VGALLERY&STUDIOOL. 6 NO. 5 JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 New York The World of the Working Artist

AA MUSEUMMUSEUM GROWSGROWS ININ BROOKLYNBROOKLYN

With a spectacular new entrance pavilion and its OPEN HOUSE exhibition, the BROOKLYN MUSEUM celebrates a NEW ERA. KELYNN Z. ALDER Transmigration of the Female Figure Dorothy A. Culpepper June 8 – 26, 2004 Dedicated to Charles H. Culpepper

“Time Stands Still,” Monotype, 32" x 20" VIRIDIAN ARTISTS 530 W 25th St., NY, NY 10001 Telephone (212) 414- 4040 www.viridianartists.com

“One-Stop POP!” Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Installation

“Wired” acrylic with wire (detail)

July 12 - 31, 2004

“gartered monalisa” 2004 mixed media on paper 21x23" Reception: July 15, 6 - 8pm July 13-July 31, 2004 Reception: July 17, 3-6pm

530 West 25 St., 4th Fl., New York, NY 10001 PLEIADES Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11-6 pm 646-230-0056/Fax 646-230-0056 GALLERY www.pleiadesgallery.com

GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 Joe Naujokas Views of Views-Empire Manhattan June 8 - July 9, 2004 Catalogue Available Joe Naujokas, Tribeca Wichita, 2003, oil on linen, 60 x Wichita, Tribeca Joe Naujokas,

July 13 - September 4, 2004 Abstract Paintings: A Second Look N. Carone, J. Ernst, T. Ferrara J. Ferren, P. Fine R. Goodnough, G. Greene J. Grillo, B.Y. Isobe J. Jansen, J Kainen, F. Lobdell A. Lloyd, F. Mitchell, S. Pace J. Schueler, Y. Thomas, J. Tworkov John Ferren, Machu, 1959, oil on canvas, 36 x 26 in

KATHARINA RICH PERLOW GALLERY Contemporary Painting Sculpture Photography The Fuller Building, 41 East 57th Street, New York, NY 10022 Phone 212/644-7171 Fax 212/644-2519 Email [email protected] G&S Marilyn Henrion, pg. 5 Highlights Dorothy A. Culpepper, pg. 8 On the Cover: Brooklyn boasts more artists than any other borough of New York City and the second largest art museum in the nation. With its sprawling “Open House” exhibition and a recent face-lift, the Brooklyn Museum is ready for its close-up.– See New York Notebook (centerfold). Kim, Poong-Young, pg. 25

Ina Wishner, pg. 13

Oh, Hyun- Young, pg. 32

Joe Naujokas, pg. 4

Roland-McLean, pg. 12

Barbara Beatrice, Ruth Poniarski, pg. 6 pg. 11

GALLERY&STUDIO An International Art Journal PUBLISHED BY © EYE LEVEL, LTD. 2004 Spanish artists, pg. 23 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED James Grashow, pg. 31 217 East 85th Street, PMB 228, New York, NY 10028 (212) 861-6814 E-mail: [email protected] EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Jeannie McCormack MANAGING EDITOR Ed McCormack SPECIAL EDITORIAL ADVISOR Margot Palmer-Poroner DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Karen Mullen CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Juliet M. Ross Sandra Gottlieb, pg. 15 Eun Soon Lim, pg. 29

2 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 Kelynn Z. Alder’s Contribution to the Civilizing Continuum eauty and innocence are so rarely standing and stroking the little yellow Bequated in contemporary art that bird against a background of vibrant blue encountering the combination can be wallpaper flecked with delicate floral quite startling. But this is just one of sev- designs. While indeed communicating eral surprises to be seen in a new solo “the gentle respect between two of God’s exhibition by Kelynn Z. Alder at Viridian creatures” in the serene set of the child’s Artists @ Chelsea, 530 West 25th Street, features, her tender regard for the bird, from June 8 through 26. (There will be a and the latter’s bright and trusting little reception on Saturday, June 12, from 4 to eye, Alder also employs form and color to 7 PM and the artist will also be available enliven the picture in purely visual terms, at the gallery for coffee and conversation animating and unifying the composition on Saturday June 19, from 3 to 5 PM.) with bold, virtuoso strokes that eschew A previous exhibition in the same fussy descriptive detail yet capture the venue in 1991 established Alder–– who subject with impressive verisimilitude. has also been an illustrator for The New Other monotypes in the exhibition York Times Book Review, The New depict more fully grown female nudes yet Yorker, and other publications, as well as manage to retain a similar sense of inno- an instructor at the School of Visual cence. In one, the figure of a slender Arts–– as one of our leading exponents of young woman is seen from behind, seat- documentary realism. Alder’s paintings ed on a blue floor beside a little bird and monotypes of people on the Coney perched as though singing to her on top Island Boardwalk, in Mexican market- of a gilded cage. Here, the aquamarine places, and in other locales combined wallpaper with bold white floral designs insightful portraiture with local color in a and the flattening of the various elements manner that provoked favorable compar- on the picture plane lend the composi- isons to Toulouse Lautrec and Honore “The Communion I” tion a decorative formality akin to a Daumier. And one might have expected Matisse odalisque. her to make a productive and profitable humanitarian protest, the other side of Equally lovely in another manner is a career out of continuing in that vein. man’s inhumanity to man and animals. It is monotype of a statuesque standing nude Certainly she had staked out fertile territory a universal prayer that the world will gazing down bemusedly at a turtle for herself and she was very good at making become a more gentle and peaceful place for trundling toward her on a grassy green the most of it. our children and our animals.” expanse. Above them is an area of vibrant Then came terrorist attacks of 9/11, fol- One of the most beautiful monotypes in blue that could suggest a sky. However, like lowed by the increasingly brutal and dis- the exhibition depicts a preadolescent girl the green area below, it is laid down in loose turbing war in Iraq, and everything slumped in a colorful patchwork chair gestural strokes through which small changed. Like many of us, Kelynn Z. Alder besides a yellow guitar, stroking a small yel- abstract designs appear to bleed in the man- was forced to do some serious soul search- low bird perched on her hand. This could ner of pentimento, lending the composition ing. Up until that time, Alder had been have been a perilously ambiguous image, a quality more symbolic than naturalistic. depicting the world as she saw it. Now, as given that the child is nude but for a pink This effect is further enhanced by a radiant the artist puts it, she felt a need to depict floral ribbon in her blond hair. In the hands glow around the head of the standing nude “the way I wish the world was”; to “dig of a lesser artist, a subject such as this could which, coupled with her brown bangs, the deeper into my own inner world, in an have veered close to certain paintings by shawl-like drape of her hair and the modest attempt to bring to the surface images that Balthus or those coy Victorian photographs downward direction of her gaze, suggests give me some amount of peace,” and to of little girls by Lewis Caroll that now pro- the halo of a saint in a Christian icon. Yet, make each image “a type of prayer.” voke a slight squeamishness in the eye of the paradoxically, at the same time, the picture Kelynn calls her new exhibition beholder. But there is not a trace of perverse has a wild innocence of a sort that we asso- “Transmigration of the Female Figure,” a “Pretty Baby” tawdriness in Alder’s image. ciate with a painter such as Gauguin. title which has considerable spiritual reso- What we see instead is a purity that bespeaks In contrast to the previously described nance, since the word “transmigration” the personification of innocence. Even while monotypes, which appear more grounded in refers to the passage of a soul at death into availing herself and her subject of all the reality by their domestic interiors, here the another either human or animal form. This rosy irradiations of realism, such as we see in outdoor setting suggests the more rarefied phenomenon, also known as “metempsy- the nudes of masters like Renoir and atmosphere of a mystical allegory. The chosis” is symbolized in Alder’s recent Bonnard, Alder shields this beautiful child heightened color and lyrical thrust of the monotypes of female nudes communing from the more salacious aspects of the male composition also assume qualities akin to with small creatures such as birds or turtles. gaze, imparting to her the transcendently the Symbolist works of Redon and Moreau. “I wanted to communicate the gentle angelic quality that is the true attribute of It is these vital connections to the art of respect between two of God’s divine crea- childhood. the past that give weight and depth to tures, the smaller one no less important than One might might wonder how it is pos- Kelynn Z. Alder’s recent monotypes, mak- the larger one,” Alden says of these works, sible for Alder to accomplish such a feat ing them more than visions of wishful think- each of which is a series of no more than without verging on the banal, if the answer ing, mere visual prayers for a better world. six pieces. “It’s as if they are one, united by were not so self-evident in the work itself: Rather, like all good art, Alder’s work is a mutual understanding. Birds in particular by virtue of a thorough grounding in art part of a civilizing continuum that serves as are very symbolic of spiritual freedom. history which enables her to skirt sentimen- a counterweight to our world’s random evil. Although I cannot say that I belong to any tality through formal stringency. Witness in ecclesiastical denomination, my hope is that this regard another recent monotype of the the message will be interpreted more as a same child, seen only from the waist up, ––Ed McCormack

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 3 Joe Naujokas: Juggling Memory and Urban Complexity doubt, or at least hope, that I am not the Ionly one who has ever had the experience of reading a novel that takes place in, say, 17th century Poland, and suddenly realizing midway through that I have been mentally setting some of its scenes in an obscure cof- fee shop cum dim sum parlor that I some- times frequent in Chinatown. Admittedly, to someone with an espe- cially linear way of looking at things, this might sound a bit bizarre. But I suspect that Joe Naujokas, who seems to under- stand something about the crazy simul- taneity of our mental processes that escapes many other artists, would know what I am talking about. Naujokas, the recent recipient of the 2004 $10,000 Grant from the Pennsylvania Arts Council, is a unique type of metaphysi- cal realist, in that he paints the reality of the mind rather than merely that of the eye. Most of us carry a plethora of images around with us, fragments of past places and things, that we superimpose on the present in the simultaneous process of seeing and thinking. Dreams and daydreams are layered and overlap in consciousness in a manner that makes what we actually see only part of the story. Surely what happened in the past is every bit as real to us–– and at times even more real, when it involves either traumatic events or cherished memories–– as what we are experiencing in the present moment. “Chelsea Empire One” It is the peculiar poetry of this complex layering of inner and outer realities as it panels of baltic birch or oak plywood. These thesis of realist rendering and cubist struc- relates particularly to New York City that materials, redolent of tradition and history, turing. Meticulous technique coupled with Joe Naujokas captures so convincingly in his empower him not merely to approximate or formal rigor enables Naujokas to work up solo exhibition “Views of Views –– Empire imitate our contemporary condition of sen- sketches he made from the top of the World Manhattan,” at Katharina Rich Perlow sory overload but to impose upon its chaos Trade Center just before 9/11 and incorpo- Gallery, in The Fuller Building, 41 East the kind of sublime order which we have rate them with other elements in his vertigi- 57th Street, from June 8 through July 9. always demanded of art that aspires to nous urban vistas; or, in paintings such as The city at this very moment in its history something more eternal. “Midtown Construction Paper” and is an especially rich source of the kind of When Naujokas combines in one painting “Chelsea Empire One,” to superimpose imagery that Naujokas works with, since it is meticulously detailed images of two cities in trompe l’oeil images of cut and taped paper really a three dimensional multimedia col- which he has lived at different times in his over his stringent architectural geometries lage anyway, what with flickering digital bill- life, then further complicates the composi- and enliven them with flowing, ribbon-like boards and video monitors everywhere to tion by superimposing a spill-over of odds forms that tweak in a more pristine tech- be seen; not to mention film crews clogging and ends from his studio (a tall stool, a nique the gestural flourishes and fabled the streets wherever one goes, usurping real- flower pot, a small painting within the paint- “push and pull” of Abstract Expressionism. ity with fantasy, juggling fact and fiction ing, and other real-looking yet less readily Such sly aesthetic gamesmanship bears (just as Naujokas does when we can’t imme- identifiable objects), as he does in the large out what other critics have already noted: diately tell whether a section of one of his oil on linen entitled “Wichita Tribeca,” the that Naujokas shares certain affinities with compositions is a painting within the paint- result should be disconcerting, to say the 19th century still life illusionists like William ing or a view through the studio window); least. Logically, an architectural melange of Harnett and John Peto, who anticipated the and everyone walking around talking into New York and Kansas with sundry other slapdash insouciance of collage with their cell phones, so that they are literally in one things thrown in for good measure should painstaking techniques. Only, Naujokas’ place and figuratively in another... be as visually jarring as one of those puzzles work is considerably more ambitious for It seems all the more remarkable that Joe that McDonald’s puts on its paper place what it tells us about seeing, remembering, Naujokas evokes this sense of being in sever- mats, showing a hodgepodge of weirdly jux- and the nature of consciousness itself. al different mental spaces simultaneously taposed cartoon images with the caption Joe Naujokas, who has exhibited at that is now the common lot of urban men “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery for several and women not through multimedia instal- Naujokas, however, manages to make years and who is represented in numerous lations or through any of the new techno- even the most unlikely juxtapositions of important private and public collections, is logical means that some artists employ to buildings and objects in his panoramic an immensely gifted painter whose pictures express the fragmented nature of postmod- cityscapes cohere harmoniously by virtue of both perplex and delight us with their sin- ern reality, but in the time-honored medium a style that Nancy Grimes, a critic for Art in gular angle of vision and their dazzling of oil paints, either on canvas or on large America, accurately characterized as a syn- complexity. ––Ed McCormack 4 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 Inner and Outer Horizons in the Art of Marilyn Henrion

