Emilio Perez, a native New Yorker and former Pratt Student, is had his first solo show with Galerie Lelong (
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Emilio Perez: Where Wild Style Graffiti and Fine Art Meet
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Richard Serra: Forty Years
The
His early work such as Belts (1966-67) is reminiscent of Bruce Nauman’s “dude ranch dada” with his use of neon tube lighting and vulcanized rubber formed into hanging saddle-like structures. The neon imitates the forms of the saddle shapes, but is somehow opposite as if it was meant to reflect the outside contours of a horse rider. The rubber at first appears to be large strips of leather in various earth tones. Upon reading the plaque, one discovers that the material is in fact rubber. Other early works like Equal Parallel: Guernica - Bengasi (1986) resonate with the minimalist work of Donald Judd with his use of democratic, compositional hierarchy of forms. Serra’s title however, compares the grievances and suffering of Picasso’s
While Richard Serra is a very important artist in the 21st century, he has not always been favored by female artists in the art community. He embodies phallic, oversized sculptures teetering on the obscene. This oversized work insinuates many negative stereotypes of male artists from his generation. He has been recognized as a great artist while female sculptors such as Petah Coyne have gone unnoticed until recently. One has to take this into consideration when attending a forty year retrospective at the MOMA, but Serra has some new work that produces the exact experience he is attempting to create between the work and the viewer. That is something very difficult for an artist to achieve, and in his own right he deserves the recognition that he gets.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Neo Rauch at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Neo Rauch was born in
Para is a woman who has given birth to a number of children, or the children themselves. Rauch has specifically created all new paintings for this space, as if the title para references him in this act; the act of creation, of something like a child. The show in another setting may not have been as well received, but in the
Neo Rauch’s new works are successful because of his use of transitional space, but also because he successfully references his culture while still managing to freak out the viewer a bit. It is appreciating to see rendered works that don’t have to be taken too seriously, yet can be contemplated as dialogue of contemporary German culture and their mix-match themes that Americans can so well relate to.
Monday, May 21, 2007
The Shape of Space
The Shape of Space currently on view at the
The Guggenheim Guide briefs the visitor on the theme and some of the artworks currently on view. It references the historical artistic endeavor to portray space through cubism, linear perspective, and minimalism. The first work to stand out is Sarah Morris’s
All of the artists chosen visually deal with geometry and space but what is most interesting is not the works chosen, or the curatorial theme developed by the institution, but how it references contemporary art trends. It is urban, architectural, contest capitalism and is old, yet somehow new and fits in
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Niels van Eijk- Bobbin Lace
Domestic lighting; post B. Franklin connotes a filament surrounded by sensitive, heat-conducting glass. Niels van Eijk the Dutch artist hailing from the Netherlands is renown for their woven lighting systems, which are unquestionably spectacular. The clean seemingly simple design is highly loaded with subtext.
Plait from Fiber optics and trace meal wire the Bobbin Lace Lamp is composed of five main elements. A brief dense twist of fibers extruding from the ceiling, immediately following, a conical pan of fibers assembling a circle parallel to the ground; I aptly suspect there are exactly three-hundred-sixty-five fibers protruding from the dense braid aligning so properly to said circle. Nearly four feet of expanding knot-work connect the first ring to another nearly two hundred percent its own size.
The seemingly simple design is now creating problems in which it solves; the material handling has clearly been manipulated to appear as if it is not obeying the fundamental laws of gravity. A tighter stitch towards the center creates elegant, arabesque curvature through the visual experience thus far. Obeying gravity blindly now, the lower circle lures the viewer (with striking resemblance to methods adapted by cave glowworms). Long, thin, glowing, shiny, shimmering, delicate strands hang freely from said ring; each varying slightly in length.
Other dominant variables in the work include but are not limited to the scale of the rings parallel to the floor and the negative space created by the dynamic handling of the material; the negative space fills the object with solidity through a highly sophisticated activation of the physical space it occupies. The inescapable fact that the object at hand is radiating commands the attention not only of the viewer but the space surrounding it (again a highly sophisticated method of activation, although basic is very well considered by the artist.)
The object’s radiance and gesture also transcribes a figure, actually quite strongly, incorporates a sense of gravity, scale, and a voluptuous sensory experience. The figure is quite feminine, elegant, and curvaceous. The artist elevates the subject to a dominating position, scaled noticeably larger than life-size at nine feet, ten inches (not to mention it is literally higher than the viewer). This full body portrait is complete without all of the traditional elements however, there are no appendages (i.e. arms, legs, head)!
The fixed article holding the gesture is related to a simple, traditional dress design. A strong dialectical problem however, its glowing, and it would not be anywhere near the modest adornment it claims to be at a glance. Positioned in such a manner that one cannot walk under, to look directly up into the work, it cannot be exposed. One sees what is present but cannot experience it in any other manner than what seems to be the artists intention; again emphasizing the dominance of the subject over the viewer.
