LOOK INTO MY OWL

Sweet Toof is the second part of the double bill at Sartorial Contemporary Art. I told you about Martin Lea Brown in my previous post. Sweet Toof is Brown’s graffiti persona and to further the split, this exhibition is comprised of fine art canvases from the new legend of the street.

Alongside Cyclops and TEK33, Sweet Toof has developed an aesthetic that is recognized throughout the world. The work has been seen on the streets and graduated to gallery settings.

These paintings arrive as a traditional offering away from the aerosol can and back to the establishment of oil on canvas. The trademark gums that launched Sweet Toof are present in these works. Skulls always look as though they’ve heard a good joke, the inclusion of fleshy gums increases this sensation of amusement.

Sweet Toof
13 January - 4 February 2009
Sartorial Contemporary Art
London

The reopening of Martin Lea Brown’s “Fool’s Gold” is quickly approaching. The show was up for a few days before the holidays and now continues through early February. Sartorial Contemporary Art in London is hosting the exhibition of large scale oil paintings.

The “Clown Town” that Brown depicts is full of calamity with a bounty of plunder. The work is intended as a parody of the current economic crisis. The vaudeville villains in these paintings proffer subtle clues to their identities. Neckties and well shined dress shoes peek out at the viewer as evidence of the true thug behind the mask.

“Fool’s Gold” is a double billing with the fine art of Martin Lea Brown’s graff persona, Sweet Toof.

Martin Lea Brown
Fool’s Gold
13 January - 4 February 2009
Sartorial Contemporary Art
London

In 2005 Daryoush Asgar and Elisabeth Gabriel began the collaboration that is known as Asgar/Gabriel. As a pair, they have exhibited widely and are bringing their current body of work to the Mark Moore Gallery.

The large oil paintings carry the sensation of collage. Elements in the picture plane seem to be pasted on with paint intruding between the layers. It is a powerful effect as an audience rarely gets to see collage at this scale.

Asgar/Gabriel have embraced media culture and the bombardment of visual stimulation that has arisen from this relatively new convention. They have dispensed their fascination with ocular inundation via complex scenarios and saturated color. The artists are clearly concerned with the new but there is a strong art historical background evident in each pose and overall composition.

Asgar/Gabriel
Bucolica Obscura
10 January - 14 February 2009
Mark Moore Gallery
Santa Monica, CA

Back in July I told you about the permanent installation of “Swimming Pool” by Leandro Erlich in Kanazawa, Japan.

Japan may not be in your immediate travel plans but New York is an easy trip for anyone in the States. There is always a good reason to hit the city. Get there by mid September and head to Long Island City and check out the installation at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.

Ten years ago while Erlich was working on his first pool he visited P.S.1. At the time he thought the duplex at the museum would be the perfect spot for “Swimming Pool”. Now you can experience the piece as the artist first envisioned it.

Leandro Erlich
Swimming Pool
19 October 2008 - 14 September 2009
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
Long Island City, NY

Next week the P.P.O.W Gallery opens their eighth solo show with Teun Hocks. The exhibit “New Works” is comprised of photographs, drawings and videos.

In his photography, Hocks often uses himself as the main focus. The artist makes drawings of these scenarios and then takes a black and white photo of the constructed scene in his studio. The resultant photographs are then processed and hand colored with thinned oil paint.

There is a sense of frustration and loneliness in these works. It seems as though Teun Hocks uses this imagery to avoid or overcome these feelings. The subject often appears in the prone position or sleeping. This sense of relaxation enhances the dreamlike quality of the prints and confirms the nod toward the surreal.

Teun Hocks
New Works
8 January - 7 February 2009
P·P·O·W
NYC

This past weekend Patricia Low Contemporary unveiled a solo show of paintings by Gregor Warzecha. The small scale works are primarily oil on canvas with a few pieces completed in acrylic.

Identity is obscured in these hazy portraits. The features have been rendered and ceded to reinvestigation lending a time lapse quality to the work.

Warzecha’s delight in the playful adaptation of reality is notable in “Splinter1″ (above). A covered model has been seated in front of a salon style hanging of earlier work. Depictions of the subject and background are handled accurately but content choice returns the focus to painterly concerns.

Gregor Warzecha
Ekhaoos
27 December 2008 - 28 January 2009
Patricia Low Contemporary
Gstaad, Switzerland

Bjarne Melgaard brought a wide array of work for his recent solo show at the spacious Galerie Guido W. Baudach in Berlin. “A Kidwhore in Manhattan - A Novel” has reached terminus but I thought it was still worth a look.

Furniture featuring fabric designed by Melgaard filled the space. The beds and chairs were set at intervals leading viewers through the disjointed narrative of a young male prostitute. The gallery hints that the installation as a whole could be considered a self portrait. The attention given to the placement of the art in the space created a safe place to deal with an awkward subject.