p until now, most of the women artists Ugranted The Brisons Veor Residency, in Cape Cornwall, England, have been painters. Marilyn Henrion, however, is one of our leading fiber artists, represented in major collections here and abroad, and the unique qualities of the works that resulted from her residency there in the summer of 2003 can be seen in her vibrant solo show, “Cornwall: Inside/Outside,” at Noho Gallery in Chelsea, 530 West 25th Street, from June 1 through 19. Known for its abandoned copper and tin mines and its picturesque Neolithic ruins, Cape Cornwall, with its unearthly light and its untamed landscape of craggy cliffs and crashing surf, is reminiscent of the remote area of the Scottish highlands where the mercurial Abstract Expressionist painter Jon Schueler exiled himself in the 1950s. In this remote, rugged place on the west- ernmost tip of England, where high winds and hurricane gales frequently batter the shore, Henrion lived and worked in a gran- ite cottage on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Traversing the moors on foot, she took inspiration from Neolithic burial sites, the ruins of the mines, and fields of wildflowers, for two distinctly different yet parallel series of works. Both reveal the complex and innovative sensibility of this artist who par- ticipated in the avant garde Happenings of the 1960s, in the wake of the Beat Generation, and went on to become one of the leading lights of the fiber arts movement “Cornwall Journal #21” when it was revitalized by the rise of femi- nism in the 1970s. however, the images lend the compositions Henrion has described her “Innerspace” One series, “Cornwall Journals,” focuses an extra-formal dimension, opening up areas series as “architectural spaces” that “serve as on the external visual images Henrion of the picture plane in the manner of so metaphor for one’s inner life,” and the over- encountered as she explored the local land- many windows to reveal glimpses of light whelming sense that comes across in the scape, transforming her photographs of it and implied perspective. works in the series influenced by her stay in into digital images printed on cloth and In an almost cinematic yet non-sequential Cape Cornwall is of the great inner stillness hand-stitched. The other is a group of hand manner, we are afforded glimpses of the that can only be discovered in utter solitude. pierced and stitched silk constructions, the landscape and related elements, as though In contrast to the brilliant colors, baroque medium for which Henrion is best known. seen through a cubistically fractured kaleido- floral patterns, and lush silver and gold bro- These are a continuation of the scope: densely piled stones, presumably cades in Henrion’s exhibition “Night “Innerspace” series begun several years ago, from ruins, juxtaposed with areas of grass Thoughts,” in the same venue in November albeit informed by the inner sense of time- and sky; close-ups of lengths of rhythmically of 2002 (except for one small study in lessness and solitude she discovered in Cape rippling, light-reflecting waves, suddenly which patterned fabrics are used sparingly) , Cornwall. abutted by incongruously positioned land the new compositions at Noho Gallery are One is immediately struck by what a cre- masses or severely cropped boulders; archi- created with relatively subdued, subtly har- atively fertile experience the residency was tectural details dispersed as in a jigsaw puz- monized color areas. Their geometric for Henrion, judging from the sheer volume zle and intermingled with fragments of forms––solar or lunar circles; intersecting or and quality of work she produced. The foliage; thick, fibrous coils of rope, suggest- interlocking rectangles, suggesting limitless “Cornwall Journal” series is an especially ing the rugged implements of fishermen, set horizons or infinite depth–– convey a sense exciting discovery for viewers unfamiliar within a grid of brilliant blue hues. of inner spaces that have broadened and with this more imagistic aspect of her oeu- In “Cornwall Journal,” not only does expanded to match the vastness of the outer vre. The photographic images in each piece Marilyn Henrion share a privileged sense of landscape. of the series are enclosed within a circle set the substance, light, and atmosphere of this The stately minimalism of the new work centrally against a colorful silk ground, as in ancient, distant place; she also employs its seduces us with its austerity, demonstrating a tondo. The images themselves are spliced local color and natural textures to mirror, even more than in previous exhibitions the and fragmented in a manner recalling those on a more intimate scale, the visual and tac- formal strengths that make Marilyn Henrion early Cubist studies by Picasso and Braque tile pleasures that she provides the viewer not only one of our most innovative fiber in which a circular format was employed to through the use of different patterns and artists but one of the more compelling set off the shifting planes created with verti- fabrics in her larger, more familiar composi- artists at work in any medium today. cal and horizontal lines. In Henrion’s pieces, tions in pierced and stitched silk. ––Ed McCormack

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 5 Art History Meets Fantasy in the Paintings of Ruth Poniarski uth Poniarski has evolved what Ramounts to a repertory company to enact the fantastic theatrical tableaux that take place inside her head. Certain actors recur in her paintings from exhibition to exhibition, although in different scenes. Most often they are appropriated from art history or ancient mythology. Rodin’s Thinker appears in various contexts; Botticelli’s Venus as well. Water fowl such as geese play supporting roles, since water is a prominent element in Poniarski’s dreamy nocturnal landscapes. The imagistic incongruity that is also prominent in Ruth Poniarski’s paintings is especially pronounced in her new exhi- bition “The Cloak of Athens, “which opens on July 8 and runs through the 24th, at Jadite Gallery, 413 West 50th Street. Especially witty is “The Eclipse of Atlas,” where The Thinker, aka Atlas, inhabits a leaf-strewn autumn wood equipped, like a cozy living room, with a table lamp and an old fashioned TV con- “The Eclipse of Atlas” sole. Under a full moon in a starry sky number of interpretations. Poniarski’s memory and she gives them that also includes a large planetary orb, a Poniarski’s work engages the viewer in new life by juxtaposing them in new con- slightly frumpy woman in a pink a manner that makes it necessary for him texts, along with other intriguing anom- bathrobe is making her way between the or her to be almost as imaginative as the alies such as a semi transparent leopard trees, bringing him a midnight snack in a artist herself in order to fathom such that can perch in mid-air or an equally big red bowl, while a semi-transparent visions as: Venus reclining in a bathing ethereal woman who merges with the fox walks right through a tree trunk as it suit on the horizon where the water night sky and the ocean, as she wrings a slinks through the forest. meets a pale purple sky, while a befuddled stream of water from her hair into a large Does the title suggest that Atlas’ white goose looks on from the shore; sea shell. eclipse has to do with a descent into The Thinker pondering a fat white rab- Ruth Poniarski imbues such unlikely mundane domesticity? Possibly. One of bit, while a dead ringer for the Mona Lisa phenomena with a remarkable verisimili- the pleasures in the paintings of Ruth lifts her skirts to dip her toe in a nearby tude by virtue of her flawless technique. Poniarski is never knowing exactly where stream; or the title picture, “Cloak of Her ability to make material and ethereal she is coming from, so to speak, or where Athens,” where the main elements are a elements equally palpable in pigment her unfettered narrative imagination will huge red rose, a female wader reminis- makes her unique synthesis of fantasy and take her next. For the myths that she cent of Rembrandt, and a magnificent art history as aesthetically pleasing as it is chooses to interpret are invariably launch- vista of Athens’ white ruins spilling down imaginatively engaging. ing pads for flights of fancy that branch from distant hills. out in several directions simultaneously, Figures from disparate periods of art ––J. Sanders Eaton leaving her pictures open to an endless history obviously live vividly in Ruth

Metamorphosis THE June 10th - June 30th, 2004 Reception: Thursday, June 10th, 6-8pm BROOME STREET GALLERY Evelyne Drouot Jordania Goldberg Hamish Ground floor, 1,300 sq. ft. Lisa Shrigley Exhibition space rental available

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 12-6pm 498 Broome Street, New York, NY 10013 530 West 25th Street, Chelsea NY, NY 10001 Agora 212 - 226 - 4151 / Fax: 212 - 966 - 4380 Tel: (212) 941-0130 Gallery www.Agora-Gallery.com / www.Art-Mine.com

6 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 Discovering “The New Introspection” at New Century Artists ne of the trends that has emerged Oin the 2004 Whitney Biennial is drawing as a full fledged medium, as opposed to a preliminary step toward painting. Two draftspersons exemplify- ing this trend were featured in “Express: Five Emerging Artists,” seen recently at New Century Artists, Inc, 530 West 25th Street. Linda Ganus makes large drawings in charcoal on paper and graphite on vel- lum, mediums which she sometimes combines in layered configurations to create intriguing visual metaphors. In Ganus’ “Things Left Unsaid” a long, horizontal, scroll-like charcoal drawing is Fritz E. Erismann Mark Lerer George Olexa overlaid with two graphite images on semi- Who” school, transparent vellum of a woman and a yet they also schooner, both suspended from delicate manage to twigs. In her “Die Krähe,” tiny sculpted convey a sur- birds perch on bare branches streaming out prisingly subtle of a clear glass vase. Entangled among the range of emo- branches, a delicate drawing of a young man tions. In looks as though it has been blown there by Erismann’s oil, the wind, creating a peculiarly poetic effect. “Puzzle,” for Also quite powerful is a very large drawing example, a by Ganus called “The Death of Actaeon,” in man whose which the stag-headed hunter of the ancient face appears myth sports a modern business suit and reconstructed appears entrapped by a maze of sinuous from shattered tree-trunks. His corporate garb tips us off shards of Linda Ganus that this particular Actaeon may be guilty of stained glass more sophisticated crimes than spying on a ponders some- goddess bathing naked in a stream. thing with hand to cheek and large haunted Mark Lerer works in the most elementary eyes. By contrast, another engaging portrait Linda Dujack and mundane of mediums–– pencil on (punningly titled “Mona Misa”) is limned in collage, chine colle and monoprint which paper–– to create drawings that celebrate flat areas of brilliant color contained within conjure up a lively array of abstract forms graphic masters ranging from Rodin to graceful lines in a manner reminiscent of and symbols. The intimate scale of Dujack’s comic book artist Jack Kirby. One can’t clas- Matisse. Rather than imposing a signature compositions complements their eloquent sify Lerer as an “appropriationist,” since he style on each of his portrait heads, Fritz linear ecriture, as seen in one especially makes no attempt to imitate the styles of the Erismann lets each subject dictate his formal engaging composition called “So Good,” artists he copies. Rather, he creates new means, relying on the strength and convic- where scrawled forms and phrases converge compositions based on their works with a tion of his vision to imbue his paintings with with a funky elegance simultaneously akin to scratchy yet skillful earnestness, showing a more authentic consistency. the miniaturist sensibility of Paul Klee and equal regard for high and low artistic Photographer George Olexa captures the the graffiti energy of Jean Michel Basquiat–– sources. In Lerer’s drawing “Three color, speed, and mood of the city in his if one can possibly imagine such an unlikely Burghers of Calais,” Rodin’s figures engage digital prints of such subjects as walls and synthesis! us from a new angle, as though we are doors covered with shredded posters and Dujack has a unique ability to convey standing among the trio of rough-hewn graffiti; reflected buildings and stretches of emotional qualities with simple shapes, as men, while in “The Sub-Mariner (Flying sky melting in the facades of glass towers; seen in “Together,” where a pair of abstract Overhead),” a superhero originally drawn traffic streaming between concrete canyons, forms as reductive as chess pieces or clothes- by the cartoonist Gene Colan takes on an and pedestrians traversing the urban miasma pins suggest all the complexity of a loving aspect akin to one of William Blake’s vision- like shadowy phantoms. relationship. Equally evocative are ary figures, as he soars above the tops of Olexa seems to view the entire city as a a group of tiny collages in which Linda tenements. In the latter drawings, as in found collage, constantly in flux, charged Dujack employs rectangular shapes, delicate “The Origin of the Human Torch, after with light and movement. His pictures tonalities, and gauzy textures to explore aus- Jack Kirby,” Mark Lerer revamps and ele- freeze its crazy simultaneity in formal stasis tere spatial tensions and project an exquisite vates scorned styles and subjects, demon- with compositions that impose order on its visual poetry. strating that almost anything can be grist for multileveled chaos. In some pictures, deli- Each of the artists in this skillfully curated his fertile graphic mill. cate pastel hues create poetic atmospheres, exhibition seemed to exemplify the subjec- Swiss-born Fritz E. Erismann is a painter while in others brasher colors conspire with tive, introspective stance that has emerged with his own peculiar perspective on the art the rugged tactility of steel and concrete to become a dominant tendency in much of of portraiture. Erismann’s faces have a bold, surfaces to convey the gritty drama of urban the best recent art. art brut immediacy, with their brilliant col- reality in all its tarnished beauty. ––Peter Wiley ors and distorted features. They possess a Printmaker Linda Dujack is represented crude zaniness akin to Chicago’s “Hairy here with a group of works in drypoint,

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 7 Elegy and Celebration: The New Paintings of Dorothy A. Culpepper

uch postmodern abstraction Mis anti-romantic, in reaction to the emotional/intuitive ethos of Abstraction Expressionism, which still activates oedipal impulses in many painters over a half century after the heyday of that most influential of all American art movements. This is generally as true for postmodern gestural painting as it is for the more geometric tendency laced with irony that was briefly labeled Neo Geo but continues undesig- nated as such since that term fell under critical fire for its trivializ- ing implications.

Dorothy A. Culpepper, howev- er, is something of an anomaly in the contemporary art world: an abstract painter who works with poured paint and pours her heart and soul into every gesture that she puts on paper or canvas. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, raised in Albuquerque, Culpepper has exhibited widely in New Mexico, as well as in Paris and New York. In the latter city, her exhibitions at Montserrat Gallery, in Soho, have been especially well received. One can safely speculate that their enthusiastic critical reception has to do with the fact that Culpepper’s emotive style is a welcome change from so many of the calculated strategies one sees in the Big Apple nowadays. Unlike a lot of other ambitious painters scrambling to get a leg up in the art capital of the world, Culpepper does not hedge her bets; her all-out commitment to following the painterly process wherever it decides to take her makes every painting a risk-filled adventure.

