Man Bites Dog Bites Man

Posted on June 10, 2024 by melissa

published in Art Spiel on Jan. 29, 2024

 

John O’Connor at L’Space presented in conjunction with Pierogi Gallery

Noahbot-colored pencil and graphite on paper. 83 x 69.5. 2013. Photo courtesy of John Berens

There is an astonishing amount of information in John O’Connor’s drawings. The work, currently on show in Chelsea at L’Space Gallery, explodes off the paper with words and numbers, names, logos, and dates. It’s information overload, and that is part of the genius of the show.

It’s O’Connor’s first solo show in eight years, and clearly, he’s had a lot on his mind. It is a dense exhibition, and you need to either give yourself a lot of time or come for two visits, as I did. The drawings, all made with colored pencil and graphite, grapple with huge questions– philosophy, ethics, politics, linguistics, and history, all the while appearing as visually appealing pop art. It is only as you attempt to decipher the code or puzzle the underlying logic that you begin to understand that there’s something very different than fun “pop” drawing going on here. His interests roam all over the intellectual map, from chess strategy to the writings of Plutarch.

Car Crash-colored pencil and graphite on paper. 85 x 69.75. 2023. Photo courtesy of JSP Photography

There is a particular obsession– and I use that word as a compliment– with cause and effect, both philosophical and visual. As in the piece Car Crash 2023. O’Connor has taken the “chain” theory from Newton’s Law of Physics- rapid changes in kinetic energy are transferred from object to object. OK, car crash=chain reaction, that sounds simple enough. But O’Connor takes it onto another realm by saying, “I thought of this as analogous to the societal transfer of wealth from poor to rich. This process is evident in products and assets– vehicles whose practical function is incrementally usurped by their form as luxury objects.” He has re-imagined the chain effect of a multi-car crash as an analogy to capitalist desire and status. The “crash” begins in the upper left-hand corner and as the crashes continue the cars become more and more expensive, they are interspersed with cartoon and fictional cars, logos and seemingly random words and slogans. The entire drawing spirals into the center, where it all dissolves into an abstracted “wormhole” that, in O’Connor’s Universe, takes you back to the beginning. The entire drawing thus becomes an infinite loop of consumerism and advertising.

If this all sounds like a lot to put into one drawing, well, it is. Many of the works in this show seem to be almost made in a fever dream. They all have deep underpinnings, and the ideas, as well as the visuals, come spinning out at you with force field energy. Some of them feel to me a visualization of the way the brain makes connections. It’s an interesting dichotomy because these drawings must have taken an enormous amount of pre-planning and time to create, but the impact is instant and visceral. The very process that he uses to make these–colored pencil and graphite–is time-intensive, and when you see the dense color-saturated surfaces, it is a little mind-boggling that they are pencil and not paint.

The use of advertising images and fonts of every imaginable type reflects the bombardment of commercial imagery in our world. O’Connor faithfully reproduces recognizable slogans and typefaces. He has a particular fondness for the sounds of old comic books and TV shows (CRUNCH! BATMAN! NEW!). His mastery of the reproduction of these many iconic visual/verbal images is remarkable.

Echo, Day Five- colored pencil and graphite on paper. 89.5 x 70. 2023. Photo courtesy of Photo courtesy of JSP Photography

Echo Day Five (detail)

Echo reminds me of one of my favorite childhood word games- The Rebus. This is a puzzle where words are represented by both pictures and letters to spell out a story. I love the dance O’Connor does between the amusing and the profound. The subject matter of his work is deep and dense and heady, yet the images are infused with a pop art sensibility. You’re a little dazzled by the visual games, and the more serious content sneaks up on you as you try to “read “the game.

Installation view of the gallery. Photo courtesy of Melissa Stern

Beyond his stunning drawings, there is sculptural installation in this show that feels like O’Connor’s peripatetic brain jogging off into another direction. Words flow up, down and around hanging shapes. They don’t feel completely in dialogue with the drawings, despite their common theme of the use of words. The sculptures feel a little thin. Entirely worthy pieces, just not quite as powerful as the drawings.

Get yourself well-caffeinated and put on your thinking cap before you see this show. The work is provocative and offers no easy answers. And that fits perfectly with the state of the world.today.

thE mAn- colored pencil and graphite on paper. 14 x 9. 2023. Photo courtesy of JSP Art Photography

Man Bites Don Bites Man- at L’Space through February 17th. 524 West 19th St, NYC. Presented in partnership with Pierogi Gallery

*John O’Connor is quoted from the catalogue for the exhibition. 2023

 

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Stéphane Mandelbaum at The Drawing Center

Posted on February 19, 2024 by melissa

Published in Art Spiel Nov. 29, 2023

Ernst Röhm, 1981, Graphite, gouache, marker, and color pencil on paper. 54 3/4 x 47 1/4 inches

Who was Stephane Mandelbaum? A closeted gay man? The child of Holocaust survivors? A liar? A thief? A brilliant artist you’ve never heard of? All of the above and perhaps more.

