KQED Gallery Crawl:CCA 2008 MFA Show
See my interview!
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Selections from New American Paintings Book #73 2007 Pacific Coast Edition dba256 Gallery, Pomona, CA December 8, 2007 - February 2, 2008 |
Below is an essay from New American Paintings Book #73.
Principal Juror – Alma Ruiz Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles
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I have noticed that in recent years there has been an
increase in artists who paint. Not that the act of
painting was heading towards extinction, but for a
while it seemed that artists who were interested in the
medium were doubting themselves, or perhaps more
likely, were doubtful of their ability to sustain a
career as painters at a time when collectors, curators
and gallerists were seemingly more interested in other
media. Photo-based work, installations, video, digital
work and the emergence of drawing as an independent
form-as the spotlight has shone on each of these,
painting seemed to become less appealing. Painting was
acceptable as long as it was done by artists with a
proven trajectory such as Gerhard Richter, Sigmar
Polke, Bridget Riley, John Currin or Lari Pittman, to
name a few. Young, emerging artists had a tougher time.
However, in a world of changing tastes, this is true no
more.
Judging by recent museum exhibitions and gallery shows, West Coast artists are openly expressing a strong interest in painting, and the results could not be more encouraging. Rejecting East Coast sensibilities and moving away from conceptual art, artists are embracing painting and a wide array of subjects ranging from abstract to figurative (including portraiture) to landscape (both rural and urban) to traditional (historical and still life). This is evident in the broadly divergent works that were selected to be featured in this magazine. As a curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, I recently organized the exhibition “MOCA Focus: Alexandra Grant.” A local painter, Grant created five large “drawing-paintings” in which text, drawing, and painting come together in a harmonious integration of shapes, colors and textures. Grant’s unwavering confidence in her chosen medium echoes the attitude of many of today’s West Coast painters, among them Sandow Birk, who stuck to painting even when it wasn’t the sexiest thing to do. Birk has become well known for his large pseudo-historical paintings depicting contemporary American themes. Sharing a similar interest in art historical painting, Eric Wert and Sherri Wolf both seem to delight in the straightforward representation of contemporary versions of Dutch still-life painting. Wolf, in particular, demonstrates her ease with different painting styles by contrasting the fluid brush strokes of her mythological scenes with the crispness of the fruits and flowers found in her still lifes. Portraiture in a landscape or urban setting appears frequently in contemporary painting: for example, the adolescent girls sitting or standing around a pool, as seen by Deborah Hamon, or Marci Washington’s depiction of a lifeless young woman, dressed in a white nightgown, who floats in a pond. Autobiographical references are found in the work of Ana Teresa Fernández, who portrays herself in situations such as striking a sexy pose on top of an ironing board. Aron Wiesenfeld’s haunting portrait of a beautiful girl in a hoodie and short skirt is exquisitely rendered in monochromatic tones. She stands in the foreground of an austere landscape, her lost gaze, directed towards an indeterminate point outside of the painting’s frame, adding to the tension evoked by the dark gray hues. A decidedly male point of view is expressed by Danny Keith’s paintings of young men standing by a river. Beautifully executed, these works harken back to a postimpressionist painting style, yet feel very contemporary. The suburban landscape is present in works by Danny Heller and Scott Foldesi. Jeffrey Gillette’s landscape of shantytowns on the outskirts of cities in southern California and Asia and Wendy Heldmann’s depiction of a house in the aftermath of a natural disaster resemble images that have become commonplace on TV and in newspapers, while Amy Bird’s and Will Noble’s respective views of woods and rivers, seem to represent a longing for a simpler time. Setting themselves apart from this kind of interpretation are Don Scott Macdonald's semiabstract landscapes. The artist’s murky palette of blacks and browns is very effective in creating the sensation of speed-it is as if one were looking out the window of a speeding automobile. While abstraction seems to be outnumbered by representation, a most interesting effect occurs when painting