Culpepper has stated that she regards paint as “an extension of my feelings or moods” and this dictates that her approach “has to be spontaneous.” And indeed her paintings do seem to combust “Explosive”

8 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 and erupt in spontaneous configura- this writer’s part, it is nonetheless strik- auras that are distinctly different from tions more akin to natural events than ing how Culpepper’s use of white in the work of Pollock or any other to calculated compositions. Confronted her newest paintings seems to enhance painter who has come after him. by one of her large lyrical works one their elegiac, as well as their celebrato- has the sense of being drawn into an ry, qualities. These, too, are some of These qualities are at their apex in emotional epicenter or sucked into a this artist’s most gesturally energetic the large painting in a vertical format vortex of feelings with gale force. works, as though in the process of cre- entitled “Explosive,” with its looming ating them, Culpepper was working her monolithic oval form composed of The effect has never been more way through darkness to light, pushing splashy layerings of red, blue, yellow, powerful than in Culpepper’s newest clouds aside and reaching toward the green, and white texturally enhanced by exhibition, which can be seen at rebirth of joy and wonder that can scattering of nails. Whereas some of the Montserrat Gallery, 584 Broadway, come of weathering a long dark night other compositions are overall concen- from July 12 through 31. Perhaps part of the soul. trations of color and gesture that cover of the reason for this is that the title of the entire surface, here lightly spattered the show, “Dedicated to Charles H. The densely layered, swirling surfaces areas of white remain around the edges, Culpepper, ”in memory of the artist’s of these new paintings are further defining the central form as a separate recently deceased husband, telegraphs enlivened by nails, lengths of wire, bits entity in space. that the emotional force field that the of broken glass (which Culpepper has viewer is entering in this exhibition is stated may represent “lives, dreams or In other recent paintings, such as especially strong. Naturally, this knowl- plans that are broken and maybe “Folded Space” and “Wired,” edge, of itself, helps to evoke an elegiac restructured later”) scattered into the Culpepper employs actual folds in the mood. Yet, at the same time there is pigment and over the surface of the surface of the painting to create sudden also the sense of a life being celebrated compositions. These rough physical ele- shifts in the direction of the drips as as well. Indeed, the sheer effusiveness ments, which appear to have been liter- well as textural effects further enhanced of Culpepper’s style invariably conveys ally swept in the emotional storm, lend by twisted wires that function as a kind a celebratory feeling, no less here than the new paintings a delicious tactility of physical “drawing.” Equally power- in earlier exhibitions. Thus, although that works in tandem with their chro- ful in another manner is “Broken Culpepper is an intuitive painter who matic qualities––particularly the inter- Window,” where nails, shattered glass, apparently makes no attempt to invest action of the aforementioned white and other elements add textural heft her compositions with conscious philo- splashes and drips with vibrant red, yel- and depth to a composition with a sophical content, a profound paradox low, green, and blue hues. somewhat bolder definition of individ- nonetheless comes across in these new ual forms floating against a densely var- paintings: One is compelled to contem- Indeed, texture and color take on a iegated, richly textured ground of lay- plate the more transcendent aspects of new life in these new paintings, which ered green, blue, yellow, and red hues. death as a time of spiritual passage are so densely layered that the various simultaneously with the concept of elements seem to fuse into a single While Culpepper has always main- earthly loss and mourning. atmospheric entity, rather than remain- tained that her paintings are “portraits ing discrete and autonomous. Like of a landscape that is within, a visual One of the most noticeable differ- Jackson Pollock, the predecessor to monument in space and time,” and ences between Culpepper’s newest whom she invariably invites the most while traces of an actual landscape were paintings and her previous ones, partic- obvious comparison by virtue of her often discernible in her work, her ularly those that she showed in her freewheeling technique, Culpepper recent paintings appear to delve even 2002 exhibition in the same Soho generates tremendous energy with her deeper into the emotional recesses that venue, is coloristic. While many of the networks of drips and spatters flung have long informed her creative earlier paintings were characterized by like lariats over the surface of her large process. No longer do her compositions darker deeper hues that covered large compositions. Like him, she allows appear to allude to nature in the areas of the composition, in the new serendipity to enter into the process in abstract, as much as to the mysterious works the drips and splashes are more the belief that, as Pollock once put it, forces of life, death, and emotion itself. intricately dispersed and diffused over “the painting has a life of its own.” the entire surface. There is also in the Indeed, this latest exhibition at new works a great deal of white, net- As for a lot of modern painters, Montserrat Gallery is a milestone in the works of white overlapping linear drips, Pollock seems to have been a liberating career of Dorothy A. Culpepper, for in that create a glowing quality like stars force for Culpepper, opening up possi- it she has transformed personal suffer- twinkling in the cosmos, or white blos- bilities, freeing her from traditions and ing and sorrow into a statement of soms whirling in the wind––the latter conventions which would hamper free hope and affirmation. It is a testament always a signifier of endings and begin- expression. That Culpepper, however, to the resiliency of the human spirit as nings, mortality and regeneration. has evolved her own deeply personal well as to the creative resourcefulness and highly original method of investing of a painter for whom art is as much a While we in the West think of black pigment with emotion by intuitive survival tool as an expressive necessity. as the color of mourning, in China means is especially apparent in these white is the color that symbolizes new works, driven by a cataclysmic ––Byron Coleman death, and while this admittedly may be event in her personal life and invested a purely subjective interpretation on with almost mystical atmospheres and

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 9 Heisler, Pyle, and Noeth at Montserrat Gallery lthough Montserrat Gallery , 584 Heisler seem akin to such pioneering Michael A. Noeth, a navel officer as well ABroadway, is a Soho venue well known American abstractionists as Arthur Dove as a painter, was an artist of extraordinary for presenting an international roster of and Georgia O’Keeffe. gifts whose career was cut tragically short artists from abroad, it also represents a Willis Pyle never ceases to surprise us. by the terrorist attack on the Pentagon, wide range of American artists as well, as Following closely on the heels of his where he was assigned on active duty on seen in three recent exhibitions: superb recent exhibition featuring paint- September 11, 2001. Besides being a painter, Norma B. ings of dancers and nudes at Montserrat, Noeth painted epic scenes of navy life Heisler is a psychotherapist and a hyp- the distinguished former Disney animator that are unlike anything else in contempo- notherapist, which makes sense, since her and illustrator turned painter has taken up rary art. Ships at sea, often in storms, were paintings have an almost hypnotic effect, pastels for the first time to create a series of among his most dramatic subjects. Other with their swirling linear forms and mes- portraits he calls “Incas.” paintings depicted the life of servicemen on merizing colors. These are insightful images of South board, either working or relaxing in their Orbs, wavering lines, vortex-like spirals, American Indians in their native dress leisure hours, with an intimacy and an and other rhythmic elements that suggest which transcend stereotypes to reveal the accuracy that could only be achieved by natural shapes and forces provide the visual character of each individual sitter with someone who knew that life well and had vocabulary that Heisler employs to build strong strokes of color. In “The the talent to convey it in pigment. her dynamic abstract paintings. Heisler’s Workman,” the piece de resistance is the But there was another side to the art of paintings are remarkable for the range of distinctive mustache of an older man with a Noeth as well: small seascapes painted in a effects that she achieves with a relatively craggy, earthy demeanor. In “The luminous manner reminiscent of the limited number of pictorial elements, creat- Harvester,” a woman wearing a red skirt is American visionary artist Albert Pinkham ing compositions that project enormous seen leaning over in a manner which con- Ryder for their haunting luminosity and energy and movement. veys a sense of her “oneness” with the atmospheric nuances. One depicts water In Heisler’s “New Tomorrow,” a solar land. In “Mother and Child,” we see a rushing over rocks; another captured a des- orb, surrounded by cloud-like forms, proj- woman seated on a burro with a child on olate beach with shapely clouds overhead; ects a powerful sense of light and heat by her back and get a real sense of the hard- yet another depicts a fiery sky with the sil- virtue of her use of radiant yellow hues. By ships that these people must endure to sur- houetted shadows of men on a ship viewing contrast, in “Fire, Hail, Snow & Vapor,” vive. it through binoculars in the foreground. brilliant orange, red, and blue lines radiate By contrast, “Man with Llama” is a These paintings represent the more poet- out from the center of the composition to lighthearted image of human and animal ic, intimate side of the late Michael A. the edges of the canvas, while in companionship, executed in the breezy Noeth, and fortunately for all of us, can “Midnight,” deep blue hues and a lunar style that makes Willis Pyle one of our be seen year-round in Montserrat Gallery’s orb convey the mystery of a nocturnal more consistently uplifting figurative ongoing salon exhibition. landscape with a primal power that makes artists. ––Marie R. Pagano The Power of “Tachisme” Lives in the Paintings of the French Artist Daweis achisme, otherwise known as “L’Art by an invisible underlying armature.” ate sense of light, atmosphere, and climate TInformel,” is the French counterpart of This is no less true of the paintings in than could be achieved with more slavishly American Abstract Expressionism. Its origi- Daweis’ present exhibition, with their strong naturalistic means. Daweis, in other words, nal exponents were the second wave of horizontal network of vigorous strokes laid does not so much approximate as duplicate The School of Paris, among them Mathieu, down boldly with a palette knife, which the experience of nature through the force- Fautrier, and Wols (who was actually simultaneously convey ethereal qualities of ful energy that he brings to the act of paint- German but based in Paris). Like their light and a sense of the lay of the land and ing. American counterparts, these painters com- the movement of the sky and of bodies of In some of his paintings the more specif- posed spontaneously, seeking to capture the water. Indeed, sky land, and water are the ic elements of nature such as trees, streams, spirit of things rather than actual appear- only three elements that Daweis requires to rivers, and mountains can be discerned, ances–– although as de Kooning once stat- capture and hold our attention with a host while in others a more general sense of sky ed, much abstract painting is derived from of subtle painterly effects. and land is evoked simply through Daweis’ landscape nonetheless. The interaction of these ephemeral and sweeping horizontal strokes of juicy pig- Certainly the ostensibly abstract work physical elements can suggest an entire cos- ment piled on thickly with his knife to of the French painter known as Daweis, mos of meanings in his paintings. Light and achieve tactile qualities as sumptuous as his who seems a direct descendant of the land seem to symbolize human nature as chromatic ones. Indeed, texture is an Tachists, is inspired by landscape. Daweis, well as external nature by virtue of the important element in his work, lending his who is featured in a solo exhibition at drama that Daweis brings to them through pictures a palpable physicality. Montserrat Gallery, 584 Broadway, in both his use of color and his paint handling. This material quality works in concert Soho, from August 3 through 21, studied As a colorist he can only be described as a with the spiritual auras emanating from the both art and architecture in his native kind of magician for his use of radiantly var- paintings of this widely exhibited artist to Paris. And as another critic for this publi- iegated hues that take on an iridescent quali- suggest something timeless and magnificent, cation noted in a review of an earlier exhi- ty. Chromatically shimmering skies seem to causing one to view Daweis’ work not so bition in the same New York venue, his shed light over the landscape below without much as representations of nature but as architectural training seems to contribute actually imitating the colors to be found in autonomous phenomena in which its spirit to the structural solidity of his composi- nature. Rather, Daweis’ colors ––reds, blues, is evoked in an even more vital manner. tions, in which “even the most sponta- yellows, and violets–– are intensified versions neous abstract gestures appear supported of natural hues that convey a more immedi- ––Robert Vigo

10 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 Barbara Beatrice: Humanism and the Extension of Tradition s a recent article in the New York tableaux in which the dis- ATimes noted contemporary sculpture crete qualities of two or “knows no boundaries,” with many sculp- more figures are emphasized tors exploring unusual and sometimes even to equal formal effect, as bizarre materials and technologies. At the seen in some of her pieces same time, there are others, equally innova- depicting children at play, tive in their own way, who remain faithful such as “Playful Spirit,” and to traditional mediums such as stone, “Circle of Love.” Unlike wood, and bronze, yet manage to create sculptors such as James work that is fresh and engaging. Kearns, who have used chil- Among the latter group of sculptors, one dren’s games to symbolize of the more productive and singularly gifted sinister or sadistic aspects of is Barbara Beatrice, whose solo exhibition humanity, Beatrice casts can be seen at The Pen and Brush, 16 East them in a more benign 10th Street (between 5th Avenue and light. In “Playful Spirit,” a University Place) from June 30 through boy takes the role of a big July 11, with a reception on June 30, from brother, gently introducing 4 to 7 PM. (There will also be an informal a younger child to a canine discussion about the artist’s work in the companion, while in “Circle gallery on July 1, from 4 to 5 PM. At this of Love,” the circle of the event, Beatrice will discuss her techniques title is a discarded automo- for working in stone, wood, and bronze, bile tire, suspended from a and will also talk about her experiences rope, that two little girls and repairing a damaged stone sculpture and a younger boy employ as a casting it in bronze.) swing. A widely exhibited sculptor since gradu- The latter bronze is espe- ating with a BES in Fine Arts from Thomas cially impressive for the Moore College in 1988, Beatrice also runs manner in which Beatrice a gallery in Crescent Springs, Kentucky, creates the impression that where she curates exhibitions of other local the rope is suspended tautly sculptors’ work. Although her works range from some invisible support, in scale from five-inch miniatures to com- although it actually juts out missioned pieces in excess of 800 pounds, from the tire into empty most of the sculptures in her exhibition at space; for it is on this the Pen and Brush are of medium size yet implied tension that the “Circle of Love” command space like much larger works by thrust and movement of the entire piece, virtue of Beatrice’s grasp of monumental with its suggestion of a gently swaying INA WISHNER form. motion, so convincingly rests. Human and animal figures are given a Far from resting on such technical feats palpable physical presence in all three of her and special effects, however, Beatrice’s oeu- aide de memoir mediums, each of which she employs in a vre is actually built on the aesthetic bedrock manner at once anatomically convincing that we see in her bronze of a classical Paintings & Photographs and expressive. Which is to say, while she female nude torso as timeless as antiquity eschews exaggeration or outright distor- itself, as well as in another sculpture in tion, neither does she indulge in fussy alabaster of a mother cradling a child in detailing that might disrupt the formal her arms. integrity of her pieces. Figures and facial The one constant that unites all of features are often somewhat simplified in a Beatrice’s work is her life-affirming human- manner that in no way interferes with their ism, which comes across with equal force in verisimilitude; rather, such formal general- her graceful work in carved walnut “Girl ization lends the figures a sleek abstract Holding Her Hair’; in the stately seated beauty which adds to rather than detracts female figure in cherry wood entitled from the expressive qualities. “Rhodora,” and even in her anthropomor- An excellent case in point is Beatrice’s phically winning animal figures, such as the “Unconditional Love,” a stone sculpture in smug little bronze frog she calls “Prince Michigan alabaster in which the figure of a Charming.” In fact, it is the humanistic JUNE 30 - JULY 11, 2004 young woman and the dog she kneels to quality in Barbara Beatrice sculptures, cou- Tuesday - Friday 3 - 7 PM pet achieve a flowing formal synthesis. pled with her ability to make even her Indeed, the two figures are seen as a single smallest pieces command space in a monu- Saturday & Sunday 1 - 5 PM organic entity, its formal integrity empha- mental manner, that makes Barbara Beatrice sized and enhanced by the linear movement an artist to be savored. For her innovation of the dark veins in the white stone, the lies not so much in breaking down sup- Pen & Brush prominence of which the sculptor has posed boundaries but in extending tradition 16 East 10th Street exploited handsomely. in new and meaningful ways. New York City 10003 By contrast, in some of her bronzes, ––J. Sanders Eaton 212-475-3669 Barbara Beatrice is equally adept at creating

