Brucennial by the Bruce High Quality Foundation

Brucennial opening night

This show, the non-establishment alternative to the Whitney Biennial, organized by Vito Schnabel, and housed in a space on loan from Aby Rosen has some heavy hitters: David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Dan Colen, George Condo mixed in with emerging artists. Some good stuff on view:

Dan Colen

Dan Colen’s easily identifiable canvas.

Nicole Stone

Nicole Stone’s tripartite work has repetition of text on the left juxtaposed with three different types of texture on the right. There is an added dimension to the text with a meaning I didn’t have time to investigate as there were so many people there. A very cool piece.

Daniel Oh

Daniel Oh had an acrylic box with compartments filled with b/w distressed photos on view.

installation shot

I was intrigued by this work that heaved as if breathing with life. Due to the text surrounding it, it seemed to be an active statement against the art establishment.

Jolynn Krystosek

Jolynn Krystosek, who just happens to be a colleague of mine, is also an amazingly talented artist who works in paper and wax. Her work on view in the Brucennial is an intricately carved wax piece.

Chelsea Gallery Visits

With the Armory fast approaching I needed to get out to see some shows since this upcoming week of fairs will monopolize my time.

A sampling of what is on view:

SUPERFLEX, Flooded McDonald's, 2009

“Flooded McDonald’s” at Peter Blum is an exhibition including three videos: Burning Car (2008), TheFinancial Crisis (I-IV) (2009) and Flooded McDonald’s (2009) by the Danish collective, SUPERFLEX. Founded in 1993 these artists create projects that deal with the environment, politics, and questioning power structures. Flooded McDonald’s is the centerpiece of the show and though 21 minutes long, just spending 5 minutes with this work can give you the gist. In it, an exact replica of a McDonald’s slowly fills with water. Sounds of gurgling and rising water complement simple yet potent images of fries floating, a Ronald McDonald statue toppling, and cash registers shorting out. This work is an examination of the “consequences of consumerism.” The other two works are also worth a peek.

Nari Ward, Sick Smoke

Nari Ward at Lehmann Maupin is worth a visit as well. This is Ward’s first solo exhibition at the gallery and it includes sculpture, works on paper, and video works. As the press release explains Ward is interested in the “idea of support—physical, spiritual, social, and judicial–while introducing contemplation of everyday objects.” As one enters the gallery he is confronted with Sick Smoke an ambulance filled with smoke whose black lettering is obscured with white vinyl.

Nari Ward, Riot Gates

Ward also has large scale x-ray images of the human skull surrounded by shoe tips (which often represent the human body in the artist’s work). On March 6th at 1:30 there will be an exhibition walk-through with the artist and the Assistant Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Ken Price, 2009

The Ken Price show at Matthew Marks is brilliant. All of the works on view are from 2009. The main gallery has three larger-scale works which are relatively new for him. The other three galleries house his smaller works. The first time I was introduced to Price’s work, I did not like it. Now, however, I am able to appreciate the hand-finished process of layers and layers of paint sanded to give the complex and smooth surface to each of his works.

Ken Price, detail

I really find his work, made of painted bronze composite, sensual and stunning.

Jay DeFeo, Untitled, 1973, Gelatin Silver print

Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery has a wonderful show of works on paper and photographs by the late California artist Jay Defeo. The works are delicate and intricate requiring close viewing. The works in the main gallery by Mitzi Pederson are a lovely complement to DeFeo’s works. Pederson’s sculptures are made up of fragile materials but the composite of them create energetic and powerful pieces.

Calder at Gagosian

Calder installation view

In one Gagosian space in Chelsea there are monumental sculptures from the 1960s on view, in the other there are five David Smith works. He sure does know how to fill a gallery with amazing works and pull out the big guns.

El Anatsui installation view

I have written about El Anatsui many times before. I am enamored by his work. Jack Shainman continues his excellent program with an Anatsui show. The gallery fills with yellows, blacks, reds and gold.

Sterling Ruby at Pace Wildenstein

Sterling Ruby has created two large-scale works for Pace’s 22nd Street space. One is a hollowed out and reconfigured bus with individual locked cages replacing the normal bus seating. In the back is an area filled with subwoofers. I am still trying to figure out exactly what these works were all about but they are interesting to see.

Mike Norton at 303

Mike Norton at 303 has his first solo show with the gallery which consists of four trailers connected together filling the enormous space. The viewer is invited to enter the space where knicknacks and various items such as cigarette butts are left making the space look recently occupied. It reminded me of Hello Meth Lab in the Sun by Jonah Freeman, Justin Lowe and Alexandre Singh on view at both Ballroom Marfa in 2008 and Jeffrey Deitch last year.

interior view

But that work had more power and the element of surprise and shock where this simply seemed a bit hollow. I wasn’t quite sure what message the piece was trying to convey.

Installation view, Size DOES Matter, FLAG Art Foundation

“Size DOES Matter” at The FLAG Art Foundation is a heavily marketed show. The fact that it was curated by Shaquille O’Neal only adds to the hype. Most people probably don’t think of Shaq as an art expert. In fact, his interests are quite varied and he has been successful in many endeavors outside of basketball. But it is a bit of stretch to say he “curated” this show. He was shown a variety of works by the heads of the FLAG, and he selected the ones that spoke to him. As a bit of a freak of nature standing at 7′1″ and weighing 320 pounds, size has always mattered to Shaq and the works he selected speak to that. While there are some great works on view by excellent artists, the show feels disjointed and did not speak to me as a cohesive concept.