The Drawing Center is presenting the first-ever show of Mandelbaum’s work in the US, and it is a show that left me gob-smacked. The combination of Mandelbaum’s brilliant drawing, deeply personal vision, and the complexity of his backstory is a tale made for cinema. Born in 1961 to a family of paternal Polish Holocaust survivors and maternal Belgian Armenians, Mandelbaum grew up in the town of Namur, about an hour and a half from Brussels. His Father, Ari, was a well-known painter, and his mother, Pili, was an illustrator. There is no record of siblings. A gifted draftsman from a young age but dyslexic and eccentric, Mandelbaum moved from Namur to Brussels, where he seemed to devote his time to making drawings and engaging in what is termed “petty crime.” He married a woman from Zaire (now called The Democratic Republic of Congo) and lived between the worlds of Belgian Africans, the Belgian crime underworld, and his own artistic imagination.

Kismatores! (Portrait d’Arié Mandelbaum) (Kiss my Ass! [Portrait of Arié Mandelbaum]), 1982, Graphite lead, color pencil, and collage on paper. 59 x 46 7/16 inches
A white board with a picture of a child Description automatically generated
Detail of above drawing.

Much about Mandelbaum is obscured by the fact that he was by several accounts a habitual liar, and this leaves massive gaps and red herrings in his autobiography. What can be verified is thin; what is known creates a puzzle perhaps best gleaned from the work itself.

But I buried the lede: Mandelbaum was murdered, and his corpse disfigured after he delivered a stolen Modigliani painting that turned out to be a forgery to underworld figures who had hired him to steal it. He died in 1986 at the age of 25. What survives is a huge archive of drawings and notebooks, 57 of which are being shown at The Drawing Center. I find it curious that the wall text and press release make little to no note of Mandelbaum’s crime dealings and the cause of his death. Rather than being sensationalist, they are to me, essential elements in creating a full portrait of this elusive artist.

Primarily a portraitist, Mandelbaum’s drawings in this exhibition range in size from a diminutive 5 x 7 to a life-size 68 x 52. While there are a few portraits of women drawn from a bar in the northern part of the city, most of the drawings in the exhibition are of men. There are some family members, most notably a huge portrait of the artist’s father, Ari Mandelbaum (pictured above), which deserves more discussion. But mostly, the portraits are of famous gay men- Piero Passolini, Francis Bacon, Werner Maria Fassbinder, George Dyer, Arturo Rimbaud and (rumored to be gay) Nazis. Mandelbaum had a fascination with and was drawn to transgressive artists, political and military strongmen, denizens of the night, crime figures, his own Jewish heritage, and, yes, Nazis. A psychologically complex combination of interests, to be sure.

Because of his opaque biography, we don’t really know what the connection was in his mind, as well as the nature of his marriage or lifestyle. It is strange to me that there seems to be so little recorded about Mandelbaum. He died in 1986, and there must be people still alive who knew him. But after exhaustive online research, I found nothing more than sketchy outlines. The inclusion in his drawings of Yiddish, German, and French text, as well as collaged porn photos and Nazi iconography, makes it tantalizing to armchair psychoanalyze the work. Rather than opine in the dark about his artistic motivations and life, I leave the work to speak for itself, as apparently did the artist and those who survived him.

A framed art with a white frame Description automatically generated with medium confidence
Composition (Mishima, Bacon…), 1980 Ballpoint pen on paper, 6 9/16 x 9 1/4 inches
A drawing of a person Description automatically generated
George Dyer, 1982 Graphite on paper 59 x 47 1/4 inches
Two framed pictures of a person Description automatically generate
Pier Paolo Pasolini(Antonello de Messi_e, Pietà,1477-1478), 1980 Ballpoint pen, marker, and collage on paper 20 3/8 x 28 inches. Pasolini n_°8, 1980, Ballpoint pen on paper, 19 11/16 x 27 1/2 inches

Most, if not all of Mandelbaum’s portraits appear to be painted from photographs, albeit with some subtle tweaks. Mandelbaum often added in aspects of his own visage to his “sitter’s” image or added cartoons of himself sneaking into larger compositions. Appearing and re-appearing over and over again is a chilling portrait of Joseph Goebbels, Hiltler’s chief propagandist and a virulent anti-Semite. Mandelbaum portrays Goebbels in profile, his mouth open in mid-yell, the image taken from an infamous speech of May 1933. His teeth have been removed from the portrait, an interesting artistic choice that opens the door to all sorts of theories of the artist’s intent.

A drawing of a person Description automatically generated
Goebbels, 1980, Ballpoint pen on paper, 18 1/2 x 21 9/16 inches
A framed picture of a person's head Description automatically generated
Gueule cassée et autoportrait (Broken face with self-portrait), 1980, Ballpoint pen and collage on paper 19 11/16 x 27 1/2 inches

Drawing with the simplest of implements- ballpoint pen and pencil, a little gouache, and a smattering of collage, Mandelbaum shows an intuitive and fluid style. His compositions are sophisticated, often using large areas of negative space balanced by jam-packed spaces to move his narratives forward. He regularly alternates deeply dense areas of marks with those that are sketchier, focusing our attention on the faces and moods of his sitters.

This long overdue exhibition is by turns terrifying, sad, provocative, and brilliant. Mandelbaum, possibly a tragic but undeniably complex character, has left us with a body of work that raises more questions than answers. To me, that is always a sign of great artwork.