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 11 Roland-McLean: A Daumier of the Down and Out ven when abstraction was the dominant In another oil, Roland-McLean depicts a Eart movement, the tradition of humanist pub in the Soho section of London. In con- figuration has always held fast in Britain. trast to his more derelict figures, here the Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, David drinkers display a kind of bohemian bon- Hockney, Kitaj and others have stayed with homie. They appear to be engaged in ani- the figure through thick and thin. Not only mated artistic and literary conversations, as a does Roland-McLean belong to that heady pale figure sporting the distinctive pom- company, but his experience of the seamy padour of the aforementioned Francis side of life is fully equal to that of the noto- Bacon enters in the background. Yet the rious Bacon, having been an addict and a slightly desperate manner in which some self described vagrant before cleaning up his clutch their drinks with those big, exagger- act and resurrecting as successful painter ated hands that Roland-McLean delineates with Pop music stars like Elton John and so expressively suggests that they may be Eric Clapton among his many collectors. “The French House, Soho Pub” just a few bad breaks removed from the Roland-McLean’s authentic take on boozy Bowery philosophers in Eugene O London lowlife was evident in his recent and out. ‘Neill’s great play “The Iceman Cometh.” exhibition in the Chelsea space of at Agora One of his most affecting oils on canvas In other powerful genre paintings depict- Gallery, at 530 West 25th Street. His darkly is “The Informer, Summary Street Justice,” ing grubby figures in a soup kitchen, brawl- evocative paintings attest to the power that for it depicts a man who has apparently ing on a dark street in Liverpool, or crouch- can come to a man who has outrun his betrayed his cronies and become a pariah ing solitary on a sidewalk, cradling a bottle demons and survived to profit handsomely being savagely beaten by three other men, and pondering their fate, Roland-McLean from his past mistakes. More of a social real- as a woman clutching a bottle of booze gives us some of the most brutally honest ist than any of the previously mentioned jeers from the sidelines. While a fat full pictures of life out on the existential edge English painters, his visions of degraded moon beams passively above, the battered created by any artist in recent memory. humanity are akin to some of the strongest wretch cowers on the cobblestones, help- Obviously, he knows his subjects well works of the German satirist and painter lessly watching one of his attackers, a big enough not to romanticize their self George Grosz. Given the Goyaesque dark- bullheaded bloke, raise a heavy boot to destructive tendencies, having been there ness of his vision, coupled with his sharp stomp him again. He is an outcast among himself. He is not easily conned. Yet while sense of caricature and willingness to intro- outcasts, the lowest of the low, the squirm- his vision is unflinching, it is also compas- duce a decidedly untrendy moral dimension ing proof that there is no longer honor sionate and its grimness is relieved by a into his work, one is tempted to term among thieves. wicked and lively wit. Roland-McLean a Daumier of the down ––Byron Coleman The Hidden Message in Judy Antill’s Seascapes he Australian artist Judy Antill is a of the paintings in Judy Antill’s exhibition Tpainter with a great many strong feel- at Montserrat Gallery, 568 Broadway, in ings about the war in Afghanistan, the Soho, from June 22 through July 10. Like plight of asylum seekers trying to gain entry other paintings in Antill’s new series, this is to Australia, and other hot-wired topics. ostensibly a seascape painted with her usual However, while her preoccupation with bold vigor, the cerulean blue waves laid issues of human rights and politics provides down in broad, flowing, rhythmic strokes, inspiration for much of her work, and she their foamy white tips curling up in frothy has been dedicating each series of paintings impastos. that she executes to various human rights The picture initially strikes the viewer as a causes since 1998, she is by no means a majestic tribute to the sea’s natural beauty. social realist in any conventional sense of Then one looks more closely and notices that term. For the figurative elements in her the prone figurative forms emerging from–– work, which are often quite abstract, evolve or perhaps one should say merging with–– from what she refers to as “natural mark the rugged rock-croppings piled up in the making during the painting process.” foreground. Given Antill’s expressionistic In this regard, Antill’s approach to sub- paint handling, which renders her forms ject matter is akin to that of the British simultaneously palpable and abstract, these painter Francis Bacon, whose figures are also figurative elements could either be the actu- generated in the act of painting. Antill’s al bodies of doomed asylum seekers who style, although hardly as grotesque as have washed up dead on the shore where Bacon’s, is equally energetic, with fluent they hoped to make a new life–– or their “Ethnic Memories - 1” strokes and creamy impastos that lend her spirits, now one with the land and haunting ly turns into a powerful cry of social out- paintings a palpable physicality to comple- it by their presence. Either way, “Requiem rage, as the crashing surf morphs into eerie ment their bold colors and powerful delin- for the Asylum Seekers” is a powerful state- ghostly voices. Indeed, it is the special gift eation of form. Both her intuitive way of ment, as are other major paintings by Antill, of Judy Antill to make even the most har- working and the rugged immediacy of her such as “Slap in the Face – Salty Sting of rowing subjects so aesthetically appealing paint surfaces adds to the emotional reso- Disappointment,” “Lest We Forget,” and that we are compelled to view them nance of her imagery. “Ethnic Memories I.” unflinchingly, perhaps for the very first time, These qualities are very much in evidence In each of these paintings the artist unable to turn away from her urgent human in “Requiem for Asylum Seekers Drowned seduces the viewer with what appears to be message. ––Wilson Wong Off Christmas Island, October 2001,” one a pleasant, picturesque seascape that sudden- 12 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 Symbiosis in the Watercolors and Photographs of Ina Wishner ike many other painters, the water- another black and white Lcolorist Ina Wishner has long used print that exploits the photographs for reference. She estimates stripes of sunlight stream- that she has been taking pictures to ing through slats in a patio work from for over twenty years. Only roof to abstract effect, recently, however, has Wishner begun to Wishner’s images of more exhibit her photographs as works of art wide open vistas opt for the in their own right. The two mediums picturesque. Particularly complement each other handsomely in dramatic in this regard are Wishner’s exhibition of paintings and two companion color prints photographs, “aide de memoir,” at the called “Storm Clouds Over Pen & Brush, 16 East 10th Street, from England,” numbers I and ll, June 30 through July 11. in which darkly roiling, gilt- Although the show’s title refers to tinged cumuli loom above a the former role of photography as an aid silhouetted horizon of to memory in Wishner’s work, the pho- brush and windblown trees. tographs in this show are by no means Similarly, dramatic light subservient to the paintings. They have and dark contrasts can be their own considerable virtues, not the seen in some of Wishner’s least of which is the sense of chiaroscuro more panoramic watercol- that we see in a black and white print ors, such as one in which a such as “Dappled Sunlight.” luminous sky, shot through with strokes of pink and vibrant yellow, hangs over a flat landscape and small houses laid down with one continuous blue wash. Here, as in other views of purple or blue mountains, dotted with pine trees, ris- ing over verdant fields, Wishner reveals a mastery Photograph by Ina Wishner of watercolor that makes decided to give her photographs equal one think of artists as disparate as billing with her paintings. Georgia O’Keeffe and Emil Nolde, who ––Maureen Flynn had little in common in other mediums but employed aquarelle with a similar boldness. Like those past masters, Wishner exploits the translucent freshness pecu- liar to the medium to fill her paintings with color and light, as seen to particu- lar advantage in her floral composi- Robert Baribeau tions, where brilliant washes of color, augmented by graceful linear elements, bring shapely petals and sinuous stems to sparkling life. These paintings find Watercolor by Ina Wishner their photographic counterparts in color prints such as “Barn House–– From the Dining Room,” in which a FIELD PAINTINGS, In this image of potted plants on a profusion of red, purple, and yellow stone patio, Wishner makes use of the flowers dazzle the eye in a garden seen STILL LIFES AND OBJECTS patterns created by light and shadow in through a window. a manner that can only be termed Indeed, both of Ina Wishner’s art painterly. In contrast to the cozy domes- forms spring from the same exquisite tic intimacy of photographs such as aesthetic impulse, and succeed in a man- “Dappled Sunlight” and “Pavilion,” ner that makes one pleased that she has June 17 - July 23, 2004

The GALLERY&STUDIO advertising deadline for the September/October issue is Allan Stone Gallery August 11 for color, August 19 for black/white. 113 East 90th Street, NYC 10128 Tel. 212.987.4997 Fax. 212.987.1655

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 13 Several Ways of Looking at Color in WSAC Group Show ne might expect an exhibition called mellow atmospheric effect, as seen in one of design, particularly in her composition O“All About Color” to be a gaudy especially pleasing picture of upper west of two sisters joining hands under a full explosion of chromatic fire works. Artist side brownstones huddled like old friends. moon and in her fanciful picture of a and curator Emily Rich, however, chose to woman seated in a huge bouquet feature a spectrum of more subtle pleas- While Mikki Powell juxtaposes flat of flowers. ures in this recent show by members of areas of subdued color with a subtlety the West Side Arts Coalition, at Broadway reminiscent of Giorgio Morandi in her Working in the unusual medium of oil Mall Community Center, on the center painting of simplified pitchers overlapping on sheet rock, M. Deanna Choice creates island at 96th Street and Broadway. in a kind of tonal do re mi. Emily Rich compositions in which bold, large floral herself goes toward milky monochromes forms emerge from monochromatic fields The abstract acrylic paintings of and pale yet luminous blues and greens in of soft color, defined primarily by texture. Mercedes Leyba, for example, were her oils and acrylics, which move easily notable for their offbeat compositions and between figure, landscape, and abstraction Barbara E. Litke also employs floral a range of hues that were simultaneously by virtue of her vigorous paint application forms, albeit subjected to a variety of for- vibrant and soft, suggesting a truly original and gestural panache. mal permutations in pale luminous hues, talent whose further development will be to create compositions that are essentially interesting to watch. Elton Tucker, on the Elvira Dimitrij puts clear hard-edge abstract. By contrast, the watercolors of other hand, employs glitter and dayglo color areas together in her own unique Setta Solakian depict a floral subject and colors with relative abandon; yet his manner in a series of small canvases in street scenes in Paris with wet-into-wet mixed media abstractions, often incorpo- which simplified figures engaged in sport- washes, evoking a sense of particular rating bits of mirror, are so over the top ing activities move amid geometric forms places, yet retaining an atmospheric fresh- that his colors tend to neutralize each in a graceful formal dance. Helen Dodge, ness. Then there is Carolyn S. Kaplan, other in an oddly harmonious manner that on the other hand, employs textured whose painting of a landscape at sunset is complemented by his dynamic way with strokes of muted hues in compositions was a tour de force, with its purple sky, geometric forms. that feature the stylized forms of people blue water and violet land masses revealing and palm trees to create scenes with an a chromatic intrepidness akin to that of No one could call K.A. Gibbons a timid odd, Edenic beauty all their own. Milton Avery. colorist either. Indeed, Gibbons is some- thing of a latter day Fauve, yet she com- Betty Thornton’ s paintings combine bines colors so skillfully that they create a primitive charm with a sophisticated sense ––Marie R. Pagano “Down Under and Beyond” Focuses on Australia and New Zealand uch has changed since Robert post-Pop sensibility comes across in her Parker, a self-taught painter, translate land- MHughes wrote his seminal text “The lively acrylic paintings of hip young people, scape elements and tribal markings into a Art of Australia” in 1965, and the same as well as her atmospheric nocturnal urban private vocabulary of forms and can be said for the broadening of aesthetic vistas. Stylish and flashy, yet informed by symbols.The strong Australian figurative frontiers in New Zealand as well, judging real talent, Starr’s paintings bode well for tradition is extended in the paintings of from the recent exhibition “Out from the future of Australian art as a mainstream Chris Chetwynd, who places the classical Down Under and Beyond,” at Agora enterprise. male figure in pristine surreal settings and Gallery, 415 West Broadway, in Soho. Jenny Davis’ lyrical paintings, with their whose work was selected for exhibition in One of the most exciting discoveries is muted yet glowing colors and elegant, the 2002 Gay Games. Radu Satcau, on the George V. Wagner, who paints the figure, evocative abstract forms floating in space other hand, evokes the female nude in still life, and other subjects in vibrant are at once powerful and subtle. Jane mixed media paintings with shimmering acrylics, drawing upon tribal culture and McKay takes the Australian landscape as a colors and textures that make his paint sur- his unique personal synthesis of Australian starting point for luminous explorations of faces as sensuous as his figures are sensual. tribal and imaginative Aztec inspiration. form and color. Dragica Milunovic, born in Living in rural New Zealand, Koly Petrovic From these diverse sources, Wagner has Yugoslavia and lived in France prior to looks to the Pre-Raphaelites for inspiration, forged a brilliantly colorful homegrown immigrating to Australia, also enriches the yet arrives at a distinctly original style in Expressionism unlike anything else in con- country’s cultural melting pot with her which figurative subjects drawn from histo- temporary art. vibrant oils, in which red and yellow hues ry and imagination are infused with a pecu- Although born in the U.S., Dee Adams project a sense of light and heat with suc- liar spiritual power belonging to her alone. now lives in Sydney where she creates culent impastos. Like the other painters in this sensitively hard-edged, minimalist abstractions, their The spirit and energy of the the local curated group show, Petrovic acquaints us strong formal qualities reflecting her back- landscape inspires Kathryn Brimblecombe- with the vitality that exists far afield of ground in graphic design. Adams’ paint- Fox whose semi-abstract approach reveals what we normally consider the “center” of ings combine geometric austerity with the sophistication one would expect from a the art world. Indeed, we need exhibitions highly expressive color combinations to painter who has also worked in a curatorial such as this one to remind us that we risk arrive at a sublime synthesis. capacity at the National Gallery of cultural provincialism when we choose to The presence of a vital, youthful New Australia. ignore the ever expanding perimeters of Wave in Australia is evident in the paintings Indicative of a new youthful energy in that world. of the artist called Starr, whose trendy Australian art, the compositions of Paul ––Lawrence Downes