Anselm Kiefer, Untitled Young Mao

There was a beautiful Anselm Kiefer called Untitled, Young Mao from 2000,

Robert Thierrien

a Robert Thierrien No Title (Table and Six Chairs) from 2003 and works by Hawkinson, Koons, and Kehinde Wiley as well as many others.

Whitney Biennial 2010

No need to worry, you have until May 30th to go check out the 75th incarnation (sans theme) of the Whitney Museum’s signature exhibition. Curated by Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Muravari, the layout of the show is very viewer friendly; it is a very manageable show with a strong selection of artists–and female artists are heavily represented finally. With fewer artists selected for this year’s show, one is able to digest the work on view without being overwhelmed and that is refreshing. The one thing that I did find a bit annoying was the bulk of video work on the 3rd floor. After awhile, one gets numb to too much video so to put it all on one floor was a bit too much for this viewer. I will say that now that I have found my favorite works in the show, I will definitely be making a return visit in order to take more time with them. Overall it is a very enjoyable biennial.

Highlights for me:

Bruce High Quality Foundation, We Like America and America Likes Us, 2010

Bruce High Quality Foundation’s “We Like America and America Likes Us” is a cool piece found on the fourth floor. A voiceover plays in a loop commenting on society while images from pop culture are projected onto the windshield of a white ambulance/hearse with glaring lights. Thought provoking.

Tauba Auerbach was born in San Francisco but lives in NYC. She manipulates largescale pieces of raw canvas by folding or rolling them. After flattening them she paints with industrial spray paint creating a tromp l’oeil effect. I had to actually go up to the canvas and look at it from the side to prove to myself that the work was indeed two-dimensional. On view are three paintings that fill one wall of the gallery in shades of salmon, maroon, and purple.

Lesley Vance, Untitled (12), 2009, oil on linen

Lesley Vance works in Los Angeles. Her abstract paintings are based on the still life tradition. Her process involves arranging a still life, photographing it and using those as the basis for her abstract paintings. She manipulates the paint with a palette knife creating compositions in which very little is recognizable but they somehow, “retain the intimacy and refinement of a traditional still life.”

Pae White, Untitled, 2010

On the third floor I enjoyed Pae White’s tapestry that fills the entryway. She creates works that manifest themselves as, “cotton’s dream of becoming something other than itself.”

Kate Gilmore, Still from Standing Here, 2010

I liked the work by Kate Gilmore that explores issues of female identity and displacement. She builds environments and then documents her attempts to conquer the obstacles they present. In high heels and a polka dot dress she attempts to climb out of a sheetrock box. This box is on display in the gallery in which the video is shown. Gilmore had another work on view at the Brooklyn Museum with a similar theme that I enjoyed and wrote about in a previous blog. Certainly a name to watch.

Rashaad Newsome is fascinated with the dance craze from the early 90s–voguing. In this work, he separates it from the cultural and historical background of its rise from underground clubs to pop culture by removing all sound and context from the viewer. In a color video a dancer moves throughout the space on a wooden floor against a white wall. Newsome sees the work as abstracted movements, not a dance performance. “I view these videos as drawings, with the dancers acting as my pen.”

Josephine Meckseper, Mall of America, 2009, video

Jospehine Meckseper’s “Mall of America” is a very interesting video work. She uses documentary footage from shop windows and rides at the Mall of America in Minneapolis and manipulates it by using red and blue filters and adding haunting music. This manipulation results in an abstraction of the known entity into a “hostile, dangerous place.”

Roland Flexner, Untitled, 2008-9, sumi ink on paper

Probably one of my favorite works is by Roland Flexner, an artist from France who lives and works in NYC. “Untitled” 2008-2009 consists of 30 sumi ink on paper drawings. The process is one used by Japanese decorative artists in which paper is laid upon the top of ink floating in water which creates a marbled effect. Flexner alters the composition further by tilting, blowing or blotting the moment before the ink is absorbed by the paper thus creating abstract compositions that often look like fantastical landscapes. I love these images.

Storm Tharp, Jodie Jill, 2009, ink, gouache, and colored pencil on paper

On the second floor I enjoyed works by Storm Tharp. He draws contours for characters on paper using water and adds mineral ink before it has a chance to dry which causes the ink to bleed creating uncertain forms and shapes. He fills in the missing pieces using paint, colored pencil, erasers, etc. He creates detailed narratives of the characters he creates including names and histories. The works are really interesting.

Aurel Schmidt, Master of the Universe: FlexMaster 3000, 2010

Aurel Schmidt is an amazing draftsman. Her intricately detailed drawings are beautiful, however, her subject matter is often ugly. This work includes flies, condoms, beer cans, and cigarette butts which all add up to a representation of a Minotaur. She questions conventions of beauty in her work and the “cyclical process of renewal and decay.”

Dawn Clements, Mrs. Jessica Drummond's, 2010

Dawn Clements has a remarkable large-scale ballpoint pen drawing on view of an interior scene. Her work is always created from real life scenes or from movies from the 1940s or 1950s, but she draws on separate sheets of paper and then combines them altogether to create what appear to be seamless but upon closer examination, are often unnatural looking environments.

