Highlights from Art Basel Miami Beach

Full report from the Miami fairs coming soon -some eye candy till then...

A R T B A S E L M I A M I B E A C H

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one more from Chelsea....

BOURGEOIS AND EMIN AT CAROLINA NITSCH 

Somehow I forgot about the small, really fucked up show of collaborative paintings by Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin at Carolina Nitsch. All the works dealt with sexuality, gender and relationships. It was very interesting to see what the works became when one artists starts the piece and another completes it. My favorite was the work above which showed a crucifix over the male genital. Nothing we haven't seen before, but great to see these two women talk about what are still considered taboo subjects. The show closed last weekend, but is traveling to London.  


http://www.carolinanitsch.com/index.php?/past-exhibition/do-not-abandon-me-louise-bourgeoistracey-emin/

Chelsea November 2010

THE BIGGEST LET DOWN OF THE YEAR 


This was not an uplifting or inspiring gallery tour. It was a lot of misses and disappointments on a brisk Saturday afternoon. 




KOFMEHL AT LOMBARD FREID 

  

William Earl Kofmehl III at Lombard Freid Projects. Surprisingly, this show titled “Dear Father Knickerbocker, I Just Googled You” was probably the best of the day. The show is a mix of sculpture and painting with a large squirrel in the middle of room. The wooden sculpture was probably 12’ tall and 10’ long and visitors were able to walk through the squirrel’s arched tail. The small embroidered works collected on the walls were vignettes with little sayings and playful situations. The final piece in the show was a life-size sculpture of the artists on a bench with several squirrels with him. Instead of having a normal bushy tail, thes squirrels appeared to have zucchini and ears of corns for tails.  The show is a nod to the squirrel as a Trojan horse, to squirrel advocates in New York and to the City’s history. It seems the artist and the gallery are trying to make odd and unclear connections with these different elements. Not sure any If it really makes any sense or any significant statement.

To me, I would not make a stop in again, although it was playful. I would suggest doing a pop-in on the way to Brice Marden at Matthew Marks.

http://www.lombard-freid.com/home.htm

http://www.matthewmarks.com/exhibitions/2010-10-29_brice-marden/

MOON BEOM AT KIM FOSTER

Moon Beom at Kim Foster Gallery had several bright and surreal paintings that were both earthy and ethereal at the same time. The Korean-based artists had bold and significant inspiration behind these works and it was clear to see the beautiful tactile quality of the works. However, since the gallery was filled with these works in different shades of both bright and muted colors, no one piece really stood out and the works became watered down and almost one-note. It was a shame, because on their own, these pieces are great. I felt the curating hurt the viewers perceptions and reaction to the artist’s work.

http://www.kimfostergallery.com/artists/Beom.htm

MIRANDA LICHTENSTEIN AT ELIZABETH DEE

I was super excited to get to Elizabeth Dee, where I don’t think I’ve ever been before. This is crazyness as I love so many of the artists she represents, including current obsessions “The Ryans” : Ryan Trecartin and Ryan McNamara. However, I was not feeling any of the works in this show, by Miranda Lichtenstein. When I look now at the installation images, I hardly recognize any of the works. I did like the two ghostly photographs above. They were expressive and intoxicating yet soft and almost deathly. The gallery’s press release doesn’t say much either about the artists inspiration or her ideas or what’s she’s trying to express. It all seems haphazard and a little slapdash.

http://www.elizabethdeegallery.com/exhibitions/view/font-size-2-545-west-20th-street-font

UNO RONDINONE AT GLADSTONE 21ST ST

Ok, so what I haven’t confessed yet, is that I was about three Bloody Mary’s in when I started this tour. I am sure this explains my lack of attention span and also general haziness for some of the work and shows. This is good to know as I am kicking myself for being slightly buzzed when I walked into Uno Rondinone’s show at Gladstone 21^st Street. The large square gallery contained only 6 life-size sculptures that at first just seemed like mannequins sitting on the floor. But upon further investigation, you saw how the painstaking detail in these works created haunting life-like sculptures. All of us were waiting for the works to open their eyes as every detail was so precise and executed wonderfully. The show just opened last week and is up until Christmas, so I am hoping to make it back to revisit these lovely creatures.