14 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 Sandra Gottlieb’s Photography Bridges the Abstract and the Real ainting and pho- Ptography have a long and interesting history. With its advent over a centu- ry and a half ago, the latter was perceived by some as a medi- um that might replace the former. That did not hap- pen, but what pho- tography did do for awhile was usurp some of painting’s more documentary functions. This prompted some painters to seek more abstract avenues of expression. They went where they thought photogra- phy could not fol- low. Yet as early as 1907, Alfred Stieglitz was already beginning to empha- size abstract as well “Seagrass” sociological ideas in photographs such as “The Steerage,” and by exploits the abstract possibilities of light and of “time,” so integral to photography, is 1951 the aesthetic sophistication of the color as they manifest at different hours of superimposed on space in her pictures (as newer art form was so firmly established the day and night. While Gottlieb isolates she mentions in her artist’s statement). We that The Museum of Modern Art mounted these elements in nature rather than con- know that we are viewing a particular a landmark exhibition entitled “Abstraction cocting them on canvas, the effect is every moment, already vanished, never to come in Photography.” bit as painterly. again, which has been frozen and rendered The contemporary photographer Sandra The horizon line is the most stable ele- immutable. Thus the mystery of time is Gottlieb draws heavily upon this avant garde ment in Gottlieb’s compositions. The place married to the mystery of space, and the photographic tradition in her exhibition where water or land mass meets sky is the meaning deepens like the shadows in the “Beyond Horizons,” which can be seen metaphysical divide as well as the formal clouds suspended so pregnantly over her from June 1 through July 31, at World Fine anchor of her pictures. Indeed, the factual watery expanses. Art Gallery, 511 West 25th Street, with a component innate to photography adds an In one of Gottlieb’s prints, broad bands reception on June 11, from 6 to 8 PM. extra dimension to her formal stance. of color in the sky above a low horizon-line “My pictures are a thin slice of space and Minimal as her compositions may be, they graduate from fiery orange, to deep purple, time explored through scale, color, and sim- originate in reality. There is a sense of the to luminous blue. In another, a higher blue plicity of image, translating the world into a world looming within and beyond the forms horizon gives way to vibrant pink and gray- purely pictorial language of color, shape, that she selects to show us, and this lends violet hues possessed of a peculiarly somber and overall compositions,” Gottlieb states. her pictures the suggestion of a magnifi- majesty. In yet other recent photographs, “My interpretation leans toward the mod- cence far beyond what the eye sees. The Sandra Gottlieb focuses on the subtle streaks ernist movement using flat bands of color to artist is free to focus on the unobstructed of color, tonal shifts, and cumulus shapes to create two-dimensional, near abstract frontal view, denying perspective and pulling be discerned in infinite stretches of sky, images. The photographer’s point of view the subject forward, onto the literal two framing their magnificence with breathtak- can sharpen and even alter the perception of dimensional picture plane that photography ing adroitness. Her unerring eye for form an image that is fleeting and transitory. shares with painting. Yet even as Gottlieb and color enables her to achieve her stated Starting from what is complex, it is possible eschews spatial illusiveness, the shadow of goal of “push [ing] the limits of the tension to reach what is simple and timeless.” allusion haunts her compositions, imbuing between the real and the abstract to create a Entering a gallery filled with Sandra them with a poetry distinctly different from balance between sculptural form and natural Gottlieb’s large color prints, one is put more the subjective poetry of painting. For while sensuality.” in mind of painters such as Mark Rothko Gottlieb’s deliberately reductive angle of Indeed, Sandra Gottlieb’s unique contri- and Jon Schueler than of any other photog- vision compels us to read her compositions bution may very well be the stunning syn- rapher. Like Rothko, she employs flat bands abstractly, we are simultaneously aware of thesis that she achieves between the natura- of color on the picture plane in her photo- their reality. This duality imbues her pictures listic and experimental traditions of modern graphs of watery horizons meeting variegat- with tantalizing perceptual tensions. And to photography through her singularly austere ed areas of sky. And like Schueler, she further complicate the matter, the element yet passionate vision. ––Lawrence Downes

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 15 OPEN HOUSE

A MUSEUM GROWS IN BROOKLYN

Encountering several of Nina Levy’s eerily lifelike objects in the museum’s Ancient Egyptian Galleries. polyresin, oil, and hydrocal heads dangling from The decision by Charlotta Kotik, the museum’s fishing line in a room filled with Rodins is one of curator of contemporary art, and Tumelo Mosaka, those moments of curatorial chutzpah that makes its assistant curator in the same department, to inte- The Brooklyn Museum’s sprawling exhibition grate certain works by contemporary Brooklyn “Open House”, subtitled “Working in Brooklyn,” artists with the permanent collection, rather than such a delight. That Levy’s heads are actually por- confining everything in the show to the areas of the traits of well known Brooklyn art personalities building reserved for special exhibitions, was auspi- makes the effect all the more disconcerting, like ciously in keeping with what appears to be the running into these people exactly where one might beginning of a new epoch in the museum’s history. expect to find them––only, without the rest of their “Open House” celebrates the dramatic transfor- bodies! mation of the Brooklyn Museum’s front entrance Just as audacious in another way is the presenta- and the completion of a new 80,000-square-foot tion in the same room of Patricia Cronin’s bronze public plaza designed to make the building more “Memorial to a Marriage.” Depicting two women appealing and accessible. To the museum’s imposing embracing on a bed, it is a slightly smaller replica of Beaux Arts stone facade, erected in 1897, the archi- the life-size monument at the burial plot that tect James Stewart Polshek, of the New York City Cronin and her partner, the painter Deborah Kass, firm Polshek Partnership, has added a sweeping glass purchased together in Woodlawn Cemetery. What’s pavilion with a stepped design that glows at night. startling about this sculpture in context is not its The architect envisioned this structure as “a subject matter, of course, but the fact that it is clas- metaphor for the original steps,” which were double sical in a manner that appears to predate Rodin’s the height of those outside the Metropolitan bronzes. While Rodin was rejected by the academy, Museum of Art, and were removed in 1939 after Cronin’s piece would fit right in with the aesthetic being deemed too daunting for many people to of the 19th century French salon–– which makes it climb. Although the mixture of Beaux Arts and a quintessentially postmodern work of art. modern could seem irreconcilable in theory, in fact Another example of the show’s innovative the spare elegance of the new addition coheres with approach is the placement of an installation by the massiveness of the original structure because, as African-American artist Sol’Sax, incorporating Polshek puts it, “the hardware and connections and wood, clay, and beads, in the museum’s African art the glass were worked out to be rather jewel-like––a galleries, where it is possible to ponder issues of necklace that has been hung on this great building.” inspiration and influence. Just as brilliant was put- The Brooklyn Museum has long been in need of ting Rob Fischer’s coffin-size container of ashes such refurbishment. Though undeniably majestic, among the urns, sarcophaguses, and other funerary it’s old edifice was not at all inviting. Its gray great- In the interest of representing the sheer abundance ness loomed monolithically as one of cartoonist Saul and diversity of the “Open House” exhibition, we Steinberg’s grandiose architectural caricatures over have chosen, in most cases, to reproduce works by Eastern Parkway, baronial and aloof. One could different artists than those reviewed in the text. almost hear some croaky voice, like that of the talk-

16 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 ing trees in “Lord of the Rings,” emanating ble to envision the plaza becoming an active dreds of studio visits, Kotik and co-curator from it, intoning, “Staaaay awaaaay!” public space, a place for community gather- Mosaka narrowed their selections down to To those intrepid souls who did not heed ings and performances. 300 works by 200 artists who exemplify the that warning and dared to proceed, its One can only hope this is what Arnold ethnic diversity that still makes the city’s bleak, sunless ground floor presented yet L. Lehman the Director of the Brooklyn most populous borough the kind of melt- another barrier that almost made one want Museum has in mind when he speaks of ing pot that Manhattan used to be. Indeed, to turn right around and get on the subway “connecting the borough’s exceptionally the cultural riches represented here––includ- back to Manhattan. Thus while the diverse communities to our equally diverse ing not only a fair number of artists actually Brooklyn Museum is the second largest art collections,” and predicts that the new front born and raised in Brooklyn and a majority museum in the entire country, exceeded in entrance and public plaza will “make that who have migrated here from all around the size and the scope of its collection only by connection a physical reality.” country and world––are enough to make the Metropolitan, it has been grossly under- While the success of that grassroots effort the rest of us nostalgic for a kind of pop- appreciated. Indeed, it took a Philistine remains to be seen, the diversity and inclu- ulism which has all but vanished on this side mayor threatening to shut the place down, siveness of the “Open House” exhibition of the river. over a silly flap involving Catholicism and seems a good start. For while the generally high level of elephant dung awhile back, to get some of The show enlarges upon a tradition sophistication in this show indicates a good us up in arms about what a valuable cultural begun in the 1930s, when the museum deal of art world ambition, the refreshing asset it is. instituted an exhibition space called the sense it creates is less of an official art world Now, standing in the airy, light-filled Gallery for Living Artists especially to show- event than of a vital, if ragtag, community of grand lobby, the difference is like night and case and support the work of artists such as local artists being roundly embraced by the day, as they say. In a rare instance of munici- David Smith, Adolph Gottlieb, William borough’s most prestigious cultural institu- pal cooperation––screw you, Rudy!––even Zorach, and others then living and working tion. And, interestingly enough, the art the entrance to the Eastern Parkway subway in Brooklyn. Due in part to a sluggish post- world “names” in this show––Doug and stop has been turned around to face the war economy, however, a thriving local art Mike Starn, Vito Acconci, Louise museum, so that it now functions as effi- scene did not develop until the 1970s, when Bourgeois, Amy Sillman, Amy Cutler, and ciently as a chute, depositing one right in a new generation of artists was drawn to the Fred Tomaselli among them––benefit as the middle of that spacious new plaza, borough by its cheap loft spaces. Then, in much by their inclusion as the lesser known where cherry trees have been planted and the early 80s, others were drawn by seminal artists do from being seen with them. two fountains with “dancing waters” have grassroots exhibitions in the Gowanus Canal Which is to say: the overall vigor of this been created by WET Design, the same firm Art Yard, in Carroll Gardens, and the community is such that these more promi- responsible for the glitzy fountains at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, in Sunset Park, nent figures can’t help but gain a kind of Bellagio Hotel, in Las Vegas, and the Los which led to other shows in alternative “street credibility” by adding the panache of Angeles Music Center. spaces and artist-run venues. “Brooklyn artist” to their already well A few days after the official opening, local In 1985, the Brooklyn Museum respond- defined artistic identities. high school kids in hip hop gear were ed to the growing art community by inau- Whether or not we’ve taken the trouble already beginning to congregate in the gurating a series of periodic exhibitions to get on the subway and go visit them our- plaza. Although it may take more aggressive called “Working in Brooklyn,” all curated by selves, we’ve all heard of the world class gal- strategies to actually lure them into the exhi- Charlotta Kotik, of which “Open House” is leries that have sprung up in Williamsburg bitions, they were already making them- the most comprehensive to date. After view- and DUMBO over the last decade or so, as selves at home in a way that makes it possi- ing thousands of slides and making hun- well as the bustling artist enclaves in less trendy areas like Red Hook, Park Slope, Bushwick, and Bed- Stuy. It is often stat- ed that Brooklyn now boasts the largest population of working artists in the city, which alone makes “Open House” a crash Terry Adkins, “Muffled course well Eungho Park, “Eyes, 2003” Linda Ganjian, “Litter Bug, 2002” Drums, 2002” worth Painted bottle caps, Dimensions variable Ink and marker on vellum, 12" x 9" Mixed Media, 220" x 54" x 27" taking.