Stephane Mandelbaum- The Drawing Center, 35 Wooster St. Through February 18, 2023

About the Writer: Melissa Stern lives in NYC and The Hudson Valley. Her mixed material sculpture and drawings are in corporate and museum collections throughout the US. Her multi-media project The Talking Cure has been touring the United States since 2012, showing at The Akron Museum of Art, Redux Contemporary Art Center (Charleston), The Weisman Museum, Real Art Ways (Hartford) and The Kranzberg Art Center (St. Louis), and at The Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton.MA. She has written about art and culture for The New York Press and CityArts for eight years and is a contributing writer to Hyperallergic and artcritical. Melissa has joined Art Spiel as a contributing writer.

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A Stage Within a Stage- Ye Qin Zhu at Dimin

Posted on January 11, 2024 by melissa

Published on ArtSpiel.org, Oct. 8, 2023.

A Stage Within a Stage-mixed media on eight fitted panels. 5 x 27 feet. 2022-2023

There’s a riot going on. That’s what I thought as I stood in front of Ye Qin Zhu’s large-scale installation piece at Dimin in Tribeca. The gallery space painted a matte black that seems to absorb all the light in the room, is dominated by one wall-mounted assemblage that is 27 feet long and five feet tall. There is a bench placed in front so that the viewer can take a few minutes to absorb the full volume of information and energy radiating from this piece.

A Stage Within a Stage- detail

And it is a lot to take in. Zhu is a maximalist and has filled these giant wooden panels with myriad objects, textures, and a narrative that morphs from one thing to another as it travels along the walls of the gallery. The panels are puzzled together such that the entire piece feels like one long connected dream image. Alternating between flat and low-relief surfaces, Zhu takes us on a journey that feels both material and global. Bits and pieces of imagery appear and disappear – dancing Mexican Skeleton musicians, Japanese characters, keyboards, beads, insects, fabric, plastic toys- the flotsam and jetsam of global culture floating through a hallucinatory jumble of color and light. The piece works as both a single installation– your eye taking in the entire Universe that Zhu has created– and as a piece to be dissected in bite-size portions as you walk along with it. It is an impressive accomplishment. I watched gallery visitors study the piece with rapt attention.

A Stage Within a Stage- detail

Ye Qin Zhu- Vehicle no. 2. Mixed media on panel. 47 x 25 2023

As impressive as the piece A Stage Within a Stage, I found myself drawn to the almost monochromatic pieces in the front room of the gallery. Shown on bright white walls, punctuated by natural shadow and sunlight, these much smaller assemblage wall pieces are subtle and play with formal properties of texture and form rather than global narratives. Each is covered in a pearlized surface that glitters gently, revealing soft pastel shades that undulate below the surfaces. The undersides are painted in fluorescent orange so that each piece has a brilliant aura that radiates from behind and around it. They appear to float an inch or two from the wall. The found objects and mixed materials are unified by the surface treatment, so we really see the forms as the light licks around the shapes.

Ye Qin Zhu- Raft no.1 and Raft no. 2. Mixed media on panel. 43 x 34 and 461/2 x 31 . 2023 (shadow and light courtesy of nature.)

A Stage Within a Stage- detail

The gallery has created an interesting dichotomy with this show. One room dark and pulsating with color, form, and narrative. The other is light and contemplative. I felt very strongly the push and pull between the two rooms. To me, the totality of the exhibition can be seen as the embodiment of Jungian dichotomies– a visual push and pull, if you will. Each room reflects visual traits that are the sensual opposite of the other. Seen together, the two rooms make for a complete “person,” a complete artistic vision. It is a statement that resonates long after you leave the gallery.

A Stage Within a Stage Thru. Oct. 14. DIMIN 406 Broadway, 2ndfloor.

Photos courtesy of the artist, DIMIN, and Melissa Stern.

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Here Now: Contemporary Photographers of the Hudson Valley

Posted on November 30, 2023 by melissa

Published August 30, 2023 by Melissa Stern on Artspiel

Photographer , Carnival Mexico 2017

Phyllis Galembo  Photographer, Carnival Mexico. Fujiflex print. 30 x 30 2017.

The Kleinart James Center in Woodstock, New York, is currently presenting a very ambitious and interesting photography exhibition. Entitled Here Now: Contemporary Photographers of the Hudson Valley, the show presents 17 artists representing a portion of the many photographers working in this geography. Organized by curator Jane Hart, the show offers a wide range of aesthetic visions and techniques.

The show is loud. That is, there is a lot of color. In fact, all the work presented is color photography or video. It’s an interesting curatorial choice, and though quite strong, I did occasionally long for a moment of black-and-white respite.

The exhibition is loosely organized around several themes. Nature and the world (natural and manmade), identity (race, gender) and storytelling. And though these themes don’t connect overall, the show leaves the door wide open for viewers to relate and gravitate to the kinds of photographic works that speak to them. I will discuss the pieces that spoke to me.

Tim Davis, Huckleberry Point. From the series Upstate Event Horizon. Digital photograph 19 x 13 2017

In a novel and totally appealing installation, over 100 photographs by Tim Davis are spread out over a large farm table, and the public is encouraged to paw through them. I‘ve never seen photographs displayed this way, and it was a wonderful change of paradigm. At the exhibition’s opening, the table was thronged with people delightedly going through the piles. They are the culmination of Davis’s journey through 300 towns in the Hudson Valley, shooting people, places, and things. They make for a potent document of life in the Hudson Valley. The photos themselves are terrific. I was tempted to tuck a few under my arm and sneak out of the show.

