikov’s video installation My Vanity (I, who think a video should have a plot and preferably star Ryan Gosling) and watched it for several minutes with a goofy smile on my face. I could feel it. It was embarrassing.

McDermott & McGough
Just a Memory
at Cheim & Read

At Cheim & Read (547 West 25th) I found a large installation by the collaborative pairing of David McDermott and Peter McGough, who present photo-realist paintings of movie stills as well as abstract paintings on photographs. I shouldn’t have liked them, but I did.

McDermott & McGough
Not Prepared For Eternity
at Cheim & Read

At Marlborough Chelsea (545 W 25th), Robert Lazzarini: (damage) was fun and disorienting in a PeeWee’s Playhouse kind of way.

Robert Lazzarini at
Marlborough Chelsea

David LaChapelle
Michael Jackson 02
at Paul Kasmin

At Paul Kasmin Gallery (293 Tenth Avenue and 515 W 27th) I enjoyed the super-creepy David LaChapelle photographs of disembodied wax heads and assorted body parts in various states of decay. The two versions of Michael Jackson were especially and deliciously gruesome.

Yayoi Kusama
Narcissus Garden
at Robert Miller

Robert Miller Gallery (524 W 26th) is showing several works by Yayoi Kusama, my favorite of which is the 1967 video Self-Obliteration in which Kusama puts glow-in-the-dark polka-dots on her cat. I love cats. But it was still funny.

Wang Xieda
Sages’ Sayings 026
at James Cohan

There are two excellent shows at James Cohan Gallery (533 W 26th). First is Wang Xieda: Subject Verb Object in which the Shanghai-based artist makes sculpture based on ancient Chinese calligraphic forms. These table-top sized works create complicated shadows that further the intellectual considerations of flat text versus space. The second is works of paper by Sol LeWitt from the 60s and 70s entitled Cut Torn Folded Ripped in which he achieves a very similar dialogue between what is there and what is removed. Simple, but extremely effective.

Sol LeWitt
Map of Amsterdam
at James Cohan

And finally, I truly enjoyed Francis Alys’ film Reel-Unreel at David Zwirner (525 & 533 W 19th) which follows two boys through the streets of Kabul as one unwinds a film reel and the second attempts to wind it back up. That’s it. But tension built as the crowds grew and the traffic snarled and I wondered where the boys were heading and I hoped they would arrive safely. It didn’t hurt that it was the last stop on my gallery tour and I lay back on a comfortable chaise for my viewing pleasure. And by the way, accomplished and intellectual paintings by the same artist occupy an adjacent gallery. Really? He can paint too? Stop showing off.

Francis Alys
Reel-Unreel
at David Zwirner

Is My Pain My Job?

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

Friday, January 18, 2013

As an art student, first undergraduate and then graduate, I’m used to hearing contradictory critiques from faculty. Some like my drawing and painting skills, but not my subject matter. Some like my subject matter and think my skills are irrelevant or even unfortunate. Some don’t care about subject matter, just method, material, and abstract formal considerations.

But what I hear more than anything else these days is that I must open myself up and reveal vulnerabilities and personal pain in my work.

I have to say, I didn’t see that one coming. Maybe I should have. But when I studied Ingres, and Rembrandt, Cezanne, and the Impressionists, representation of their personal pain was not why their art was great. Were their personal lives painful? Of course. Was that pain their primary subject matter? Of course not.

Is this a result of the reality t.v./confessional era in which we live? Dunno. But when I think of mining the parts of my life that are no one else’s business, a couple of things happen. First, I get really really angry. And second, I get ideas about how to put that anger into my paintings. Damn it.

SVA MFA Thesis Show: We Object

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Elizabeth Cook

Minseop Yoon

The way I figure it, our first semester in SVA’s MFA Fine Arts program is for getting our feet wet, finding the art supply stores, and convincing ourselves that we haven’t made the biggest mistake of our life.

Patrick Shoemaker

Billy Ogawa

Zaza Acevedo

Mark deWilde

Semester number two is when we start to make art that matters. But we’re still all over the map. We’re juggling subject matter, media, color, meaning, fabrication, and

Jessica Bowman

installation issues. At least. Because making art is the hardest thing we’ve ever done, and now we’re trying to be good at it, while people watch and criticize. And we’re still not sure it isn’t a mistake to spend oh-my-god how much money? in order to leave ourselves less employable than before we started.

Autumn-Grace Dougherty

Which gives the fine arts students only the first semester of their second year to make everything that goes into their MFA thesis

Yae Ly

Denise Hwa-In Yoon

show. Make it. Make it coherent and meaningful. Make it visually and intellectually arresting. And, by the way, how’s that written thesis coming?

Tina Han

The show We Object (curated by Wallace Whitney) which is open at SVA’s Visual Arts Gallery (601 West 26th Street, suite 1502) displays work from half of the class of 2013. The other half will be shown next month. I only give you the timeline so that you will understand the pressure under

Sohee Koo (S. Art K.)

Eric Graham

which this art was created – pressure that doesn’t show in the art itself, which is, by turns, playful, skilled, vibrant, unusual, unsettling, disciplined, undisciplined, unexpected, and arresting.

Bo Kim

Chi Zhang

A thesis show by its nature has no common theme. It is a group of works not created to stand together but forced to share visual and actual space. Sometimes that’s a weakness, but not in We Object.

Pantelis Klonaris

This is art that would work alone, but also works wonderfully in a group show. It argues, creates contrasts, creates synergies, and surprises the viewer. After seeing

So Na Lee

all of the galleries that combine to make up the show, I found myself starting over in the first room to see it all again. It is a feast; not moveable like Paris, but still ephemeral. These artists may never show together again, and this exhibit closes on January 26th.

Cassandra Levine

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