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 17 Alessandra Exposito, “The Roost”, 2000 Acrylic, Latex, 67" x 67" inches

Jovi Schnell, “Pounce in Babel, 2001” James Esber, “MermaidAvenue,” 2003 Acrylic on canvas, 61" x 42" Acrylic on styrene, 74" x 54" kitchen of her tenement apartment; Danica Afro-pic with a clenched fist handle, Hoyt’s Phelps’ installation of drawings, diagrams piece makes a wry statement on anger and and notes entitled “Integrating Sex into pride. The failed promise of democracy for Everyday Life”; and Byron Kim’s lyrical people of color also comes across in “Forty “Sunday Paintings,” in which he records his Luis Gispert, “Untitled (car toes),” 2001 Acres and a Mule,” a work by the Haitian- weekly impressions of the sky on small pan- Fujiflex print. Ed. of 5 + 2 AP born artist Jean Patrick Icart-Pierre with els painted in delicate blue hues, adding 40"x 60" inches LG-1019 painted and silkscreen images juxtaposed faintly penciled self-critiques such as, “This cinematically in an irregular grid. painting is terrible. I am looking at the sky As is to be expected with any survey so The borough’s sizable African communi- too much, and not enough at the painting. demographically-oriented and democratic, ty is represented in the work of Thabiso Some of the color is good, but the brush quality varies greatly, ranging from Jim Phokompe, an artist born in Johannesburg, was too big and coarse. Too much Torok’s self-effacing cartoon drawings whose assemblages of string, bottle caps, tumult...” chronicling the artist’s apparently uneventful safety pins, and burlap transform such com- life with cloying disingenuousness, to mon detritus into funky fetish objects, evok- The present climate of political crisis is Leonardo Drew’s towering installation of ing indigenous religious ceremonies. The reflected in Melanie Baker’s mammoth char- cast-off objects cast in paper. White as extension of tradition through personal coal and collage portraits of grim men in dinosaur bones, entombed in large wood vision is also evident in the work of the black suits, their faces comprised of newspa- and glass vitrines stacked one atop the other, Beijing-born Yun-Fei Ji, whose sinuously per pages; Glenn Ligon’s Warhol-esque Drew’s crumpled, ghostly tricycles, radia- linear paintings in ink and mineral pigment silkscreen and flashe portrait of Malcolm X tors, chairs, dressers, and other domestic resemble classical Chinese landscapes but grotesquely defaced by crudely applied artifacts are not only haunting, but reveal an reveal Boschian figurative elements with clown make-up, suggesting the desecration epic conceptual vision akin to that of Joseph powerful political and sadomasochistic of an African American icon by an Beuys. implications. Born in Shanghai, Wenda Gu unsympathetic mass media; Emily Jacir’s Andy Yoder also thinks big, but his gar- deliberately weds Eastern and Western grim photographs documenting tensions at gantuan pair of black brogans, made with imagery in the hope of promoting multicul- checkpoints in the Middle East; and Jane licorice, Styrofoam, and silicone, while tural understanding, represented here by a Fine’s highly animated paintings of modern amusing enough, come across as a dated huge, lantern-like structure incorporating warfare, in which cartoon explosions send post-Pop conceit. Discerning foot fetishists human hair culled from various nationalities. up Abstract Expressionism. Koji Shimizu’s will probably be more turned on by Luis In an installation entitled “A Stranger is in soft sculptures in kandy kolored satins also Gispert’s large color photograph of jeweled Our Paradise,” Rina Banerjee, born in put a new spin on war, making a veritable toes with long, claw-like blue nails dangling Calcutta, combines family portraits, feathers, arsenal of lethal weaponry as cuddly as a pile out the rear window of a shiny red sports car. umbrellas, and a zany array of other colorful of stuffed animals. Often wistful explorations of national ori- and fanciful found objects to comment wit- The peculiar permutations of postmodern gins by artists who have migrated to tily on what it means to find oneself caught abstraction are also well represented: Nancy Brooklyn from faraway places take many between two cultures. Allessandra Exposito Drew reinvents paintings by Willem de forms in this show. Born in London of also explores ethnic identity in her vibrant Kooning in glitzier versions with acrylic, Caribbean background, Satch Hoyt employs figurative paintings, often inserting self por- flocking and glitter. Steven Charles pours double edged irony to comment piquantly traits into allegories on Hispanic themes. paint to create densely layered compositions on racial identity in his Neo-Dadaist assem- Another emerging tendency is a kind of in which elements of chance are integrated blage with audio components, “The Ice obsessive, diaristic documentation, as seen in to remarkably coherent effect. James Esber Pick.” A velvet-lined attaché suitcase with Dawn Clements’ large, detailed delineation overlaps images painted on layers of plastic earphones attached, containing a crystal in Sumi ink on paper of every object in the to create flowing biomorphic compositions

18 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 Jean Shin, “Chance City, 2001”, Scratch and win lottery cards Anthony Goicolea, “Feastlings, 2000”, Color C-print, 40" x 75" 5' x 8' x 10' , 50" x 96" x 120" that are simultaneously allusive and elusive. their clerical plumage provides him with an natural history illustrations in encyclopedias James Hyde employs found materials such opportunity to merge areas of brilliant red and double-page spreads in National as nylon beach chair webbing to tweak the in a manner that suggests an interesting sty- Geographic. “Manifest Destiny” seems a austere aesthetic of minimalist shaped canvas listic hybrid of Milton Avery and Jacob preachy, fussy anachronism compared to from a neo Neo Geo perspective, proving Lawrence. (That Knowles’ paintings are much of the work in Open House.” that there may be some juice left in that dis- framed with simple black masking tape We especially liked Jovi Schnell’s vibrantly credited ‘80’s mini-movement. Stephen seems indicative of the casual come-as-you- zany updates of Peter Saul/Hairy Who figu- Sollins also employs unusual materials, par- are community spirit of “Open House.”) ration; Sebastiaan Bremer’s synthesis of pho- ticularly embroidered fabrics, removing cer- Of the several Brooklyn-born artists in tography and drawing in large C-prints tain of their elements to pare them down this show, Marie Roberts is the only one overlaid with intricate ink doodling; Bryan into compositions at once sober and sensual. whose work features nostalgic references Crockett’s marble sculptures of wrinkly pink Arlington Weithers’ acrylics, inspired by his specific to the borough. Roberts’s pictures creatures symbolizing human vices; Ken memories of growing up in Guyana, evoke a of fire eaters and other performers painted Butler’s eclectic junkshop installation palpable sense of place, of earthy essences in bright acrylics on big canvas tarpaulins “Tilted Picnic”; Angela Wyman’s paintings transmuted through texture and color. are directly inspired by the banners for of glamorous women morphing and melt- Other artists deconstruct the conventions Coney Island sideshows. Others work with a ing in the manner of the old comic book of landscape through more particular yet broad range mediums and subjects: Marc character “Plastic Man”; two ghastly/beau- still intensely personal means, as seen in Lepson’s conceptual installations comment tiful little heads by Louise Bourgeois cov- Charles Yuen’s oil on paper of a stylized on political and human rights issues with ered with patches of tapestry; David Baskin’s yellow terrain; Susan Rabinowitz’s semi- photos and texts. Ricci Albenda builds castings of his grandfather’s clothing in pink abstract panoramic vistas; Brady Dollarhide’s sculptural forms directly into the gallery rubber; Lorenzo Pace’s elaborate installation mysterious juxtapositions of silhouetted land walls, as seen in “Carmen, Boiling,” which tracing an African-American family tree; masses and fluorescent skies; and John bulges from a corner of the museum like a Nicole Awai’s mixed media works on paper, Berens’ atmospheric,Turner-esque travel white bubble. Chitra Ganesh creates book combining expressively mutated figurative paintings. works in which computer generated images forms and fragments of text; Dread Scott’s Then there is a real discovery named Jill blend personal and historical narratives. photographic portraits of prison inmates Shoffiett whose watercolors inspired by Daniel Mirer’s photographs of empty, stark with audio interviews; Anthony Goicolea’s memories of her Mississippi childhood office tower corridors and waiting rooms large C-print of rowdy little preppies pig- prove that style can be as much a function convey the peculiarly sterile angst of modern ging out in an elegant dining room; and of an artist’s limitations as his or her skills. life. Kambui Olujimi and Delphine “Chance City,” an architectural monument Although Shoffiett holds the B.F.A’ s and Fawundu-Buford both focus on issues of to failed hopes, created with $17,119 worth M.F.A’ s that seem to be prerequisites for African American identity, Olujimi with of discarded lottery tickets by Jean Shin. young artists today, her scratchy ink line and large-digital collages making pointed con- “Open House” lives up to its title by muddy washes lend her pictures of grim nections between seemingly disparate sub- being perhaps the most inclusive local sur- rural areas dotted with ramshackle houses, jects like lynching and basketball, Fawundu- vey staged by any major museum in recent trailers, and scrawny trees the straightfor- Buford with photographs celebrating the years. If the exhibition can be faulted on ward emotional power that we normally special beauty of black women. any level, it would probably be for its only see in unschooled or “outsider” art. Ironically, the most publicized work in unevenness. But that can be attributed to its Her work is refreshing precisely because it connection with the recent changes at The pervasive good will. Obviously, the curators seems to spring directly from her love/hate Brooklyn Museum is by a Manhattan artist, intended to give us a sense of the sheer relationship with her home state rather than Alexis Rockman. Perhaps even more ironi- abundance and energy of Brooklyn’s art from any self conscious attempt to forge a cally, in view of the generally upbeat mood scene, and if that meant being a little too trendy style or assume a stance in relation to of the museum as it embarks on its highly inclusive in some cases, so be it. Better to other art. touted new epoch, Rockman’s commis- err on the side of excess than to edit the Another artist who actually is self taught sioned mural “Manifest Destiny,” depicts eclecticness that makes Brooklyn art so vital but is too innately sophisticated to qualify Brooklyn 3,000 years in the future as a and makes this bursting-at-the-seams show for outsider status is Christopher Knowles, watery landfill, devastated by global warm- so much fun. who works with oil marker on canvas, creat- ing, infested with snakes and floating oil * * * ing compositions in which figures are flat- cans. While Rockman cites the Hudson Open House is at the Brooklyn Museum, tened on the picture plane as though run River School as inspiration for this ecologi- 200 Eastern Parkway, (718) 501-6134, over by a steamroller. Knowles’s painting of cal cautionary tale, it actually looks more through August 15, 2004. a group of Catholic cardinals convening in like an overblown version of the garishly-lit JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 19 Intrepid Inner Travelers Featured in WSAC Photo Show he term “Journey” could be applied in ing what we know now of the fate of Prytyskacz’s most evocative image was a Tboth a literal and metaphoric sense to those buildings and their inhabitants. color print of an old pair of shoes amid a the photography exhibition of that title Helman’s picture of a bridge with moun- thick profusion of fallen leaves. curated by Agus Sutikno for the West Side tains behind it is less jolting but also made Emily Rich, a painter as well as a pho- Arts Coalition, seen recently at Broadway memorably poetic by the photographer’s tographer, manipulates images through Mall Community Center, on the center painterly approach to pale yet luminous double exposure to achieve a dynamic island at 96th Street and Broadway. blue hues. rhythmic dance of form and color akin to Among the more literal journeys was The imagistic juxtapositions of the the expressionistic brushwork in her can- that taken by Shawn Efran to Afghanistan, urban scene are the subject of Scott vases. Rich’s pictures of overlapping build- where he photographed fierce looking Weingarten’s color prints. Focusing on a ings, sculptures, and other urban imagery men toting rifles and frantic looking chil- man in a subway station watching a train are especially animated in this regard. dren playing in the rubble of war. covered with graffiti pull in like a high Deena Weintraub’s black and white Everyone has extraordinary eyes in Efran’s velocity abstract painting, or a fashionably prints are painterly in their own manner. stark black and white prints, which merge dressed young woman overshadowed by a Foregoing color to focus on texture, documentary and art photography by huge blowup of a model’s face, Weintraub makes simple subjects such as a trapping “the human soul in its cage of Weingarten unveils fascinating layers of weathered wood door or lacy dresses mortal flesh.” reality and illusion. hanging on a rack a sensuous tactile expe- Gloria Waslyn’s color photographs of Richard Shore is a photographer with a rience. her two pet parrots, Baby and Merlin, kaleidoscopic vision, as seen in his dazzling Then there is Lori Fischler, whose work have an opposite effect. Waslyn photo- color print of a bustling street doubled by seems to exemplify the famous phrase graphs her birds in public, at gatherings its reflection in a department store win- “through a lens, darkly.” Fischler’s dra- for peace or to save the rainforest, and the dow. Equally evocative, if simpler, is matic color prints explore the realm of joy that the playful, colorful avians gener- Shore’s image of silhouetted figures pass- dreams through her use of light and shad- ate among themselves and the humans ing a contrastingly colorful florist’s win- ow––what painters call chiaroscuro––to they encounter is the real subject of her dow. reveal the mystery in commonplace things, pictures. Jean Prytyskacz conveys a sense of inti- such as trees and foliage. Like all of the Robert Helman’s picture of the WTC macy, even when she photographs archi- photographers in this splendid group exhi- Twin Towers emerging from mists is a tectural subjects such as the facade of a bition, Fischler takes us on a personal lyrical image that takes on an almost cathedral or skyscrapers seen through the journey by virtue of her unique perspec- unbearable resonance in retrospect, know- grid of a windowpane. Here, however, tive on reality. ––Maureen Flynn