A quick visit to the Van Gogh Museum

Self-Portrait with Straw Hat, 1887, oil on pasteboard, courtesy of the Van Gogh Museum

I wish I had not been so jet lagged and sleep deprived for my visit to this museum which has been on my to do list for at least the past 17 years. But what a tremendous opportunity to see Van Gogh’s work in such breadth!

The Potato Eaters, 1885; Oil on canvas, 81.5 x 114.5 cm; Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam

From his earliest work like The Potato Eaters to his many self-portraits, his sunflowers painted while in Arles, his landscapes from San Remy to his last works from Auvers–there is so much to see. I enjoyed seeing the studies for some of his better-known works. Wish I had had more time to soak it all in and digest it properly. I will definitely return on my next visit to Amsterdam. This is a museum you can’t afford to miss!

Sunflowers, 1889, oil on canvas, 95 x 73 cm, Courtesy of Van Gogh Museum

The Origins of El Greco: Icon Painting in Venetian Crete

During this time El Greco’s works were filled with sumptuous color not usually associated as a defining element of his work. An interesting look into the varied influences and their impact on the work of a well-known artist.

Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention at the Jewish Museum

Self-portrait with Half-Beard, 1943, Gelatin silver print, 7 1/8 x 5 1/8 inches

A quintessential modernist, Man Ray recast the concept of artistic identity by working as a painter, photographer, sculptor, printmaker, filmmaker, poet, and essayist. He utilized techniques not normally associated with fine art: airbrushing paintings, exposing objects on light-sensitive paper to create “rayographs.” Looking back in history, his fame as a photographer overshadowed his accomplishments as a painter. Born Emmanuel Radnitzky he wanted to escape the limitations of his Russian Jewish immigrant past. He moved to Paris in 1921 and was the only American living among the European avant-garde. He created a public persona that assisted him in his desire to gain notoriety while also shrouding himself in oblivion. While living in Paris he photographed other artists to make money as he could not survive on his own painting.

It was wonderful to see the scope of his work (The Jewish Museum curators do an amazing job with their manageable and well-executed shows). In 1913, Ray attended the Armory Show in NY and it had a profound effect on him. He did not create art for 6 months because, he claimed, it took him that long to digest what he had seen. Early paintings on view include a Madonna, a work called Man Ray 1914, andworks from his “Revolving Door Series” from 1916-17. Man Ray 1914 was painted at the time he had met the Belgian avant-garde poet Adon Lacroix who introduced him to a new set of artists and ideas. It was also at this time that he moved to an artists’ colony in Ridgefield, New Jersey.Though small, this painting is hugely important as it marks a shift for Ray in which he moves into creating works that are drastically different than his American peers. There are Cubist elements to the work, but the letters M-A-N  R-A-Y are clearly written in the center of the composition filled with pinks, blues, yellows, and grays.

Revolving Doors is made up of collage elements and stamps in earth tones of red, oranges, sepia, and taupe and these are lovely intimate works. In 1926 he created the works as a series of prints and in the 1940s as oil paintings.

Moving Sculpture, 1920

An interesting pairing of works is a painting called Flying Dutchman from 1920 hanging next to a photograph called, Moving Sculpture also from 1920. In the black and white photograph, sheets hang from clotheslines blowing in the wind. The colorful painting transforms the sheets to abstracted white forms (clearly based on the photo but without which the viewer could not recognize that they are actual objects).

Interior, 1918

In Interior Ray challenges the notion of conventional painting technique by using airbrushing. The work is a stylized depiction of his studio including his early Madonna painting in the background as well as a dressmaker’s dummy which is a nod to his father, a tailor.

In 1921, by moving to Paris Man Ray was welcomed by Dadaists and embraced by Surrealists but never officially aligned himself with either group. By the 1930s he was very successful as a commercial photographer which few artists did at that time. His photos graced the pages of Vogue and Vanity Fairmagazines and this was how he earned a living. As Man Ray in his own words expressed his photos, “deform the subject as almost to hide the identity of the original, and create a new form.” He cropped, used multiple exposures, and created rayographs in which he placed objects on a sheet of paper and turned on the light. Shadowy forms appeared and everyday objects were rendered mysterious and ambiguous in form. Ray liked them because they offered a more direct relationship to subjects than traditional photography. They almost look like x-rays but instead of seeing more, things are made less clear. I love the small photo Self-Portrait in His Studio at 31 bis rue Campagne Premiere, Paris from 1925. The viewer sees Ray, his image a bit blurred due to his movement at the time of exposure, but every detail of his studio is crisp and clear–paintings, camera, staircase, hat, rug. It is a view into his most personal world.

Stills from Le retour a la raison

Le retour a la raison is a black and white 2 minute silent film from 1923, Ray’s first. He does not use a movie camera to create the work but cut unused film into strips, sprinkling it with salt and pepper, pins, thumbtacks, and developing it as a rayograph. It outraged viewers at the time but it is a mesmerizing and titillating piece of moving abstracted forms.

Anatomies, 1929

Anatomies from 1929 captures a woman’s neck as she leans back. Her chin becomes the top of the composition, a shaded line runs down her throat to her clavicle. It is abstracted but recognizable. It is sensual and erotic but also graceful and stunningly simplistic.