hovers between the two modes. Among the most interesting examples of this hybrid style are the thickly layered works of Ali Smith, the large semi-architectonic compositions of Sarah Cain and Iva Gueorguieva’s sumptuous landscapes. Tara Tucker, Jessica Bagley and Timothy Anderson submitted works that fall into the category of works on paper. Because New American Paintings’ primary emphasis is on painting, these works may initially seem out of place here, but because of their artistic merit, they deserve a mention: Tucker’s carefully detailed and exquisitely executed drawings are in the style of Albrecht Dürer; Anderson’s subject matter, surrealistic in nature, exhibits an appealing horror vacui; and Bagley’s pen-and-watercolor works tend to reflect more contemporary issues. Totally outside of the competition’s parameter is Chris Natrop, whose entry consists of a room-size installation made with white tape on cut white paper, thread and nylon netting. It is encouraging to see that young artists continue to choose the West Coast as a place to develop their careers. In Los Angeles, the various art schools and availability of affordable studio space have contributed to this phenomenon. More generally, all along the Pacific Coast artists no longer feel they have to be validated by the New York art market, especially now that art fairs have usurped its primacy. It is more important for artists to be represented by galleries that routinely participate in international art fairs than to be with those that continue to rely on more traditional sales techniques. In addition, a place to think and be productive, at a pace that suits the individual, is often more precious than being in the middle of an art scene where how the artist looks or what he or she is wearing has become a hallmark of success. After all, it is the art-not its creator-that should capture our attention. |
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I am featured in the Pacific Coast Edition of New American Painting.
http://www.newamericanpaintings.com/
Walls of Glory: Eagle!!
December 12, 2007
For one night only the three bathrooms at one of San Francisco’s all time favorite leather bars were multipurposed into mini fine art galleries. “Walls of Glory,” a temporary, site-specific installation at The Eagle Tavern (398 12th Street at Harrison) debuted and closed at the joint on Wednesday December 12th, from 7 to 10 p.m. Curated by CCA (California College of the Arts) graduate student Luke Butler, the show featured works by 18 artists. Butler’s idea for the show came from his desire to stage an exhibition in an undesirable location, the complete opposite of a gallery’s white, pristine walls. He also wanted to bring artworks to a place everyone eventually has to go to, one of the great equalizers of humanity is indeed the toilet. After much convincing, skeptical Eagle bartender “Doug” agreed to let Butler stage the event, however the show was kept to it’s brief viewing hours due to potential environmental hazards. But some work was designed just to handle the rough environment. Take Eric Scollon’s series of tiny porcelain figurines of nude men lewdly posing in the urinals, all begging to be pissed on, and pissed on they were. Jason Kalogiros’ sneaky and rusty tin tea box sat on a shelf above another urinal, with its image of King Edward sporting a black bar of tape over the monarch’s eyes. The object is actually a pinhole camera, and removing the tape let’s Edward get a peek and take an image of the visitors to the loo. Danny Keith’s paintings of guys wrestling in the mud shared stall wall space with Travis Meinolf’s homey embroidered motto piece, while a photograph by Larry Sultan adorned one wall across from a sink sporting Elisheva Biernoff’s specially molded hand soap in the shape of a nude male reclining on a bed. One unfortunate consequence of this fun, but risky installation came just an hour or so before the official opening time – when a painting of Queen Elizabeth – hung just over one of the toilets was stolen. The artist, Christina Empedocles realizing that the show must go on, quickly fashioned a response piece for the thief. She embroidered “Hello Teeny” in pink thread onto black fabric and hung it in place of the missing work. James Gobel, Erin Allen, Jordan Kantor, Keith Boadewee, Jason Hanasik, Glen Helfand, John Jenkins, Brian Murphy, Jessica Rosen, Patrick Hillman and work by Luke Butler rounded out the show. For his next curatorial adventure, Butler is hoping to flip the environment over from the masculine to the feminine – perhaps creating a new installation in one of the city’s public women’s restrooms.
~Stacy Martin
Luke Butler, Jason Kaligiros, Glen Helfand, Travis Meinoff, Christina Empedocles