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20 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 Dawn Devereux Charts the Journey of the Self and Soul n the latter part of the nineteenth centu- compositions, in which various objects and of the phallic pillar, a feminine symbol. It Iry, Symbolism ran counter to natural elements serve as symbolic props. is also a holy symbol in another manner Impressionism. It was a romantic move- The solitary figure, at once sensual and different from the pillar, as seen in the ment in literature, as well as in art, placing ethereal as it reclines languorously or soars architectural ornata of cathedrals, where subjective emotions above direct observa- through space, could suggest the journey portals are treated as if they were altar- tion from nature and also making mythic of the self through life or of the soul pieces. Here, too, the symbolism of the or symbolic subject matter more central through the afterlife or any number of our stream as the path of life, as well as a than formal concerns. As such, it fell out possibilities, given the potency and com- source of poetic inspiration, as in the of favor when modernism gained historical plexity of the symbolism in Devereux’s Castalian stream, or the stream that The momentum, and was more or less scorned, paintings. Queen of Sheba walked through rather or at least ignored, until the rise of post- In “The Pillar,” for example, the pale than tread on the wood that bridged it. modernism in the 1970s revived an interest nude figure reclines at the top of a tall Again, Devereaux’s composition is richly in subjective vision that manifested in a structure set within a misty nightscape that allusive, as well as magically atmospheric, variety of figurative art styles. could be seen on the most obvious level as with its predominance of deep blue hues Few contemporary artists, however, phallic. Yet it should also be remembered and evocation of lightbeams, mists, and have breathed new life into Symbolism as that in the art of the Greeks and the other atmospheric effects. convincingly as the Australian painter Romans statues of the gods often sur- In this and other evocative paintings Dawn Devereux, whose exhibition of mounted tall pillars to indicate that they such as “The Eruption,” “The Watershed,” acrylic paintings on canvas was seen dwelt in the sky. Consider, too, that in and “The Wave,” Dawn Devereux appar- recently at Montserrat Gallery, 584 Christianity the pillar was also a symbol of ently does not contrive her symbols in any Broadway, in Soho. spiritual strength and steadfastness, and the calculated manner, but rather allows them “Visions drawn from the mountainous multifaceted nature of the symbolism in to arise intuitively through a process that terrain that is the emotional landscape of Devereux’s work becomes even clearer. she declines to analyze, saying, “I do not the self,” is how Devereux describes her In another canvas by Devereux called care to define my work; to try and explain paintings, in which a lone, lithe female “The Door,” the figure soars in midair consciously that which is an unconscious nude is usually seen in an atmospheric toward a large portal that appears in the expression seems inane.” realm resembling the terrain to which we nocturnal landscape directly above mounds Her point is well taken, since her sym- are transported in dreams. One can draw of earth divided by a narrow winding bols speak eloquently for themselves. all manner of conclusions from Devereux’s stream. The door, of course is the opposite ––Maurice Taplinger Judith A. Brust: Making the Mythic Palpable udith A. Brust, a frequent exhibitor nariness of a chair as a vessel for the physical Jthrough the northeast for two decades, is body makes it a common reference point in an artist informed by an acute awareness of philosophical discourse, as in “We think we art history, citing a diverse range of other see this chair, but is it really there?” artists, from Mark Rothko to Eva Hesse and Brust’s very large monoprints seem to Louise Bourgeois, as inspirations. pose such questions in visual terms by sub- Burst’s monumental monoprints, howev- jecting the basic shape of a chair to a variety er, have their own inimitable qualities, of permutations that reverse and, in some employing a host of symbols and allusions cases, erase figure-to-ground relationships. drawn from the writings of Carl Jung and She accomplishes this by virtue of her Joseph Campbell, as well as from the artist’s exquisite spatial sense as well as through her own ideas about the “Life Cycle,” a recur- use of rich, earthy pigmentations that lend ring theme in her work. her compositions a remarkable organic unity. Rather than dealing mainly in generali- As tactile as they are visually appealing, ties, as many artists who endeavor to express Brust’s prints also accomplish the peculiar large themes have a tendency to do, Brust aesthetic alchemy of making ethereal quali- manifests philosophical themes through ties of light take palpable form, as seen material means as readily as through more most dramatically in the series she calls ethereal imagery. Which is to say: not only “Life Cycle,” where individual prints are does she convey lyrical notions of universali- variously subtitled “Mind’s Eye,” “Beginnings,” and “Dance.” In each of ty with spherical shapes filled with luminous “Life Cycle, Dance #1” color, she also invests the visible subject of these prints a circular shape, afloat in a black the known world and its most mundane void, glows luminously. Each central orb is ear and angular elements are set afloat with- objects with a metaphysical dimension. How enlivened by subtly modulated chromatic in and against richly variegated color fields. Brust accomplishes this was seen in her schemes that evoke a sense of light and life, Here, brilliant reds and vibrant yellows burn recent exhibition at Agora Gallery, 415 West of infinite and eternal mysteries. Needless to through earth colors and other deep, dark Broadway, in Soho, where her varied say, planetary associations naturally come hues, evoking not so much a sense of nature approaches were much in evidence. into play. as the hidden energies and forces that acti- Some of Brust’s most striking metamor- Equally compelling in another manner vate our world. phoses can be seen in her “Chair Series,” in are the compositions that Brust refers to At a time when many artists are content which a familiar household object is subject- under the series title “Poetic Space,” where to dwell in superficial aspects of reality ed to a variety of deconstructions which forms are more varied and gesturally dis- Judith A. Brust is compelled to probe more seem to call into question the existence of persed. In these works, the layered shapes, deeply. Thus her work rewards us in unan- physical matter itself. Indeed, the very ordi- ranging from the familiar orbs to more lin- ticipated ways. ––Marie R. Pagano

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 21 Francisco Javier Fernandez Mazo, Maestro of Dreams he Spanish artist Francisco Javier ment of water and clouds, as well as the TFernandez Mazo, whose oils on canvas more metaphorical passage of time. At once were seen recently at Agora Gallery, 530 wistful and slightly rueful, this canvas con- West 25th Street, in Chelsea, is possessed of veys how the child can indeed be “father to a singularly imaginative vision. How much the man.” Taking the idea slightly further, it his love of light has to do with the time he also seems to express by its very existence spent as a miner, working in the deep, dark how the child can also be the precursor and bowels of the earth, can only be speculated muse to the powerful adult artist, guiding upon. It does seem worth mentioning, his hand toward transformative truths. though, given the dramatic contrasts in his By contrast, in “Lonely Child’s Forest,” paintings, as well as the sense one gets that we see nature transmogrified by a moment he is an artist who is constantly mining his of heartbreaking beauty preserved as in a subconscious for personal imagery with uni- time capsule. With its scrawny pine trees sil- “Lonely Childs Forest” versal ramifications. houetted skeletally against a turbulent twi- What strikes one most immediately about light sky, at once cloud-shrouded and oddly rainbow, may appear to be viewing an actual Mazo’s paintings is how seamlessly he inte- luminous, this painting is truly visionary for scene. Yet somehow we know he is inhabit- grates seemingly disparate images to create Mazo’s ability to impose an emotional ing a daydream. his special brand of visual poetry. Childhood atmosphere on a natural scene. Nor does Francisco Javier Fernandez memory would appear to be a major source Indeed, every subject to which Mazo Mazo appear to skimp on his own fondest of inspiration for Mazo, judging from such applies his brush is intensified in a similar fantasies when he presents us with another titles as “Lonely Child’s Forest” and “Old manner, lending an exquisite poignancy to buoyant oil of an old fashioned biplane flut- News, Old Lad, Childish Dreams.” even a relatively simple watercolor of two tering by amid windblown blossoms and In both of these oils, as their poetic titles bare-limbed trees swaying in a stormy field, titles this dreamy vision, “An Artist’s Gipsy indicate, a sense of melancholy pervades the making them take on an anthropomorphic Moth.” atmosphere, lending the pictures a powerful quality that seems to symbolize a couple’s Indeed, the rarefied realm between our emotional resonance. “Old News, Old Lad, romantic struggle. Similarly, the figures in inner and outer realities is the territory that Childish Dreams” is especially affecting in Mazo’s paintings appear to be beset by this gifted Spanish painter has staked out for this regard, juxtaposing a makeshift sailboat visions of their own. The boy crouching at himself and he mines it profitably, enriching and the dreamy face of a young boy within the shore in “Whitman’s Used Blue Shoes,” us all in the process. a composition enlivened by a flurry of who gazes at an old fashioned sailing ship bravura brush strokes, suggesting the move- tossed on waves as luminously varied as a ––Barbara K. Bernstein Gort and Alvin Pimsler: Two Approaches to the Figure wo figurative artists with vastly differ- imagery. Elements of Dali and Magritte traits on canvas demonstrating that draw- Ting styles were seen in recent months also appear to be appropriated by this ver- ing is the foundation on which all of his in solo exhibitions at Montserrat Gallery, satile painter and made to meld with his work rests, regardless of medium. 584 Broadway. However, the draftsman highly original approach. Leaving large areas of the primed can- Alvin Pimsler and the painter known as Having begun with egg tempera, Gort vas bare, Pimsler creates a sense of spon- Gort share in common an impressive has taken up oils as his paintings have taneity and freshness that can only be command of human anatomy and an abil- grown larger and his palette has grown compared to certain aspects of Asian ity to employ it effectively for their indi- bolder. His newest paintings are thus pos- painting. Indeed, his habit of signing his vidual expressive purposes. sessed of greater visual impact, yet traces works with initials enclosed in a red rec- Gort, who was born on the Greek of Byzantine beauty remain. The combi- tangle resembling a seal of “chop” Island of Corfu, was influenced at an early nation of old and new, of sacred and pro- appears to be an acknowledgment that, age by his father, a painter who restored fane elements, lend the paintings of Gort like Lautrec and others, he has learned Byzantine icons and Italian style frescoes great depth and complexity. much from Eastern spatial strategies. in churches and historic palaces. He Alvin Pimsler, a former president of the However, Pimsler’s approach to portrai- began painting and selling his own icons Society of Illustrators, bridges the gap ture is quintessentially western and con- at age thirteen, and over the years has between fine and commercial art. temporary. He captures the character of continued to refine techniques adopted Internationally known both for his fashion his sitters in bold strokes, delineating their from the Byzantine era. However, he drawings for Saks Fifth Avenue and The features with a flowing oil pastel line aug- applies these techniques to a contempo- New York Times, Pimsler reinvigorates mented by oil washes, the sense of spon- rary style also influenced by Surrealism, the graphic tradition of Egon Schiele and taneity enhanced by occasional drips that creating paintings featuring incongruous Toulouse Lautrec. lend his compositions an almost Abstract situations and intriguing figurative juxta- In an earlier exhibition at Montserrat Expressionist velocity. positions. Gallery, Pimsler (whose work can be Pimsler appears to select models with a Beautiful nudes reminiscent of viewed in the gallery salon exhibition year natural theatrical flair that he accentuates Botticelli are merged with modern ele- round) showed a series of mixed media with his elegant draftsmanship. His sitters ments in various unexpected settings in drawings on paper of which the subject look as though they are used to striking Gort’s compositions. Figures from was beautiful women in various stages of poses and projecting attitudes, and Classical antiquity and religious art are dress and undress. His rhythmic line Pimsler appears to delight in capturing often combined with Pop references and evoked womanly sensuality with sinuous them through his mastery of line, color, personalities such as Groucho Marx, flair. In his recent exhibition in the same and gesture. resulting in characteristically witty venue, Pimsler showed a group of por- ––Byron Coleman

22 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 20 Painters from Spain at Jadite Galleries hat contemporary Spanish painters con- an expressionist landscape was evoked pri- Ttinue to draw inspiration from the marily with vigorous strokes of blue, with proud heritage that extends from Velazquez pieces of roughly torn cardboard added to and Goya through Miro and Picasso to suggest the ridged rooftops of small, clus- more recent masters like Antoni Tapies was tered dwellings. These collage elements also made clear in an exhibition of paintings by functioning autonomously as tactile addi- the Painters and Sculptors Association of tions to the abstract thrust of Aragon’s Leon, Spain, seen recently at Jadite painting. Santos revealed an especially viva- Galleries, 413 West 50th Street. cious approach in a marinescape character- Featured were twenty widely exhibited ized by gestural swiftness and sumptuous artists from the city of Leon who have made paint handling. With bravura brushwork and it their humanitarian mission to promote chromatic subtlety, Santos filled his compo- Santos tourism to La Catedral De León, a magnifi- sition with a breezy sense of movement and cent cathedral in the home town, as well as atmosphere, in keeping with buoyant sub- to advance international awareness of con- ject of a small boat traversing a picturesque temporary Spanish art. waterway. Both the representational and abstract Antoni S. Uceda applies thick impastos, works shared a commitment to the ongoing building up the surfaces of his paintings to role of painting as a viable endeavor, distinct almost relief-like textures, as seen in his J. A. Santocildes from other more technological and concep- depiction of a cathedral, its gothic steeples tual art forms which have come into play in soaring into a sky created with strong, over- recent decades. lapping strokes. Like a contemporary Among the more abstract painters on Spanish cousin of Chaim Soutine, Uceda view were J.A. Santocildes, A.G. Luchy, practically sculpts with pigment, capturing Nuria Capdevila, and Marisa Ruiz Zorrilla. his subject with fierce, expressionist intensi- Santocildes showed a painting in which two ty. boldly thrusting vertical forms supported Elda R-Aranguena also shows consider- the composition like twin pillars, set against able energy, albeit in a more restrained man- a rich, earthy ground. The synthesis of ner, in her painting of a street scene with physical presence coupled with spiritual sug- small figures and tall buildings, evoked in gestiveness lends great urgency and power smoky, atmospheric strokes. Mila Rabanal, to Santocildes’s work. on the other hand, employs a precise neo- Luchy was represented by an overall pointillist technique in her painting of a rail- Luisa Aragón composition created with tactile strokes of road station with passengers bustling along pigment that accumulated and gathered the platform, preparing to board a waiting force to activate the surface in a manner train. Then there is Pablo Alonso, who akin to the American painter Milton shows admirable fluidity and compositional Resnick. Luchy, however, has a distinctly dif- force in his painting of an exterior scene in ferent approach to color, here most notably somber, dark tonalities. Richard P. Franco in the harmonies she achieves between a employs an architectural subject to create a subtle range of red and blue hues. composition notable for its bold, block Capdevila also has a unique grasp of forms and a transcendent sense of light, par- color, employing subdued brown and blue ticularly in the contrasts between a glowing hues predominantly in mixed media works yellow facade and a deep blue sky. further enlivened by an intriguing vocabu- The painter known as Arauzo orches- lary of personal symbols that appear to trates a variety of gray monochromes, allude to hidden, esoteric meanings. At the accented here and there with vibrant red, in same time, Capdevila compels us with the his complex vista of a village set within a Marisa Ruiz Zorilla formal purity of her compositions, their landscape. Ana Martinez shows a uniquely exquisite spatial tensions that she sets up on whimsical sense of the surreal in her fanciful albeit with a weighty depth more character- the shallow terrain of the picture plane. painting of an umbrella filled with flowers istic of Spanish painting; a portrait of the Zorilla juxtaposes neo-cubistic architec- sailing across a grassy field. Angeles Delgado famous “Three Tenors” by Luzmela, its tural allusions with rhythmic linear elements takes a more direct approach to floral still realism offset by the artist’s distancing to activate her canvases, creating the sense life in her painting of a bouquet of yellow device of painting furled edges, to give the of natural forces swirling around a city as flowers in a white vase next to a stack of illusion of the image being on a poster peel- though to demonstrate their mysterious books. ing away from a wall; and an undersea scene autonomy from the paltry fortifications of Impressive in their own manner were: by I.O. Isabela, in which colorful schools of mankind. Zorrilla’s piquant color harmonies Felipe Valladares’ painting of snowcapped fish and flora create a vibrantly animated and gestural energy enhance the lyrical mountains looming above a reflective lake; composition. thrust of her composition. Monje’s bold composition focusing on the All of the painters in “Asociacion De The organic synthesis of representational angular parapets and walkways of a cathe- Pintores Y Escultores Ciudad De Leon,” as elements within ostensibly abstract contexts dral; Margarita Caballo’s juicily painted they are known in Spain, demonstrate that can also be seen in the work of painters such image of a rustic house, its rough steps their country’s proud painterly tradition is as Luisa Aragon and the artist known by the delineated with vigorous strokes; a landscape alive and well in the postmodern era. surname of Santos. by Jose A. Gomez in which craggy moun- ––Lawrence Downes Aragon showed a composition in which tains were evoked as in a Chinese landscape,