http://www.gladstonegallery.com/rondinone.asp


WANGECHI MUTU AT GLADSTONE 24TH ST

We then hit the Gladstone gallery on 24^th Street to see Wangechi Mutu’s “Hunt Bury Flee” exhibition. The show had some interesting pieces, but by this point in the tour, I really needed something amazing to put a smile on my face. I found it in the rear space of the gallery where a large collection of what I am calling “fallen angels” were mounted to the three sides of the gallery walls. In horizontal bands these beings seemed to be waiting for battle, or fallen from heaven or up from hell – I wasn’t sure where they were from or where they were going. However, the scale and tactity of this piece was transportative (what I am usually looking for in West Chelsea).The other works of art in the show included banal burlap sculpture and collage paintings that were haunting yet beautiful in their materiality and expressionism. 

http://www.gladstonegallery.com/mutu.asp?id=2133


ELAD LASSRY AT LUHRING AUGUSTINE 

     

I was very hopeful going into Luhring Augustine as they have held some amazing exhibitions recently that really impressed me. However, I was further disappointed to find more banal, immature and unsophisticated works that didn’t seem worthy of the space. Basic photographs of cats, people kissing, half-naked hunks and green tomatoes didn’t really seem to be fitting in a space that a few months ago housed a mind-blowing carousel that still haunts me to this day (in a really great way).

Per the gallery’s press release: In his staged photographs, collages made from found material, and intimately crafted films, Lassry employs seemingly mundane subject matter such as publicity shots, portraits of animals, nondescript landscapes, and still lifes of vegetables. The artist liberates each image from its existing visual history by negating origin, authorship and intentionality. At once disquieting and mesmerizing, Lassry’s compositions are emptied of their associations and compel the viewer to consider a new conceptual space for the picture.

Well this is where the pragmatic side of this journal is at it’s best. Majority of the pictures on the wall of my favorite Chelsea gallery could have been taken by anybody and seemed so amateur as to be laughable. I am a huge advocate for up and coming and new art and going against the mainstream, but here is where even I have to draw the line. http://www.luhringaugustine.com/exhibitions/elad-lassry#

RAUSCHENBERG AT GAGOSIAN 

And finally, I was really hoping for a powerhouse collection by Robert Rauschenberg at Gagosian and boy did I get it. However, I realized as I walked through the massive collection, that I really don’t like Rauschenberg. It’s just not my style, but for those that do, it was a great sample of the artist’s work and some really interesting pieces. My favorite was Untitled (Runts), 2007 (below). A great collage of what I consider true American imagery. However, when I asked for more info from the gallerist I got dismissive and pretentiousness at its best. Really was a great way to end a horrible tour.

http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/2010-10-29_robert-rauschenberg/

Move at PS1

After falling in love with the preview videos on Friday,  I almost didn't make out to Long Island City yesterday. Luckily, my boyfriend convinced me to make the trip and with the E train not running, we got into a zipcar across the 59th Street Bridge to 21st Street. 


It was a madhouse with the expected right-out-of-an-American-Apparel-ad hipster garbage, but we pushed through and made the rounds. This was a clear collection of high highs and low lows. Although I normally love anything with Ryan Trecartin attached to it, his work with a collection of artists with TELFAR, did not keep my attention. Although I don't know how it could when within earshot was Cheryl and American Apparel's room with booming Daft Punk music. Inside, you found a dance party mixed with a make-shift behind-the-runway makeup room. Guests to the museum were getting elobrate and crazy hair and makeup done and then many hung out to dance. It seemed a little provincial, but since it was Halloween and American Apparel - I got over my pretentiousness and moved on. 

I was most excited to get to the second floor to see Rashaad Newsome and Ryan McNamara. Newsome's performance with Alexander Wang wasn't starting till 5pm, so we had about 20 minutes to hit McNamara and Rob Pruitt with Marc Jacobs - both great collaborations. One of the best parts about this event (as I don't know what else to call it) was the gorilla feel as you'd walk through some rooms with no idea what was going on, but since we had a time limit, I kept going. 