In Hier (part of a photo collage triptych) from 1931, Kiki de Montparnasse (a lover and muse of Man Ray’s) is the model. The small colored circles that are placed in strategic places on her  body remind me of John Baldessari’s circles that cover the faces of found film stills in some of his work.

Gertrude Stein portrait

There is a wall of portraits that Ray took in the show that is wonderful. It includes images of Gertrude Stein (siting in front of Picasso’s painted portrait of her), Marcel Duchamp, Lee Miller, and Andre Breton to name a few.

La Fortune, 1938

By June 1940, Ray had fled to the United States and moved to Hollywood to get as far away as he could from NYC. At this time due to what was happening in Europe, Ray had to face his Jewishness and felt exposed during this time of his life which was very uncomfortable for him. This manifests itself in his paintings from this period. La Fortune from 1938 shows a massive billiard table on an awkward slant surrounded by storm clouds in primary colors.

Winter, 1944

Winter from 1944 was inspired by an Italian Renaissance master and by making a figure from other things, he was able to hide on some level. Masks were a common subject for Ray during the 1940s. At the end of his career he returned to perspectival drawings that he had done at the very beginning of his schooling.

Ray said, “Anybody who does creative arts is a sacred person.” This show on view until March 14th highlights his contributions to art history and his sacredness.

Brucennial opening night

This show, the non-establishment alternative to the Whitney Biennial, organized by Vito Schnabel, and housed in a space on loan from Aby Rosen has some heavy hitters: David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Dan Colen, George Condo mixed in with emerging artists. Some good stuff on view:

Dan Colen

Dan Colen’s easily identifiable canvas.

Nicole Stone

Nicole Stone’s tripartite work has repetition of text on the left juxtaposed with three different types of texture on the right. There is an added dimension to the text with a meaning I didn’t have time to investigate as there were so many people there. A very cool piece.

Daniel Oh

Daniel Oh had an acrylic box with compartments filled with b/w distressed photos on view.

installation shot

I was intrigued by this work that heaved as if breathing with life. Due to the text surrounding it, it seemed to be an active statement against the art establishment.

Jolynn Krystosek

Jolynn Krystosek, who just happens to be a colleague of mine, is also an amazingly talented artist who works in paper and wax. Her work on view in the Brucennial is an intricately carved wax piece.

With the Armory fast approaching I needed to get out to see some shows since this upcoming week of fairs will monopolize my time.

A sampling of what is on view:

SUPERFLEX, Flooded McDonald's, 2009

“Flooded McDonald’s” at Peter Blum is an exhibition including three videos: Burning Car (2008), The Financial Crisis (I-IV) (2009) and Flooded McDonald’s (2009) by the Danish collective, SUPERFLEX. Founded in 1993 these artists create projects that deal with the environment, politics, and questioning power structures. Flooded McDonald’s is the centerpiece of the show and though 21 minutes long, just spending 5 minutes with this work can give you the gist. In it, an exact replica of a McDonald’s slowly fills with water. Sounds of gurgling and rising water complement simple yet potent images of fries floating, a Ronald McDonald statue toppling, and cash registers shorting out. This work is an examination of the “consequences of consumerism.” The other two works are also worth a peek.

Nari Ward, Sick Smoke

Nari Ward at Lehmann Maupin is worth a visit as well. This is Ward’s first solo exhibition at the gallery and it includes sculpture, works on paper, and video works. As the press release explains Ward is interested in the “idea of support—physical, spiritual, social, and judicial–while introducing contemplation of everyday objects.” As one enters the gallery he is confronted with Sick Smoke an ambulance filled with smoke whose black lettering is obscured with white vinyl.

Nari Ward, Riot Gates

Ward also has large scale x-ray images of the human skull surrounded by shoe tips (which often represent the human body in the artist’s work). On March 6th at 1:30 there will be an exhibition walk-through with the artist and the Assistant Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Ken Price, 2009

The Ken Price show at Matthew Marks is brilliant. All of the works on view are from 2009. The main gallery has three larger-scale works which are relatively new for him. The other three galleries house his smaller works. The first time I was introduced to Price’s work, I did not like it. Now, however, I am able to appreciate the hand-finished process of layers and layers of paint sanded to give the complex and smooth surface to each of his works.

Ken Price, detail

I really find his work, made of painted bronze composite, sensual and stunning.

Jay DeFeo, Untitled, 1973, Gelatin Silver print

Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery has a wonderful show of works on paper and photographs by the late California artist Jay Defeo. The works are delicate and intricate requiring close viewing. The works in the main gallery by Mitzi Pederson are a lovely complement to DeFeo’s works. Pederson’s sculptures are made up of fragile materials but the composite of them create energetic and powerful pieces.

Calder at Gagosian

Calder installation view

In one Gagosian space in Chelsea there are monumental sculptures from the 1960s on view, in the other there are five David Smith works. He sure does know how to fill a gallery with amazing works and pull out the big guns.

El Anatsui installation view

I have written about El Anatsui many times before. I am enamored by his work. Jack Shainman continues his excellent program with an Anatsui show. The gallery fills with yellows, blacks, reds and gold.