The work appears the same from every angle, it emits spherical references; one cannot help but to make the connection between Bobbin Lace Lamp (keeping in mind it is emitting photons, and radiating heat) and the Sun. The artist has now accurately presented the sun at static and transformed the viewer into a revolving planetary system, again accurately, sustaining life, and obeying the act of revolutions. The connection could be further drawn to include the dialectical conversation between women and the sun, articulating the life-granting prowess of the sun in conjunction with the act of internal child development endowed by solely women. The sun is arguably the entity within our entire galaxy that we as Earth inhabitants are most dependent upon (grass is the primary food source for more animalia than any other); we as humans are arguably most directly dependent upon women if for no other reason than the action of childbirth.
The clear curatorial goals include illustrating a severe dialectic; namely one involved with a domestic craft, specifically string-work whether it be laced, tied, sewn, rubber, cut metal with an oxyacetylene torch or even fiber-optic. The defining element tying these works together is that the subjects at hand are antithetical to the traditional use and understanding of the their placement within society, culture, and our personal experiences. Clearly, this work was exceptionally chosen as it stands to be the defining work in the show; most illustrating the intent of the curator behind the grouping of the works chosen. Two major themes expressed by the curators within the catalogue are involved with light and scale, in the presented terms, there is no work in my mind that rivals Bobbin Lace Lamp in consideration of scale and lightness.
Written by Trevor Freedland
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Wangechi Mutu at the Brooklyn Museum
Walking into the
This gives way to the many curatorial errors in how the show was set-up surrounding Ms. Mutu’s work. To the left and right of her installed wall, there was Tracy Rose’s Venus Baartman, 2001, and Bemi Searle’s Girl from the colour me, 1999. These works were important pieces of modern feminist work from
Embedded in the installation, the wall appears to have these jewel-like pearlescent forms, which may or may not have been intended to also be seen as acne. This duality comes from her use of the pearlescent forms coming out of reddish sores on the wall which may represent something positive emerging from the grotesque or the grotesque could at any time consume the jewel-like pearls. In contrast to the violent imagery on the mylar panels, these precious scars jut out of the surface making the entire wall feel like a spongy organic wall-being. The mylar panels portray a pictorial scene, making the entire installation reference an internal and external perspective.
Next to the piece, the placard describes Mutu’s materials used, and a quote: “I think a Revolution dies when somehow it is deemed to have completed its work… Feminism in all its various iterations has permeated only certain very privileged classes and sections of women’s lives worldwide… and only succeeds when it transcends, mutates, and empowers every section of our personal, social, economic and political lives”.… giving more meaning to the work at hand. It is unclear if this statement was made in reference to the work, or if it was applied to the work as a well rounded perspective on the artist view on Feminism. I feel that the particular imagery in the installation directly relates to the quote. In that context, the imagery and meaning of the work became more encompassing and well-rounded.
The cutout imagery consists of women’s legs, skulls, machine parts, and a chimpanzee. The machine parts are attached to the larger, goddess-like figure on the right who seems to be simultaneously emitting and dismantling the leg and skull figures. Above this ball of collected bleeding and diseased imagery, there is a chimpanzee with a saint-like halo, giving a similar hand gesture to the blessing of Christ. The ball also has stick-like star shapes which allude to a 3-dimensional, geometric object made of thorns. Below there are long natural grass stands that give an outdoor setting to the floating, thorny ball and the goddess-like figure. It is important to mention that none of Mutu’s chosen images or painted areas are attractive, but they are so beautifully, technically executed it makes the installation a very vibrant section to the entire Global Feminism show. Because the machine parts are attached to the main figure and the diseased, bleeding, grotesque images are coming out of the breast or armpit of the figure, the piece seems to be an internal and external struggle of the standards of beauty; As if, the figure is ridding themselves of these vile concepts, but can’t really get away from them at the same time. This is a blessed process, by a monkey- one that seems comical but ominously serious.
I feel that this piece was particularly meaningful to me because as a feminist woman, I feel the same internal struggle of contemporary beauty standards and what I should and should not be doing as an independent woman. To me, the monkey could represent the socially sanctioned media, where it gets to deem what sorts of things are attractive. Mutu represents these things as painful and negative which only lead to a personal infestation of what women want. It is something that all women deal with, but some get sucked into the easier, thornier web of social trends. Women want to feel attractive and emotionally valid, but what we really need as women is to create our own personal standards- not allowing it get inside and taint ourselves.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Intentions of a blogger
Finding myself on Saatchi's website- http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk, I ran into some new artists that I found particularly interesting in regards to the type of work that I have been resonating with lately. I would like to pass their fascinating sense of energy and strangeness along to you. In order, Alisa Margolis, Michael Bauer, and Jacqueline Humphries.
What I would like to know, is why this type of work is not being shown in Chelsea? As a student, as an artist, and as someone involved in the professional art world, I find Chelsea to be particularly mis-representational of the work that I have seen in emerging artists. I guess this is what has prompted me to start this blog in the first place. Every good artist needs to be a critic , but not every critic is an artist. My intention for this is not to be a space for my personal rants or an allegorically, sexually transmitted disease. It is instead a place to infect the community with a new artistic perspective and to get people talking. Not to mention, STD's are a major social issue, but I have some weird sexual perversion that I love to include in anything that I find passionate. Throughout this process, I hope to have other artists and critics contributing and conversing over new art today.
If you are interested in posting an art critique to this blog, please contact me and I will review your submission. Happy STD'ing.