Carolyn Marks Blackwood- Every night he longed for her. Archival pigment print. 62 x62. 2018

Carolyn Marks Blackwood is represented by two very large photographs from her “Story Series.” The size is relevant at 62 x 62 inches; they are a commanding presence. The delicate color and tone of the interwoven tree and branches become magical when printed in human size. Each of her two photographs in the show has a brief caption, the one line of a short story that unlocks the key to the narrative.

Oliver Wasow- Collapsed Dish and Mall Interior from the series Information and Resources. Archival inkjet prints. 13 x 17. 2023.

In a different Universe altogether are the odd and dystopian works by Oliver Wasow. It’s hard to know if they are totally fabricated by software techniques or if they are augmented “real” photos. Wasow is long known for his immersion in new non-lens-based forms of creation. Twelve 13 x 17 framed photographs are arranged in a grid. Viewed altogether as they are installed here, they read as a portrait of an ominous future. Scarred and desolate landscapes, dilapidated buildings, destruction, and desolation. Each is suffused with a strange, surreal color sense appropriate for the world that they depict. They are both beautiful and terrifying. Perhaps a prescient vision of our future.

Phyllis Galembo- Bounty of Life. Fujiflex print. 30 x 30 2019.

I have long been a fan of Phyilis Galembo’s portraits of people in masks and costumes. She has published a number of excellent books that border on ethnographic documentation of both non-Western societies and American rituals. I was thrilled to see two of her portraits of people in contemporary Mexican ritual costumes. They are vibrant and delicious. Rich, saturated color amplifies the tangle of objects and images that adorn each of the people presented in formal frontal poses. The formality of the images is a nice counterpoint to the delirious nature of the costumes.

Each of the 17 photographers showcased in this exhibition has a strong and deeply personal vision. Though not a comprehensive survey of Hudson Valley photo-based artists (that would fill a museum), this is a thoughtful and worthy exhibition to visit- yet another demonstration of the vibrant visual art scene in the mid-Hudson Valley.

Here Now: Contemporary Photographers of the Hudson Valley. Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild’s Kleinart James Center for the Arts. 36 Tinker Street, Woodstock, NY. The exhibition runs through September 24, 2023.

All photos courtesy of the artist.

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A Garden Grows in the Meatpacking District

Posted on November 2, 2023 by melissa

Specimens.- 2018. 287 pieces of wood with powdered graphite, 42” x 35” x 6” approx.

Sculptor Loren Eiferman has brought a veritable garden of strange to Ivy Brown Gallery this summer. Her meticulously fabricated wood sculptures create a fantastical garden of forms that are both biomorphic and often anthropomorphic at the same time.

According to Eiferman, the body of work is loosely based on a cryptic 15th century manuscript of illustrations (real and imaginary) housed at The Beniecke Library at Yale University. The Voynich Manuscript is a wild compendium of botany, astronomy, astrology pharmacology and who knows what else. It’s original language and code was finally cracked in 2020 after decades of attempts.

46r/New Growth- 2022, 217 pieces of wood, acrylic paint, linseed oil, 43”x26” x 3.5”.

One can see the influence of this clearly in the show, entitled Welcome to My Garden. The sculptures inhabit their own perfectly imagined Universe and the language of form and color is totally original. Fabricated out of found wood Eiferman has seamlessly constructed forms that look like that they just popped out of the ground or beamed down from a spaceship. It is as if they too are visually written in a secret code. Hard to crack but arresting to look at. The palette is soft and muted, though not shy. The wood has been deeply saturated with rich color often highlighted by hits of metallic pigment. Constructed of many, perhaps hundreds of small pieces of wood, Eiferman has contrived to make these sculptures look effortless.

Abutilon- 2022. 118 pieces of wood with silver metal coating. 33 x 32 x 7

8v- 2022, 154 pieces of wood, pastel, graphite, paper pulp and linseed oil, 60”x12”x4”. (detail)

Most are large wall pieces with some charming small ones displayed on shelves throughout the gallery. There is one larger floor piece that incorporates a found plastic object. I didn’t quite understand this one, but perhaps it’s the beginning of the next step and direction for the artist. Often artists end one body of work with w hint of what is coming next.

 

Left- 5r- 2020, wood, earth, graphite, pastel and matte medium, 24” x 15” x 6”.

29/17v- 2021, 76 pieces of wood, earth, matte mediums, pastel, linseed oil and silver leaf, 17” x 5”x 3.5

The sculptures are accompanied by two large spiral bound books of drawings that the artist has made, one a day, based on photos from the New York Times. They are quite accomplished and really deserve to be shown on the wall. A very separate but no less interesting body of work.

Polarity- 2022, silver metal coating with Caran D’ache crayon, graphite and acrylic paint on newspaper, 11” x 14

The show closes on August 2, so I urge you to get over to the Meatpacking District where the gallery occupies a top floor space in a Flatiron type angular building. Nice views of the tourists and fascinating art inside.

Welcome to My Garden – through August 2. Ivy Brown Gallery 675 Hudson St, NYC.

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Just say YES to NADA!

Posted on June 22, 2023 by melissa

Posted on by Melissa Stern

Paul Wackers- First Time, Long Time. Jack Hanley Gallery

I’ve been to more art fairs than I can count, but the ones that I’ve had fun at I could count on two hands. Many are too big, dealers are either stressed out or bored, mundane work or work that is inaccessible or silly. The last show that I went to before the pandemic was The Armory Show at the westside piers. It was a few days before the world shut down and the fair was eerily empty. I wandered alone through a fair that typically had been jam packed with beautiful art lovers. And then everything went quiet for about a year and a half.