Rob Pruitt with Marc Jacobs created an immediate runway show with guests of the museum walking down a made-up runway and then transitioning to the next room to see "live" shots of a Marc Jacobs show, where you are coming down the runway. It was a great way to use current digital media. 

Ryan McNamara with Robert Geller "You Can Dance" had different timed dance lessons with guests also being able to join in on the lesson. Ryan was there as well as a dance instructor (both who obviously had visited the Cheryl/American Apparel space). I am not sure I loved this piece, but I did really enjoy watching how guests interacted with Ryan and the instructor. Some just enjoyed themselves while others really worked hard for perfect steps and ending up on their butt - twice people fell in the 90 minutes we were there, this was the first. The sunlight pouring into the space definitely changing the way I perceived it.

We rushed over to Newsome's side of the museum to wait the 20 minutes for the doors to open. The piece he was doing was an updated version of 2009's Shade Composition. The piece (video clip below) included about 12 men and women acting as a chorus with Newsome the conductor. The singers were also on stage, giving you as much attitude as they could. It was really wonderful and totally worth the wait. It made you think of language and the way we express ourselves. When I got home I watched the original version of this performance on Newsome's website. I totally loved the version at PS1 as there was mixed race and gender plus a whole lot more sass. 

After Newsome, we only had 30 minutes to make it through everything else. We rushed up to the third floor to watch the meditative piece by Brody Condon with Rodarte. With touching rods, five performers moved throughout the space without letting the ends separate. It was very intoxicating but we had to move on.

We made it just in time to watch Olaf Breuning pour paint all over a model in a Cynthia Rowley dress. We couldn't get a good view of the model, but the noise on paint splashing all over her was by itself amazing. The model walked away covered in grey paint as an assistant helped her to the next room. Before she could make it, the barefoot model slipped and took the assistant with her. Everyone was ok, but it was amazing as Olaf said it had not happened before and it was clearly the last pour of the weekend. The dresses and other pieces seen below came out really beautiful. This collaboration seemed so obvious, but provided something new, surprising and beautiful.

We ran through the performance pieces on the ground floor. Artist Tauba Auerbach's performance piece had a troop of women on the floor which we had to step over as we kept moving (I think at that moment my boyfriend wanted to kill me for my impatient nature). But we moved on to another performance by Jonah Bokaer in an all black masked Narcisco Rodriguez one piece. It was a dark room and he made slow movements on a black box. I wish we could have stayed longer, but it was already 5:55 and we had to go. 

Chelsea Thursday Openings

Although there were only a few openings yesterday, so I was able to tackle four in about 45-minute in West Chelsea. I am disappointed I didn't make it uptown for Gregory Crewdson before the show closes tomorrow. 

Brice Marden at Matthew Marks
This show was surprisingly amazing. It took me till I got home to realize how much I loved these paintings. The pieces were simple but beautiful and really popped. I can't imagine how much they cost, but their simple beauty is clear in the image below.  I normally steer clear of big name gallery shows, assuming I can see their work in larger museums. However, I have started to appreciate the smaller scale and singular focus of gallery exhibits. This show just opened and it may not hit you at once, but it definitely stayed with me.
http://www.matthewmarks.com/

 

Next up was Bruce Silverstein with works by Michael Wolf and Andre Kertesz. 

(www.brucesilverstein.com)

Both exhibits we're the highlight of the evening. Wolf's photographs were diverse and beautiful. Although some of the urban  imagery was familiar and seemed common, other photographs of people, distorted buildings and snapshots that seemed mischievous left me asking questions and wanting more. I loved the photograph below of the man's face pressed against the glass. To me it is a business man in a stopped taxi playing with a random photgrpaher on the street. I immediately fell in love with this photograph.

 

Another highlight, was a disotrted picture of a familar building in Tribeca. The way the photograph was printed distorted the viewer's perception of the building and the clarity of the image. When you viewed the piece from different angles and distances, it changed in surprising and distorting ways. 

In the back space of the gallery were phenomenal historical black and white photographs. The pictures that struck me were those of everyday people enjoying the sun on what I assume is a summer day in the City. Similar images could be captured in present day New York, but I love the romanticism and the mystery of the two photographs below.  