Sterling Ruby at Pace Wildenstein

Sterling Ruby has created two large-scale works for Pace’s 22nd Street space. One is a hollowed out and reconfigured bus with individual locked cages replacing the normal bus seating. In the back is an area filled with subwoofers. I am still trying to figure out exactly what these works were all about but they are interesting to see.

Mike Norton at 303

Mike Norton at 303 has his first solo show with the gallery which consists of four trailers connected together filling the enormous space. The viewer is invited to enter the space where knicknacks and various items such as cigarette butts are left making the space look recently occupied. It reminded me of Hello Meth Lab in the Sun by Jonah Freeman, Justin Lowe and Alexandre Singh on view at both Ballroom Marfa in 2008 and Jeffrey Deitch last year.

interior view

But that work had more power and the element of surprise and shock where this simply seemed a bit hollow. I wasn’t quite sure what message the piece was trying to convey.

Installation view, Size DOES Matter, FLAG Art Foundation

“Size DOES Matter” at The FLAG Art Foundation is a heavily marketed show. The fact that it was curated by Shaquille O’Neal only adds to the hype. Most people probably don’t think of Shaq as an art expert. In fact, his interests are quite varied and he has been successful in many endeavors outside of basketball. But it is a bit of stretch to say he “curated” this show. He was shown a variety of works by the heads of the FLAG, and he selected the ones that spoke to him. As a bit of a freak of nature standing at 7′1″ and weighing 320 pounds, size has always mattered to Shaq and the works he selected speak to that. While there are some great works on view by excellent artists, the show feels disjointed and did not speak to me as a cohesive concept.

Anselm Kiefer, Untitled Young Mao

There was a beautiful Anselm Kiefer called Untitled, Young Mao from 2000,

Robert Thierrien

a Robert Thierrien No Title (Table and Six Chairs) from 2003 and works by Hawkinson, Koons, and Kehinde Wiley as well as many others.

No need to worry, you have until May 30th to go check out the 75th incarnation (sans theme) of the Whitney Museum’s signature exhibition. Curated by Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Muravari, the layout of the show is very viewer friendly; it is a very manageable show with a strong selection of artists–and female artists are heavily represented finally. With fewer artists selected for this year’s show, one is able to digest the work on view without being overwhelmed and that is refreshing. The one thing that I did find a bit annoying was the bulk of video work on the 3rd floor. After awhile, one gets numb to too much video so to put it all on one floor was a bit too much for this viewer. I will say that now that I have found my favorite works in the show, I will definitely be making a return visit in order to take more time with them. Overall it is a very enjoyable biennial.

Highlights for me:

Bruce High Quality Foundation, We Like America and America Likes Us, 2010

Bruce High Quality Foundation’s “We Like America and America Likes Us” is a cool piece found on the fourth floor. A voiceover plays in a loop commenting on society while images from pop culture are projected onto the windshield of a white ambulance/hearse with glaring lights. Thought provoking.

Tauba Auerbach was born in San Francisco but lives in NYC. She manipulates largescale pieces of raw canvas by folding or rolling them. After flattening them she paints with industrial spray paint creating a tromp l’oeil effect. I had to actually go up to the canvas and look at it from the side to prove to myself that the work was indeed two-dimensional. On view are three paintings that fill one wall of the gallery in shades of salmon, maroon, and purple.

Lesley Vance, Untitled (12), 2009, oil on linen

Lesley Vance works in Los Angeles. Her abstract paintings are based on the still life tradition. Her process involves arranging a still life, photographing it and using those as the basis for her abstract paintings. She manipulates the paint with a palette knife creating compositions in which very little is recognizable but they somehow, “retain the intimacy and refinement of a traditional still life.”

Pae White, Untitled, 2010

On the third floor I enjoyed Pae White’s tapestry that fills the entryway. She creates works that manifest themselves as, “cotton’s dream of becoming something other than itself.”

Kate Gilmore, Still from Standing Here, 2010

I liked the work by Kate Gilmore that explores issues of female identity and displacement. She builds environments and then documents her attempts to conquer the obstacles they present. In high heels and a polka dot dress she attempts to climb out of a sheetrock box. This box is on display in the gallery in which the video is shown. Gilmore had another work on view at the Brooklyn Museum with a similar theme that I enjoyed and wrote about in a previous blog. Certainly a name to watch.

Rashaad Newsome is fascinated with the dance craze from the early 90s–voguing. In this work, he separates it from the cultural and historical background of its rise from underground clubs to pop culture by removing all sound and context from the viewer. In a color video a dancer moves throughout the space on a wooden floor against a white wall. Newsome sees the work as abstracted movements, not a dance performance. “I view these videos as drawings, with the dancers acting as my pen.”

Josephine Meckseper, Mall of America, 2009, video

Jospehine Meckseper’s “Mall of America” is a very interesting video work. She uses documentary footage from shop windows and rides at the Mall of America in Minneapolis and manipulates it by using red and blue filters and adding haunting music. This manipulation results in an abstraction of the known entity into a “hostile, dangerous place.”

Roland Flexner, Untitled, 2008-9, sumi ink on paper

Probably one of my favorite works is by Roland Flexner, an artist from France who lives and works in NYC. “Untitled” 2008-2009 consists of 30 sumi ink on paper drawings. The process is one used by Japanese decorative artists in which paper is laid upon the top of ink floating in water which creates a marbled effect. Flexner alters the composition further by tilting, blowing or blotting the moment before the ink is absorbed by the paper thus creating abstract compositions that often look like fantastical landscapes. I love these images.