Since the pandemic is now over (old news!) the NYC art fairs have come roaring back and this past week has been what feels like an avalanche of art and art related events. Overwhelming, to say the least.

I’ve always been keen on the smaller venues – The Metropolitam Pavillion is a perfect size venue for an art fair. Second to that, in no hierarchical order is the old Dia Building on west 22nd street. The building, despite its extreme verticality, exudes good vibes and holds many memories of great exhibitions and fairs. Suffused with good light, remnants of the building’s industrial past and a new (at least to me) rooftop space. It’s little surprise that visiting NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) 2023 is so satisfying.

On the whole the work being shown is sophisticated and mature. The exhibition space is nicely laid out, giving the galleries space to curate coherently, but not over-stuff the space. I have never attended an art fair where so many dealers seemed, well, happy. From speaking without about 1/3 of the dealers it appears that first day sales were good. That always makes art dealers happy, but beyond that the general vibe was upbeat and energetic. One suggestion to exhibitors- maybe have the name of the artist available to those visiting your booth. Demanding that everyone use a QR code on their phone to find out who you’re showing is a buzz kill.

Here, in no particular order are things that I fell in love with:

Glorious still life paintings at Jack Hanley Gallery (see opening photo). Though “still life” is a misnomer, as these paintings are anything but still. Bursting with energy, color and sly surprises.

Kambel Smith. Shrine Gallery

Shrine Gallery, whose program consistently shows a mix of contemporary and self-taught artists has brough the sculpture of Kambel Smith. Smith is a self-taught artist who makes very large scale architectural models of famous buildings and monuments from discarded cardboard. The sculptures are both funny and poignant. A mashup of scale and proportion animates these iconic buildings, everything seems ready to dance.

Europa Gallery has one of the most coherently curated booths, showcasing sculpture by Brandon Morris, carved wooden stools/sculptures by Nik Gelormino and paintings by Brian Degraw.

Brian Degraw- Europa Gallery

Making their first visit to NADA and NYC is South Parade from London. They brought a small, but stunning group of carved and painted wood wall reliefs by Tom Hardwick. Totally fresh work, they are like microcosm Universes, a must see.

Tom Hardwick- detail of Allan Sq. South Parade, London

I’ve long been interested in the mixed material work of Sacha Ingber and was happy to see a beautiful grouping of their work at Rachel Uffner Gallery.

Sacha Ingber- Cruel Anatomy. Rachel Uffner Gallery

Luis de Jesus has brought a suite of narrative paintings by Aaron Maier-Carretero. The show is entitled “a lobster named dinner”. Viewed all together the paintings tell a short story, based on childhood memories of family and food. They are awash in luscious color. I found myself drawn to the most stripped down of the group. The richly painted surface of the black, white and grey painting told its own story.

Aaron Maier-Carretero- black shadows, white noise. Luis de Jesus Los Angeles

Focusing on portraiture, Galerie Anne Barrault has brought some deeply moving paintings on paper by Marie Losier. Though I didn’t connect with the videos, the portraits were very powerful.

Marie Losier- Tito et Floencia. Galerie Anne Barrault

If you can fight your way through the jungle of competing art fairs and cultural events in NYC this weekend and have the bandwidth to look at one more fair, this would be the one.

NADA NY- 548 West 22nd St.

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Ulf Puder at Marc Straus Gallery

Posted on June 15, 2023 by melissa

Taormina, Oil on canvas,39.4 x 47.25, 2018

Marc Straus Gallery is currently presenting the paintings of Ulf Puder, a German artist whose landscape paintings are deeply evocative and strangely alluring. I was not familiar with the artist or his work, and I’ll admit, it took a beat to enter his Universe. But once in I began to see deeper into the complex issues he deals with in his paintings.

Puder paints landscapes that seem both contemporary and timeless. His images are of an imagined past and a dystopian future. Of the eleven paintings in the exhibition, six are of iced landscapes, that is, either icebergs or winter structures, buried under what appears to be mountains of snow. Big, big skies loom over the diminutive dwellings and icebergs. A palette of multiple somber shades of blue and soft greens infuses the works with glacial coolness. There is no sun, as if the sun might be gone forever. The buried buildings are either abandoned or there may be people trapped inside the smothered landscape. In either case the scenes are eerily empty of life. The icebergs in these paintings are both architectural and sculptural; they could be giant ice palaces. They make for perfect partners with the landscape paintings that face them from the opposite wall.

GroBer Eisberg, 31.5 x 39.4, 2022

Opposite, there are five paintings of structures in various states of collapse. Dancing between abstraction and realism these paintings portray a strange and ominous world of shifting geometries – the planes of the vaguely mid-century modern houses are slipping and sliding off of one another. Partially dismantled into piles of colorful debris, they appear ready to tumble into the dark bodies of water on whose shores they sit. Nestled under dark skies these tableaux feel like a pause between catastrophic storms. There is a sense of calm to the work, but it is not entirely peaceful.

The palette of these paintings is oddly off. The colors are at once lush and slightly acid in tone. They reminded me immediately of the palette used often by Neo Rauch. I was not surprised when the Gallery Director told me that Rauch and Puder had been students in Leipzig, then in East Germany, at the same time. Though there is zero similarity in subject or execution, the artists share a strong color sensibility.

