EXHIBITION REVIEWS March 2011

View of Susan York’s exhibition, showing Corner Column, 2008, and Untitled (Bisecting Wedge), 2010, both graphite; at James Kelly Contemporary.

SUSAN YORK out any narrative reference). Surrounding Untitled (Bisecting Wedge) dramatically JAMES KELLY CONTEMPORARY walls, floors and corners, subtly reflected, pierces a custom-built, freestanding wall. Santa Fe-based artist Susan York rep- draw attention to the surfaces at the Fixed at an angle in the wall, and above resents a new generation of minimalist same time as they dematerialize solid most viewers’ heads, the approximately sculptors. While her formal vocabulary form. That quality of being there and not 500-pound, solid graphite wedge, slightly of columns, beams and slabs is heavily being there may be a visual articulation narrower and lower at one end, does not indebted to such artists as , of York’s long-standing practice of Zen feel precarious, but rather thoughtfully Robert Morris, Carl Andre, , Buddhism. placed and carefully balanced. Engaging John McCracken, Ronald Bladen and Lucy Lippard has written that York’s with but defying gravity, the wedge proj- Richard Serra, her choice of graphite as work “looks more like than it is ects unequally from both sides of the a material (cast solid, kiln-fired, shaped minimalism.” The geometric volumes are wall—less bisecting the wall than empha- into irregular geometric forms with saws slightly skewed so that edges are not all sizing its two opposite sides, and therefore and files, then hand-polished) contributes parallel and angles are not necessarily at two points of view. Ultimately the wedge a sense of warmth, mutability and body 45 degrees: a subtle shifting that activates both traverses and unifies the resulting missing from the industrially fabricated the sculptures, creating a quiet tension spaces on either side. In this way, York’s work of the mid-’60s. For years, York has more felt than seen. reductive forms suggest agency and created contemplative spaces based on York determines the placement of her meaning beyond a minimalist redux. three-dimensional graphite forms installed sculpted forms through a site-sensitive —Harmony Hammond in small rooms. This exhibition consisted response to a particular exhibition space, of six discrete graphite sculptures from but her engagement with architecture is 2008 and ’10, as well as related drawings, visual rather than functional. For example, also in graphite. despite their apparent weight, two identi- In York’s work, the smooth carbon- cal 6-foot-tall “columns” of solid graphite black surfaces both absorb and reflect from 2008, placed in corners of the gallery, light, softening the hard edges of the appeared to float several inches above the cast forms. The condensed and polished floor, suggesting structural support while material creates a sense of weight and providing none. compressed energy (like that found in Sculptures from 2010 feel more active small Joel Shapiro cast bronzes, but with- than her earlier, more contemplative work.