Storm Tharp, Jodie Jill, 2009, ink, gouache, and colored pencil on paper

On the second floor I enjoyed works by Storm Tharp. He draws contours for characters on paper using water and adds mineral ink before it has a chance to dry which causes the ink to bleed creating uncertain forms and shapes. He fills in the missing pieces using paint, colored pencil, erasers, etc. He creates detailed narratives of the characters he creates including names and histories. The works are really interesting.

Aurel Schmidt, Master of the Universe: FlexMaster 3000, 2010

Aurel Schmidt is an amazing draftsman. Her intricately detailed drawings are beautiful, however, her subject matter is often ugly. This work includes flies, condoms, beer cans, and cigarette butts which all add up to a representation of a Minotaur. She questions conventions of beauty in her work and the “cyclical process of renewal and decay.”

Dawn Clements, Mrs. Jessica Drummond's, 2010

Dawn Clements has a remarkable large-scale ballpoint pen drawing on view of an interior scene. Her work is always created from real life scenes or from movies from the 1940s or 1950s, but she draws on separate sheets of paper and then combines them altogether to create what appear to be seamless but upon closer examination, are often unnatural looking environments.

Self-Portrait with Straw Hat, 1887, oil on pasteboard, courtesy of the Van Gogh Museum

I wish I had not been so jet lagged and sleep deprived for my visit to this museum which has been on my to do list for at least the past 17 years. But what a tremendous opportunity to see Van Gogh’s work in such breadth!

The Potato Eaters, 1885; Oil on canvas, 81.5 x 114.5 cm; Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam

From his earliest work like The Potato Eaters to his many self-portraits, his sunflowers painted while in Arles, his landscapes from San Remy to his last works from Auvers–there is so much to see. I enjoyed seeing the studies for some of his better-known works. Wish I had had more time to soak it all in and digest it properly. I will definitely return on my next visit to Amsterdam. This is a museum you can’t afford to miss!

Sunflowers, 1889, oil on canvas, 95 x 73 cm, Courtesy of Van Gogh Museum

If you have any sort of passing interest in the work of Domenikos Theotokopoulos, better known by his nickname, El Greco, this interesting exhibition on view at the Onassis Cultural Center through February 27th is worth a quick visit. The show “explores the artistic context from which El Greco emerged and displays the various eways in which he and his Cretan antecedents and contemporaries responded to visual influences from other parts of Europe.” While predominantly creating works in a Byzantine style, they also added elements of Late Gothic as well as Venetian painters as a result of the multiculturalness of Cretan society. El Greco was highly influenced by the Byzantine tradition but surprisingly, also influenced by Italian Mannerism as well as Venetian masters such as Titian and Tintoretto.

Self-portrait with Half-Beard, 1943, Gelatin silver print, 7 1/8 x 5 1/8 inches

A quintessential modernist, Man Ray recast the concept of artistic identity by working as a painter, photographer, sculptor, printmaker, filmmaker, poet, and essayist. He utilized techniques not normally associated with fine art: airbrushing paintings, exposing objects on light-sensitive paper to create “rayographs.” Looking back in history, his fame as a photographer overshadowed his accomplishments as a painter. Born Emmanuel Radnitzky he wanted to escape the limitations of his Russian Jewish immigrant past. He moved to Paris in 1921 and was the only American living among the European avant-garde. He created a public persona that assisted him in his desire to gain notoriety while also shrouding himself in oblivion. While living in Paris he photographed other artists to make money as he could not survive on his own painting.

It was wonderful to see the scope of his work (The Jewish Museum curators do an amazing job with their manageable and well-executed shows). In 1913, Ray attended the Armory Show in NY and it had a profound effect on him. He did not create art for 6 months because, he claimed, it took him that long to digest what he had seen. Early paintings on view include a Madonna, a work called Man Ray 1914, and works from his “Revolving Door Series” from 1916-17. Man Ray 1914 was painted at the time he had met the Belgian avant-garde poet Adon Lacroix who introduced him to a new set of artists and ideas. It was also at this time that he moved to an artists’ colony in Ridgefield, New Jersey.Though small, this painting is hugely important as it marks a shift for Ray in which he moves into creating works that are drastically different than his American peers. There are Cubist elements to the work, but the letters M-A-N  R-A-Y are clearly written in the center of the composition filled with pinks, blues, yellows, and grays.

Revolving Doors is made up of collage elements and stamps in earth tones of red, oranges, sepia, and taupe and these are lovely intimate works. In 1926 he created the works as a series of prints and in the 1940s as oil paintings.

Moving Sculpture, 1920

An interesting pairing of works is a painting called Flying Dutchman from 1920 hanging next to a photograph called, Moving Sculpture also from 1920. In the black and white photograph, sheets hang from clotheslines blowing in the wind. The colorful painting transforms the sheets to abstracted white forms (clearly based on the photo but without which the viewer could not recognize that they are actual objects).

Interior, 1918

In Interior Ray challenges the notion of conventional painting technique by using airbrushing. The work is a stylized depiction of his studio including his early Madonna painting in the background as well as a dressmaker’s dummy which is a nod to his father, a tailor.