Kleine Winterlandschaft 2, 19.75 x 23.6, 2022

Winterlandschaft, 82.75 x 70.55, 2017

Puder sets up a very dynamic relationship between these two sets of paintings that one can interpret in several ways. There is an obvious nod to climate change and the havoc wreaked upon the Earth by man. Everything in Puder’s Universe is under a state of siege, smothered, melted, dismantled, scattered. The world is literally falling apart. The quietude of each body of work feels at once ominous and seductive.

The Icebergs, 19.75 x 23.6,each, 2022

Yet in every one of the landscape paintings with houses there is a hit of light. It might be artificial– the fluorescents that light the porch of Willy Lott’s House– or a ray of brilliant sunshine along the horizon of Mondscheinlandschaft. Is this Puder’s way of showing us that there is hope, a ray of optimism? Or is it simply a powerful and skilled painter delighting in his ability to show us how color can glow, how the radiance of light can alter the geometries of his paintings. Maybe it’s both.

Mondscheinlandschaft, 47.25 x 63, 2018

All photos courtesy of Melissa Stern. Courtesy of the Artist and MARC STRAUS

Ulf Puder- Thru March 5, 2023. Marc Straus Gallery. 299 Grand St, NYC, NY

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RADIANCE: THEY DREAM IN COLOR. THE UGANDA PAVILION AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

Posted on June 1, 2023 by melissa

 

Posted on by Melissa Stern in ArtSpiel

Install photo of Radiance: They Dream in Color

The Venice Biennale, a sprawling art Universe, takes over the city every other year alternating its focus between art and architecture. Due to Covid, 2020 was cancelled, and the 2022 festival attracted an unprecedented number of visitors. The 2022 exhibition has received almost unparalleled praise for its inclusiveness, its artistry and its cohesion as a statement of the art Zeitgeist. It hasn’t hurt that the principle exhibition, The Milk of Dreams was curated by women, celebrates women and under-represented artists, and is for the most part simply superb.

You can feel Venice almost groaning under the weight of visitors, especially at the Biennale’s official gathering points, the Arsanale and the Giardini, at the western end of the city. The wealth of exhibitions outside of the formal Biennale would be enough to warrant rapturous praise. Anselm Keifer at the Palazzo Ducale and Marlene Dumas at the Palazzo Grossi are each breathtaking. But everywhere you turn there are shows and performances and music. It’s deliciously overwhelming.

The Giardini is an exquisite city park housing over two-dozen exhibits each representing a single country. There are a limited number of National Pavilions so countries not anchored there bid to install in spaces all over the city. The result is some unexpected delights far from the maddening crowd.

The official Ugandan Pavilion is a show called Radiance: They Dream in Time. It’s a two-person show by London-based curator Shaheen Merali. Installed on a second floor in a series of small rooms above an office on an undistinguished alleyway, is one of the standout shows of the Biennale. It is the first time that Uganda has hosted a pavilion at the Biennale.

Collaged and painted portraits by Collin Sekajugo are hung alternately with fascinating mixed-fiber weaving constructions by Acaye Kerunen. Each artist has a solo room for installation, which allows both of them to really have their work sing. Sekajugo’s series of large paintings are titled Stock Photo. Some have a descriptive comment tacked on, such as “Water Tanks” or “How May I Direct Your Call”. Using stock photos as a starting point he has taken the images and totally made them his own. Using multiple, often overlapping patterns, large and small, bark and wax cloth as collage elements and vibrant saturated color, the paintings leap off the wall.

Sekajugo captures wry moments in the lives of contemporary Ugandans. A young couple on a date, a woman measuring her waist, a dapper and confident young man sitting on a mid-century mod sofa, (this one titled I Own Everything). Mundane scenes from everyday life, but each with a subtle twist and beautifully composed. The curatorial statement explains that the photos were originally of White models. By substituting Black figures Sekajugo makes a nuanced political statement about the evolution of a modern Ugandan society.

Stock Image 009-Oh No!, 2022, Acrylic , barkcloth and mixed media on canvas

I love that the fabrics and patterns frequently march out of their designated role and merge in unexpected ways. In Oh No!, Sekajugo uses wax cloth as wainscoting behind the figure, but its entire midsection has been taken over by the fabric, just as the metallic 70’s wallpaper has crept downward into the fabric. The man, nattily dressed in matching turquoise trousers and tie seems unaffected by all of this pattern creep. Sekajugo, often employs sgraffito through the solidly painted areas of his work, which adds yet another layer of texture to the paintings.

Stock Image 10—Falling In Love, 2022, Acrylic , barkcloth and mixed media on canvasStock Image 10—Falling In Love, 2022, Acrylic , barkcloth and mixed media on canvas

Stock Image 10—Falling In Love, 2022, Acrylic , barkcloth and mixed media on canvas

In his solo room installation, entitled Call Center, Sekajugo has painted the walls dark red and massed a series of smaller paintings of cheerful call center operators in the corner. Bright desk lamps, attached to an old-fashioned wooden desk, light them dramatically. On the desk are scattered vintage books about Uganda and dictionaries of varied local languages. It’s a funny and provocative installation. The room exudes good cheer and efficiency. The lighting may have been a clever solution to a less than ideal exhibition setting (there was no other light in the room), but it also suffuses the installation with brilliant tension.