The paintings are riddled with phallic reference. Many tributaries have been forged from this content particularly in the past fifty years. Success in the genitalia genre exists independent from the bodily reference. The art is still accountable to aesthetic appreciation and Melgaard proves accomplished.

The exhibit took a decidedly multimedia approach which involved paintings, drawings, photographs, videos, neon poems and furniture. This path made the show more of an installation than a stark showing of a particular format.

Bjarne Melgaard
A Kidwhore in Manhattan
A Novel
1 November - 20 December 2008
Galerie Guido W. Baudach
Berlin

Corin Hewitt has set up his rather unusual studio in the Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz Lobby Gallery at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Each weekend since October Hewitt has entertained museum visitors with a glimpse into his process as it happens.

The corners of the room are open so that the actions of the artist are visible from four perspectives. The studio lighting and food processing are reminiscent of a cooking show but there are complex systems at work on and in every surface. Worms are at busy digesting polaroids in the root cellar, food is growing, cooking and decaying throughout the space.

The effort that Hewitt puts into these systems award him with materials that he arranges into still lifes. These results are photographed, printed and framed within the “Seed Stage”. The finished works are displayed on the exterior walls of the studio for public consumption. If you have already seen this exhibit it may be a good plan to have another look to complete the experience. This is a living piece and an excellent means to understanding motive and method.

Corin Hewitt
Seed Stage
3 October 2008 - 4 January 2009
Whitney Museum of American Art
NYC

The Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston is wrapping up an exhibit of seventeen works from Tara Donovan. This is the first major museum survey for the accomplished artist. All of the sculptures were created over the past decade including a piece that was commissioned by the ICA for the exhibit. Two weeks prior to the opening, Donovan was named one of twenty five to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.

Tara Donovan creates with small objects obsessively connected into large structures. These sculptural installations are composed cell by cell utilizing techniques often associated with craft. The materials employed are generally basic household items such as in the piece “Styrofoam Cups” (above). Donovan’s work transcends ordinary supplies and techniques into a resplendent infinity.

The artist has referred to her sculptures as “site-responsive”. It is important that the lighting and placement of the pieces maximize the feeling of intrusion into the gallery space. As grand as the installations are it is the sensation of uncounted vastness existing beyond the point of entry that humbles each encounter.

The exhibit in Boston ends on January 4th so hurry over while you have the chance. Luckily, this show has wheels and will travel to Cincinnati, Des Moines and San Diego concluding early in 2010.

Tara Donovan
10 October 2008 - 4 January 2009
The Institute for Contemporary Art
Boston

7 February - 11 May 2009
Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art
Cincinnati

19 June - 13 September 2009
Des Moines Arts Center

10 October 2009 - 16 January 2010
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

The Approach is hosting a selection of recent oil paintings from Phillip Allen. It is the third solo show the artist has had with the gallery.

In reworking the surfaces Allen has developed his own visual language culled from the tenet of classic abstraction. The iconic signatures exist as remnants of a body of work forever covered in paint. The painter insists that the imagery should not be approached too literally. These paintings are celebrations of form, color, figure and ground.

The heavy paint that spans the top and bottom edges of each piece behaves like a framing device and recalls colors all but lost in the mix of finding the focus. The thickness of the extremities contrast the washes present in the central plane and create an interesting figure ground reversal. This effect tricks the eye into flattening what may initially be interpreted as a spatial landscape.

Phillip Allen
Sloppy Cuts No Ice
20 November 2008 - 17 January 2009
The Approach W1
London

Kate Gilmore is showing four videos at Smith-Stewart. Three were created this year and the fourth was made from a site specific performance in the gallery.

Gilmore sets the stage for her temerarious performances and lets the camera roll as the action occurs in one take. The work is centered on ideas of breaking down barriers that either confine or support. Denouement occurs through the search for freedom along the path to self destruction.

Each performance is highlighted with wardrobe choices that are at odds with the violent behavior. The artist wears construction yellow high heels in “Between a Hard Place” (below) and proceeds to use them to kick large holes through five layers of gray drywall. Gilmore continues through each wall along a twenty four foot corridor until she exposes a final surface that has been painted yellow to match the heels.

Be sure to head over to Kate Gilmore’s website to watch clips from her videos.

Kate Gilmore
21 November 2008 - 18 January 2009
Smith-Stewart
NYC

Robilant & Voena in partnership with Phillips de Pury & Company are exhibiting the latest paintings from Julian Schnabel at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

Schnabel spent this past summer alfresco on Montauk, Long Island creating these pieces that took the form of a mark making diary. Seven of the ten finished paintings are currently on display.

The inspiration for the ground of this work originated with a Chinese mirror the artist found more than two decades ago. Schnabel describes the coupling of the background with the calligraphic action of these paintings as “a serendipitous coincidence.”

Here is a story that aired earlier this month. The interviewer conducts himself without grace but it is worth watching to sneak a peek into Julian Schnabel’s life.

Julian Schnabel
Untitled (Chinese Paintings)
9 October 2008 - 18 January 2009
Saatchi Gallery
London