In 1921, by moving to Paris Man Ray was welcomed by Dadaists and embraced by Surrealists but never officially aligned himself with either group. By the 1930s he was very successful as a commercial photographer which few artists did at that time. His photos graced the pages of Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines and this was how he earned a living. As Man Ray in his own words expressed his photos, “deform the subject as almost to hide the identity of the original, and create a new form.” He cropped, used multiple exposures, and created rayographs in which he placed objects on a sheet of paper and turned on the light. Shadowy forms appeared and everyday objects were rendered mysterious and ambiguous in form. Ray liked them because they offered a more direct relationship to subjects than traditional photography. They almost look like x-rays but instead of seeing more, things are made less clear. I love the small photo Self-Portrait in His Studio at 31 bis rue Campagne Premiere, Paris from 1925. The viewer sees Ray, his image a bit blurred due to his movement at the time of exposure, but every detail of his studio is crisp and clear–paintings, camera, staircase, hat, rug. It is a view into his most personal world.

Stills from Le retour a la raison

Le retour a la raison is a black and white 2 minute silent film from 1923, Ray’s first. He does not use a movie camera to create the work but cut unused film into strips, sprinkling it with salt and pepper, pins, thumbtacks, and developing it as a rayograph. It outraged viewers at the time but it is a mesmerizing and titillating piece of moving abstracted forms.

Anatomies, 1929

Anatomies from 1929 captures a woman’s neck as she leans back. Her chin becomes the top of the composition, a shaded line runs down her throat to her clavicle. It is abstracted but recognizable. It is sensual and erotic but also graceful and stunningly simplistic.

In Hier (part of a photo collage triptych) from 1931, Kiki de Montparnasse (a lover and muse of Man Ray’s) is the model. The small colored circles that are placed in strategic places on her  body remind me of John Baldessari’s circles that cover the faces of found film stills in some of his work.

Gertrude Stein portrait

There is a wall of portraits that Ray took in the show that is wonderful. It includes images of Gertrude Stein (siting in front of Picasso’s painted portrait of her), Marcel Duchamp, Lee Miller, and Andre Breton to name a few.

La Fortune, 1938

By June 1940, Ray had fled to the United States and moved to Hollywood to get as far away as he could from NYC. At this time due to what was happening in Europe, Ray had to face his Jewishness and felt exposed during this time of his life which was very uncomfortable for him. This manifests itself in his paintings from this period. La Fortune from 1938 shows a massive billiard table on an awkward slant surrounded by storm clouds in primary colors.

Winter, 1944

Winter from 1944 was inspired by an Italian Renaissance master and by making a figure from other things, he was able to hide on some level. Masks were a common subject for Ray during the 1940s. At the end of his career he returned to perspectival drawings that he had done at the very beginning of his schooling.

Ray said, “Anybody who does creative arts is a sacred person.” This show on view until March 14th highlights his contributions to art history and his sacredness.

Damien Hirst, detail from Judgment Day, 2009, Gold plated, glass, manufactured diamonds

“End of an Era” is a show of works by Damien Hirst at Gagosian Gallery on Madison Avenue (on view through March 6th); it highlights recent paintings of jewels done by Hirst as well as a “blinged out” gold-plated shelf lined with fake diamonds entitled Judgment Day (a la his Pharmacy series in which did the same thing with pills). In the center of the main gallery is a severed cow’s head with gold horns and a golden disc. A smaller gallery has four works from “The Golden Jubilee” series on view with gems in four colors (white, green, red, and blue). In some ways these look like works you could get at a bad art fair, yet there is also something pretty about them. The surface that the gems rest on remind me a bit of Ben Weiner’s hair gel and pearl works (no offense Ben, your surfaces are much richer and sumptuous). That surface is what interests me about these works. However, I prefer the simpler paintings of multi-faceted diamonds against a stark black background on view in the main gallery to “The Golden Jubilee” works.

De Beers, 2007, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

In fact, The Centenary and De Beers are actually quite beautiful. It is interesting that Hirst picks diamonds, a universal symbol of wealth and excess, to showcase at a time when the world, and America in particualr is still reeling from economic turmoil.

Damien Hirst, End of an Era, 2009, Bull’s head, gold, glass and formaldehyde solution with a Carrara marble plinth

End of an Era is the piece de resistance in the center of the room. With its gold horns and circular disc upon its head the work is decadent. If you walk around the work, however, you can see the innards of the cow’s head. The fur is so soft looking you wan tto reach out and touch it. Looking closely, the cow’s tongue sticks out of the side of its mouth almost in jest as if to make fun of art and the people who buy into the fame, glitz, and glamor so often associated with it.

Don’t neglect to head down to the fifth floor to see a bright blue and glossy red triangular butterfly works by Hirst; a Lichtenstein frieze painting; a Richard Prince car hood and a Walter de Maria work from the “Large Rod Series” of 1986.

Wolfgang Tillmans at Andrea Rosen Gallery is on view through March 13th. This is a terrific show that captures basic moments of human existence and everyday objects as subject matter, but somehow Tillmans manages to transform the banal into the magnificent. As the press release states pictures are all around us but we are so inundated with imagery that we do not often take the time to really look at anything. “Art suggests that when we do that we deny ourselves both knowledge and pleasure.” So true. And it is this careful looking that Tillmans wants to renew in us. There is an immediacy to the works due to the fact that they are printed in three different sizes, unframed– hung on binder clips all over the gallery walls. Unlike Hirst, Tillmans is not showing a glamorous world but a world of truth that some of us never bother to see, to stop and notice. The art critic Jerry Saltz was there when I went to see the show. It will be interesting to hear his take on the work.