Call Center Girls 1-12. 2022, Acrylic on canvas

This work is paired with sculpture in fiber media by Acaye Kerunen. She has worked with village women throughout Uganda, using local fiber techniques and materials to create completely fresh contemporary sculptures. She often takes functional woven objects like baskets or mats and combines them into one sculpture, irrespective of regional origin or use– recontextualizing them into lyrical sculptures that marry traditional craft with contemporary art.

Myel, 2022, Banana fiber, palm leaves, banana stem, stripped sorghum stems, raffia

A sculpture called Myel rises over five feet from the floor. It’s a tower of stacked basketry and weaving. Organic and architectural at the same time, the sculpture feels alive. The graceful forms and beautiful textures lead the eye up the tower to a tightly bound ball perched on the top. Ribbons of fiber optic cable grace the “neck” of the piece. The curator’s statement says that this represents the bringing of fiber optic technology to East Africa. The old meets the new.

Passion Flower, 2022, Banana fiber, palm leaves, raffia

The Uganda Pavilion introduced me to two artists whose work I might never have seen before. The two compliment each other beautifully and give us a small, view into a blossoming, vibrant African art scene. This year’s Venice Biennale boasts both high profile and praise-worthy work like the triumphant sculptures of Simone Leigh, the official representative of the United States. But for me the real magic were the hidden gems, the out-of-the-way exhibits, and the newly discovered artists. Surprise and discovery are what keep this bi-annual art Mecca fresh and of global importance.

All photos courtesy of Melissa Stern

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Vanessa German – SAD RAPPER at Paul Kasmin

Posted on April 20, 2023 by melissa

 

Partial installation view of Sad Rapper

So much has happened in six years. It was six years ago that I last wrote about the work of Vanessa German for Hyperallergic. Donald Trump had just been elected, and the country was bracing itself for a trip down a new and dangerous path. Vanessa German, a poet, activist and visual artist, had mounted a powerful show at Pavel Zoubek Gallery entitled I am armed. I am an army. German filled the gallery with a fighting corps of women, armed with weaponry, poetry, history and power. It was a fierce exhibition, and one that both mourned and celebrated the power of women.

Fast forward to German’s debut exhibition, now at Paul Kasmin Gallery, that gives us a new view into German’s Universe. Instead of an army of warrior women, we are immersed in a neighborhood in LA, circa 1980’s. To be clear, this is an imaginary neighborhood, one made of the people who inhabit German’s dreams and memories. Entitled Sad Rapper, the exhibition is a huge leap in terms of physicality and concept. The work is bigger than anything I’ve previously seen. Some of the pieces brush nine feet in height. They hang on the walls, stand on plinths, ride bicycles and skateboards.

The Three-Headed Man. 2022. 95.25 x 72.5 x 20.5

The biggest change is that for the first time there are distinctly male figures in her Universe, as well as figure that are gender fluid. The figures that one can identify as “male” have crudely formed lumpy objects protruding from their crotches. These symbols of manhood are painted gold, so we know that they’re precious, but though thick and club-like, they are inert. They give cause for a double take. German’s work is so lyrical, so beautiful and lush in its use of materials that these “clubs” seem to intrude on the complicated beauty of this neighborhood. Perhaps that’s the point.

As always German’s use of materials is astonishing. She manages to deploy everything under the sun in a fluid and graceful way. The mass amalgamations of fabric, beads, objects, and electronics, wood – and so much more – look as if they have sprung fully formed from her imagination. They are all perfectly made, at once complex in execution and effortless in gesture. With figures towering over the viewer, we are at first struck by the majesty of German’s characters, then drawn into the intricate and joyful love of both the materials and the making of these pieces. I long to see the warehouse where she stores her work and her materials.

THE BEAST or Self Portrait 2022. 78.75 x 42 x 30.5

Partial installation view of Sad Rapper

Man- Man and his Inner Child 56 x 36x 29

Detail of Man-Man

 

 

While the work forms a coherent Universe, each piece is unique. A Black boy rides a tricycle, his body is small but his face seems too old to be on such a childish bike. All of the children in German’s work are prematurely aged. The man-child grips the handlebars tightly; his body and the bike covered with bunched and pillowy watermelon printed fabric are unified by an obsessive wrapping of pink yarn that completely covers the figure and the trike. The fabric is a children’s novelty print, but of course used in this context it is perhaps not so innocent. He is at one with his bike. A joyful feeling I remember as a kid- feeling so much control and freedom riding though my neighborhood.

But as always in German’s work, things are not quite so straightforward. The child’s face is frozen in a rictus grin. The bared teeth covered in rhinestones. His eyes, fixed forward in a hypnotized focus on the future. Or perhaps focused on escaping a past. Is he riding in joy or fear? His body sprouts a massive bouquet of fake flowers in all riotous shades of pink. Underneath he sports an array of heavy faux gold jewelry. On his back is a vintage tin lunchbox, a souvenir of the TV show Julia that appeared in the late 60’searly 70’s on television. Julia was the first TV show that not only featured a Black woman leading character (the luminous Diahann Carroll) but one who was a professional working woman with a full and rich life, rather than the stereotypical ways in which Black women had previously been portrayed on TV.

This nod to an iconic Black woman and a specific moment in American popular culture fortifies all of the pushes and pulls between mass culture and childhood in America. It’s an example of the deep dualities in all of this work. Joy coupled with fear. Beauty coupled with horror.