 

James Casebere at Sean Kelly (www.skny.com)

I was very excited to see this show based on the images I saw online. However, I think I love these works more in theory than in reality. The prints, computer-generated images of suburban landscapes, are pretty amazing, but it was the end of the tour and they were filming and I walked a million miles to get to Sean Kelly's 29th Street gallery, so I didn't spend as much time here as I wanted. These pictures seemed dreamlike and reminded me of stills from a Ryan Trecartin video. I saw them as some imaginary dream-scape created in an Avatar-driven reality. But upon closer inspection, you realize, even though they are computer-generated, they could be Anywhere, USA. It's at that moment, even through an exhausted haze, you realize these fairytale landscapes could be a reality. It was alarming, creepy, disturbing and amazeballs.

Bruce Wolkowitz
(www.brycewolkowitz.com)
Through a packed gallery  the works and images of Abelardo Morell didn't pop or catch my attention. the works were not inspiring or even all that interesting.  I am sorry, but I wasn't really feeling this show. The crowd, however, was very interesting including a Frida Kahlo-look-a-like. The back gallery was covered in continuous dark profile pictures, it was really crowded, so it was hard to see what exactly was going on or the point. It reminded me of the Andy Warhol piece at Dia Beacon (below), but less exciting and more one-note. I am not planning on going back to re-investigate.

Los Angeles Fall 2010

My Los Angeles trip was limited to a few galleries and museums that had new and exciting shows. I was extremely dissapointed to find out I was missing the Dennis Hopper show by three days, but luckily I was able to see Ryan Trecartin's new collection of seven videos - yes, 7! The videos were great - I wish he would upload them to Vimeo as they are almost always better at home than in the gallery. I only had 45 minutes, but that was more than enough as the craziness of Trecartin can only be taken in small doses - at least by me. 

I also made it to the opening of the Resnick Pavilion at LACMA. The building housed a  mix bag of exhibitions, including "European Dress in Detail: 1700-1915" as well as Masterworks of Ancient Mexico and then selections from the  Resnick Collection - it was an odd mix. The Pavilion was open earlier then the other buildings and I totally missed both Catherine Opie and The Sporting Images of Thomas Eakins - sometimes being impaitent is a total downfall.   

 

Then it was off to a quick pop-in to Michael Kohn to see Simmons and Burke "If not Winter". The best part about this show was three large collages that included vocal accompaniment. Under each piece was a pair of headphones that contained another collage of sorts with different sound bites mixed with well-known audio scores from what I believed were mainstream movies. The pieces reminded me of Trecartin, although they were not moving images, the combined chaos of the images and the audio was total overload for my minor jet-lag. 

                                                    

Other pieces in the show included altered photographs, story paintings using words and the first image below which seemed etheral and dream-like - the total opposite of the other works in the show. 

  

I was lucky enough to have a business lunch at Century Park and finally made it the Annenberg Space for Photography. It was a lovely little jewel perched in an oasis of an office park - an urban planners nightmare, but the space was totally alive with pedestrians. The gallery was intimate and clean. The current exhibition was the Pictures of the Year - a great collection of emotional and sometime disturbing works. My favorites are below and more info, including the entire collection on view can be found here

I surprisingly found a parking meter and was able to pop into the Gagosian in Beverly Hills to see Taryn Simon's Contraband - a show of grouped photographs of items seized by the US government at JFK over the artist's five day stay. It includes everything including counterfeit luxury goods, dead animals, pills and everything in-between. The show required a lot of attention but really seemed simple in the end and again I usually turn to Gagosian for powerhouse shows that blow you away. But after Dan Colen in New York and this show in LA, I am left disappointed. http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/2010-09-22_taryn-simon/

Finally, I kept going back and forth if I should attend a lecture at the Hammer by Yoshua Okon, a Mexico City-based artists who has ties to Los Angeles thanks to a MFA from UCLA. In the end, the lecture was much longer than expected but it was wonderful to hear the artist talk about his work and see the interaction with the audience, which was mostly engaging with intelligent questions. I think I just found a new favorite artist -

http://hammer.ucla.edu/residencies/detail/residency_id/17

http://www.yoshuaokon.com/