CLC1100, 2007, c-print

Highlights for me are: CLC1100, a photograph of a copy machine in the process of copying. The light has a majestic presence which is most likely enhanced by the fact that the work is hung quite high on the wall. It is simple and true and doesn’t pretend to be anything else other than a copy machine. still life (Moscow/Berlin), a small 12 x 16 inch work that captures a bright red color which captivates, and Yunxiu Nunnery which demonstrates that Tillmans is not just a wonderful photographer of people and scenes but also nature–one of the only black and white images in the show–it is a simple leaf with a drop of water but at 77 x 53 inches, it packs a punch.

Yunxiu Nunnery, 2009, c-print

Met Blue, 2010, inkjet print mounted on aluminum, 30 x 30 inches

A small show of photographs by Joe Pflieger at Monya Rowe Gallery is a treasure. I continue to be impressed by the works shown here; they have consistently solid shows. The jpegs do not do the works justice at all; they must be seen in person in my opinion.

Philly Grid, 2010, 18 x 27 inches

The photos are of rooms of historically accurate reconstructions of interiors taken in museums in St. Petersburg, New York, Venice, etc. and are very reasonably priced.

Philly Candle, 2010, 18 x 27 inches

Each photo, taken digitally but not at all altered, has a matte surface which gives the work a painterly quality. As the press release explains, he references the period of Romanticism in his work. “The composition and dark hues suggest a quiet, reflective and mysterious tone.” He utilizes light, mirrors, windows and doors to create his effects.

Leonardo Drew, Number 127, wood and mixed media

Leonardo Drew at Sikkema Jenkins was an exhibition I had not heard any hype about. So, as I was making my way through Chelsea on a frigid Saturday afternoon, I was pleased to step into his world. I was familiar with his smaller works most often encased in acrylic boxes that I have seen at art fairs over the years, but this show is filled with enormous works spanning the length and height of the gallery walls. In Number 127 the wood reaches out to the viewer, exploding into our space but also reaching up and away towards the ceiling. Flat panels of burned board are carefully arranged in patterns juxtaposed with twigs and limbs that appear freshly plucked from trees creating a dynamic composition.

Number 134, 2009, wood and mixed media

There are elements of Louise Nevelson’s influence in some works such as Number 134 which appears to be a mixture of burned wood and found wooden scraps. The striking ebony color grabs the viewer immediately upon entering the gallery space.

Number 136, wood and mixed media

Number 136 is reminiscent of an Allan McCollum work with the repetition of black abstract shapes set in uniformly-sized white frames. This show is a nice break from the same old same old of Chelsea.

Installation shot

Eero Saarinen had architecture in his blood. He collaborated with his father, a famous architect in his own right, in the 1930s and 1940s and that helped Eero develop a name for himself. Not only was he one of the most celebrated architects of his time but he had his share of controversy as well. Rising to prominence after WWII he is most famous for the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the TWA terminal at JFK in New York. Most of the work he created was for the Midwest, but he did have some major projects in NY such as a pavilion he designed for the 1939/40 New York World’s Fair, CBS’s corporate headquarters in midtown, a theater in Lincoln Center, and furniture that he designed which was included in a competition at MoMA. Through various periodicals such as Vogue and The New York Times, he attained celebrity status. He died at age 51 in 1961 but left behind a tremendous body of work that “represented the ascendance of American culture and optimism after WWII.”

model of CBS building, midtown Manhattn

He was a world traveler studying sculpture in Paris at 19 and traveling to Europe, Egypt, and Mexico to study the great monuments of architectural history. He earned his BFA fro Yale in three short years and served in the military during World War II. From 1960-65 he worked on the CBS building, the first reinforced-concrete skyscraper in NY at that time. One of his most famous ideas was that of a “corporate campus.” The idea that a business could be set up much like a country estate or a college campus helped with his belief that an architect had an ability to create a company’s image–help develop their branding. One example of one of these “compounds” can be found in Warren, Michigan at the General Motors Technical Center built from 1948-1956. Another was the Time, Inc. office designed for Rye, NY but never built. It was essentially a skyscraper laid on its side and spread out into the surrounding environs.

chairs designed by Eero Saarinen

An example of the breadth of scope of buildings he worked on was the design of the Cow Island School in Winnetka, Illinois. The school, based on the ideas of the educational philosopher John Dewey, had 12 classrooms, each functioning as its own independent one-room schoolhouse. In his teens Saarinen designed furniture for Cranbrook Academy, but it was not until 1940 when he and Charles Eames won prizes in MoMA’s competition for home furnishings design that his work became known. His “womb chair” is an icon of postwar design as is the “pedestal series” he created with Knoll in 1954. His Bloomfield Hills office was abuzz with activity 24/7 and there is a great deal to show for all of his efforts.

Unfortunately this show has ended, however, I do encourage you to go the often-neglected but never disappointing Museum of the City of New York. It’s on Fifth Avenue at 105th (not that far away).