 

7 Beautiful Ni$$As Awe-Struck in the Glory of An Appalachian Sunset (Detail). 88x 30.5 x 20

Each and every sculpture in this exhibition demands this kind of deep dive look into the multiplicity of symbols and emotions and messages they contain. It is by far German’s most complex body of work to date. Her vision extends not just to the inclusion of men, but also to fantastical creatures that are animal with human heads. I don’t know whether to call them a flock or a herd. They inhabit one side of the gallery, like a mutant petting zoo.

Vanessa German understands the force of language. Spoken and written word has always been a critical part of her artistic life. In this exhibition the captions of each piece are prose poems that both describe the work’s physical properties (as is typical for exhibitions) but also describe the psychological state that underlies each piece. They are critical to the work, but far too long to be included in this essay. Please refer to the gallery’s website to read the texts. Or better yet, go see this important and deeply affecting show.

All photos courtesy of Melisa Stern.

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Motel in the Catskills

Posted on April 6, 2023 by melissa

Published August 17, 2022 in ArtSpiel

The rural Catskill mountain village of Fleischmanns an unlikely a place to find a world-class contemporary art installation.

In the nineteenth century, the village was a flourishing, prosperous Catskill vacation spot for the New York well-to-do, resplendent with Victorian mansions and lodging houses, attracting both Jewish and non-Jewish summer residents. By the mid-twentieth century, the town had languished, and many properties had fallen into disrepair. Over time, Fleischmanns became a summer retreat for a large ultra-Orthodox Jewish community who juxtapose oddly with deer hunters, RV owners, motorcycle enthusiasts, and other locals. “Eclectic” is an understatement. If Fleischmanns were on a deli menu it would be an Everything Bagel.

To the delight of this visitor, the town is working very hard to revitalize itself. There are now two little cafes, and a wine bar is opening soon. And there is a stunning contemporary art gallery located in the old police Station. 1053 Main Street that has been open for just about a year, showing very exciting contemporary art.

The current exhibition MOTEL, by sculptor and puppeteer Dan Hurlin, is a full-gallery installation project with some ancillary objects. It is so magical and odd that before I look at it critically, I have to first attempt to describe it.

In the center of the gallery, set on an angle to the walls, is a large open boxlike object with viewing platforms along the two long sides of the rectangle. When you peer down into the open space you see that it’s a complete and exact ½ scale replica of a cheap generic hotel room- the sort once found all over America along highways and in small towns. And it’s perfect. Every single detail from the circa 1970’s TV set to the small roller bag set carefully on a luggage rack. And of course there is a Bible on the bed.

It’s a twin room. One of the beds is perfectly made up; the other has a rumpled bedspread as if someone had a tumultuous night on top of the bed. The ugly lamp is turned on. The first impulse is to admire the craftsmanship that is took to produce this small room. And then you start to notice the details…and the woman.

She sits in a well-worn upholstered armchair, gaze turned sideways and down. She is sad or pensive or both. She’s wearing a modest, blue dress and looks like perhaps a Mormon or Mennonite (my projection). Long silky brown hair is pulled back into a ponytail and her hands hang limply on the arms of the chair. She is one of the puppet figures that has made Dan Hurlin one of the most famous and accomplished of contemporary puppeteers.

But she is still. There is no movement in this performance but there is sound. And as you ponder the mystery of this woman– who is she, why is she here, why is there a crumpled letter on the dresser as well as a stamped and addressed envelope? Why is there an envelope of cash on the side table next to her–you begin to hear the soundtrack that plays out of a cheesy vintage radio by the bed.

The sound track is subtle and extraordinary. Crickets, dogs barking, trucks rumbling by. It all sounds as if it is happening at that moment. I kept glancing at the door of the gallery, looking for the dog. But it all serves as backdrop for the droning sound of Richard M. Nixon testifying in front of a Grand Jury about Watergate. The sound of his voice, from so long ago is a bit of a shock. It sets the tableaux in time and adds to the deepening mystery and allure of this artwork. It should be noted that Hurlin shares generous credit with the sound designer Dan Moses Schreier, as well as the extensive fabrication team.

The gallery sitter told me that the tapes of Nixon are alternated with those from the Jan. 6 2022 Congressional hearings. I can’t speak to how these would inevitably change the tone of the piece; I was there on a “Nixon” day.

The entire experience is mesmerizing and tantalizing. You are watching a scene from a film noir or a vintage mystery tale. All the elements of the story are laid out and it is up to you the viewer to create the narrative. There is something deeply moving about the experience of watching this woman from above as you listen to the soundtrack of her moment.

Hurlin is obviously aware of the magnetic, sometimes voyeuristic power of this installation. There is a large book on the gallery desk where people have written extensive, almost short story length comments about their interpretation of the work.

The exhibition includes several small gouache paintings of close-up details of a motel room as well as a perfect facsimile of a motel welcome folder including postcards and tiny pens. The paintings are quiet and appropriately contemplative of the generic details of motel rooms. But I found myself drawn back again and again to the mystery of Motel and wondering…what happens next.

All photos by the author.

1053 Main Street Gallery has an ambitious program of live events that accompany this exhibit, including an artist talk and showing of Puppet, a 2010 documentary about puppetry that highlights Hurlin’s groundbreaking work. Please check the gallery website for details

MOTEL – runs through September 18. Artist talk and film screening on August 27. For details here.

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