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 23 Neus Francesch Evokes a Radiant Romantic Realm eoclassical inspiration has taken a vari- matic energy. In Francesch’s paintings, how- Nety of intriguing forms in the postmod- ever, color also transcends its purely formal ern era, as various artists have striven to cre- function to envelop the figures in romantic ate new ways of looking at the figure. Neus auras. Francesch, a painter from Barcelona, Spain, In this regard Francesch is somewhat showed considerable originality in this akin to the Italian postmodernist Sandro regard, in her recent exhibition at Chia, albeit with a less ironic approach to Montserrat Gallery, 584 Broadway, in Soho. the narrative elements in her work. There is Unlike a good many figurative artists in also a somewhat surreal component in a recent years, who tend to concentrate on painting such as her oil on canvas “Figuras form, often to the detriment of color, “Desembargo De Dali En N.Y.” (detail) Del Retablo De Cadaques,” in which Francesch is a consummate colorist. Her robed figures with the quality of phantoms paintings are chromatically dynamic, owing touch as they meet in the middle panel, traverse a street in a small village where to her use of luminous hues in a variegated while another figure in the final panel looks houses recede in vanishing perspective. For technique that lends her canvases a subtly on, holding a mask. Both flanking figures while the more common anomalies that we glowing quality, as though they are lit from appear to be witnesses to the central pair, associate with garden variety surrealism are within. Indeed, her canvases come alive most about whom all the composition’s drama absent, the composition has a decidedly strikingly when the gallery lights are slightly revolves. There is the sense of a mysterious dreamlike quality. dimmed, creating a pulsating effect, as close- allegory unfolding in a timeless realm where Other paintings by Neus Francesch ly valued areas of blue, green, pink, ocher each movement and gesture is fraught with depict male or female nudes in a manner and red appear to flow over her figures. elusive meaning. that is simultaneously sensual and subdued The effect is especially lovely in the large That Neus Francesch works in the time- by formal restraint. In each of her paint- work entitled “Triptico,” in which four honored medium of oil on canvas connects ings, while her palette is by no means con- severely simplified classical figures are ranged her work to the classical tradition, even as ventional or naturalistic, Neus Francesch’s over the three panels. Here, the radiant hues she employs color in a manner more akin to radiant rainbow hues enliven the human flow with the graceful rhythms of the fig- the tonal subtleties of the Synchromists or anatomy in a manner that evokes a far ures, inhabiting the draperies of their gar- their French counterparts in the movement more vibrant sense of the life force. It is ments, illuminating their very gestures as called Orphism, founded by Robert just this ability to combine the ethereal they interact symbolically within the beauti- Delaunay. Obviously, like Delaunay, Neus with a physically palpable presence that fully orchestrated composition. The figure Francesch sees color in relation to move- makes the paintings of Neus Francesch so on the left directs the viewer to the two cen- ment, as a vehicle for creating rhythmical remarkably resonant. tral figures, a pair of lovers whose hands thrust in the composition, as well as chro- s––Peter Wiley Carmen Labbé: Ancient Inspiration and Enduring Light mong the earliest formalists were those The device is especially effective in a Aartisans of ancient cultures––particularly painting such as “Shaman Healer,” where the Egyptians, the Celts, and the the addition of gold metallic pigment makes Mayans––who created stylized symbols with the figure enveloped in a shimmering blue a variety of forms, both cursive and geomet- field appear to emanate beams of light. Even ric. Although such symbols were generally while the gold elements create the formal intended as manifestations of communal effect of a religious icon, the overall spirit of belief systems rather than expressions of the image is more fluid in its thrust than individual creativity, they often provide a representations of saints and other figures in rich source of inspiration for contemporary Western religious icons tend to be. For artists. Labbé invests her painting with a sense of Traces of many ancient cultures appear in primitive urgency more in keeping with the the paintings of Carmen Labbé, seen recent- nature of shamanic mysticism–– its shape ly at Agora Gallery, 415 West Broadway. shifting aspects, its belief in creatures and However, they are thoroughly transformed myths that morph to take various forms. by the modern sensibility of this artist with a Ancient Egyptian motifs also provide background in fashion design, theater, and rich sources of inspiration in paintings such “Akhenaten: Law of One” literature, who has traveled extensively and as “Akhenaten: Law of One” in which the assimilated a wide range of influences. stylized symbol of an eye floats above a noted that Labbé is an exceptionally astute Presently residing in Providence, Rhode pyramidal form within a broad blue border. colorist, as seen in her subtle use of saturat- Island, Labbé combines her interest in vari- Here, Labbé employs reflective materials ed blue hues in paintings such as “Bleu ous cultures with an interest in the optical and a severe geometric format vocabulary Nuit” and “Window of a Shaman,” as well effects of light. to invest her composition with an impres- as in the more sharply differentiated color “I have always been fascinated by the sive formal presence. By contrast, in areas and bold forms in the fiery red and transformation that occurs on a person, “Keepers of the Elements,” she utilizes four blue range in her acrylic painting “Polarity.” place or object by the mere effect of light,” stylized figures apparently derived from In all of these works, different as they Labbé has been quoted as stating. This fas- African tribal sculpture to create a powerful may be in their formal and chromatic com- cination has led her to experiment with a frontal composition. ponents, the unifying element is the empha- variety of reflective materials which invest Another painting by Labbé, “Mandala sis on light that invests the paintings of the surfaces of her mixed media paintings Swirl,” again verges on minimalism with its Carmen Labbé with their luminous persua- with luminous effects that enhance their sharply geometric forms and subtly shim- siveness. spiritual suggestiveness. mering chromatic qualities. It should be ––Byron Coleman 24 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 Kim, Poong-Young: The Force that Fuses the Flower rom its infancy, the art of photog- delicate petals have a wind-blown Fraphy has proven every bit as appearance and the entire composition expressive as painting in interpreting has a wavering effect which removes it the moods of nature. One thinks most from the realm of naturalistic transcrip- immediately of the landscapes of tion, producing an almost expressionis- Edward Steichen and John G. Bullock. tic energy and sense of movement. However, floral still life also has a long How this is achieved is a mystery bet- and distinguished tradition in photog- ter left to the photographer’s discre- raphy. As early as 1906, photographers tion to reveal or not to reveal; suffice it such as Edwin Hale Lincoln and to say that for the viewer it is simply an Bertha E. Jaques were producing floral exhilarating image possessed of great compositions of great beauty. Indeed, beauty and mystery. it is to their tradition that the work of In other compositions, Kim the contemporary Korean photograph- employs extreme close-up, cropping, ic artist Kim, Poong-Young (she and blurred effects to emphasize the prefers to have her surname, followed Photograph by Kim, Poong-Young abstract qualities of her floral subjects, by a comma, precede her given name ecessors is that she can avail herself of the as seen in one particularly sumptuous print in the Korean manner) would appear to technical advances of color photography. of yellow flowers set against a brilliant blue belong. And she does so with an inventiveness that ground. Here, she achieves a tactile effect Kim’s exhibition, “Flowers, Illusive makes her pictures all the more painterly, that recalls the brush work of Monet, Beauty Beyond Memory,” can be seen at employing color to impart dynamic quali- albeit illusionistically rather than through Gallery 32, 32 West 32nd Street, from ties to her pictures that transcend mere actual texture. June 1 through 15. descriptiveness and can, at times, verge on This ability to evoke palpable physical Unlike Lincoln and Jaques, however, the visionary. immediacy, coupled with her fondness for both of whom approached floral composi- Kim’s eye for chromatic nuances makes intense color, furthers the painterly effect tion at least partially with the attitude of some of her compositions akin to the in Kim’s pictures, enabling her to capture botanists, Kim is much more concerned Symbolist floral paintings of Odilon not only the visual appearance of her sub- with achieving spectacular visual qualities Redon. Her use of color is just that exqui- jects but that hidden essence which Dylan than with capturing the individual features site in one particularly beautiful print of Thomas once referred to poetically as “the of various species as a form of floral por- white flowers with red tips on slender force that through the green fuse drives traiture. Of course, another major differ- green stems set against a fluid background the flower.” ence between Kim and her illustrious pred- of variegated blue and pink hues. Here, the ––Maureen Flynn Mary Cox: Illuminating The Greek Landscape f, as the critic and art historian through the window of a touring IXavier Girard has noted, the automobile, with a view of a reced- entire Mediterranean region is in ing highway reflected in the many ways an “imaginary land,” no rearview mirror. Thus, we see past artist in recent years has “imag- and present, eternal and man-made ined” Mediterranean qualities more elements, simultaneously, and are atmospherically–– particularly as made aware, above all, of how they apply to Greece––than Mary Greece’s natural glories endure, Cox, whose paintings can be seen retaining their allure in the face of at Montserrat Gallery, 584 modernity and change. Broadway, from June 1 through Some of Cox’s most powerful 19. (There will be a reception for paintings are her simplest ones, such the artist on Thursday, June 3, as “Three Islands,” where the from 6 to 8 PM.) mounds of land rise from the bril- Cox’s acrylic paintings capture liant blue water like the backs of those particulars that make the whales; or “Jetty,” in which the Greek landscape perhaps the most craggy stone structure of the title “Jetty” magnificent embodiment of extends from the shoreline like teeth Mediterranean beauty: its clear, cloudless shimmering sea can be glimpsed beyond in a prehistoric jawbone. With her skies and sparkling blue waters, as well as its the stately columns and scattered stones. In accomplished realist technique, Cox lends magnificent ruins. Ruins figure prominently other, more spare compositions, the white each element of every picture its proper in some of Cox’s most striking paintings. columns and azure sky alone compel the weight and texture; all are made to balance Set against vibrant blue skies, the white eye, creating dramatic contrasts between harmoniously by virtue of her subtle, unob- columns imbue her compositions with the solid and the ethereal. trusive brushwork. stately formal and spatial qualities to rival Mary Cox finds beauty in the least Mary Cox loses herself in the landscape, any abstraction. Yet they also convey all the expected aspects of the Greek landscape, as surrendering to it completely, dedicating mystery of Antiquity, filling her canvases well as in its more picturesque ones. She her every painterly gesture to the faithful with the sense of stillness and silence that is paints the view from pristine patios, looking transcription of its specific characteristics.Yet the other face of this vital, fertile, animated out over apartment buildings and rooftops, the strength of her commitment colors land. giving one a sense of how modern people everything that she paints, making it dis- In some paintings, verdant foliage, olive inhabit this realm of ancient wonders. She tinctly her own. trees, distant mountains, and stretches of juxtaposes water and mountains, seen ––Maureen Flynn

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 25 Holy Apostles Community Chorus “By the Rivers of Babylon” Music of the Jewish and Black Diasporas MIWAA Saturday, June 12, 4 p.m. Church of the Holy Apostles Creating resources. Producing results. 9th Avenue at 28th Street M!WAA (Midtown West Art Associates) is an organiza- tion dedicated to the advancement of the visual arts by providing American and international artists with a Elemental Abstraction wide array of opportunities, while creating a valuable June 10 - June 30, 2004 resource for those who appreciate contemporary Reception: Thursday, June 10, 2004, 6-8pm painting, sculpture, and photography. M!WAA is focused on developing a unique system of Susan L. Baker support, promotion and marketing by enlisting the David Giles services of a select group of professionals, and utiliz- Idith Levy ing existing art-related infrastructure, including print Aleksandar Pribicevic and electronic media.

For more information, membership and participation in the TIMES SQUARE ART SHOW please contact miwaa.org, [email protected], 212.354.8327, or stop by M!WAA at 580 Eighth Avenue @ 38th Street, New York, Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 12-6pm NY10018 (Tues - Sat, 12 - 6 pm). 530 West 25th Street, Chelsea NY, NY 10001 Agora 212 - 226 - 4151 / Fax: 212 - 966 - 4380 Gallery www.Agora-Gallery.com / www.Art-Mine.com Barbara Beatrice SOLO SHOW

June 30 - July 11 Tues.- Fri. 3 to 7pm Sat. & Sun. 1-5pm Closed Monday July 5 Reception: June 30, 4 to 7pm Informal discussion about the artist’s work: July 1, 4 to 5pm

The Pen and Brush Gallery 16 East 10th Street, New York, New York (Between 5th Avenue and University) 212/475-3669

26 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 The AWS at the Salmagundi Club: Watercolor’s Best and Brightest ounded in 1866, the American up a considerable amount of texture in FWatercolor Society perpetuates a dis- “Asian Pears,” an ornate still life composi- tinguished tradition that encompass a tion incorporating a miniature Buddha wide range of styles–– from the realism of and other objects of orientalia. Betsy John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer Dillard Stroud also employed opaque pig- to the homegrown Impressionism of ments effectively to create a dramatic Maurice Prendergast, to the modernist sense of chiaroscuro in her figure painting innovations of John Marin and Charles “Reverie in Black.” Equally dramatic in its Demuth, to the visionary nature paintings own manner was the intriguingly titled of Charles Burchfield, to Dong “Vanilla Winter Whiskey,” a semi-abstract Kingman’s unique contemporary synthesis composition by George James, in which of East and West. the silhouetted figures of birds and people Descendants of all of these tendencies were juxtaposed on the picture. and several more recent ones were repre- The unforgiving nature of watercolor, in which it is almost impossible to correct mistakes without sacrificing the vitality that makes the medium unique, makes the combination of detail and freshness in a painting such as Scott Zupanc’s “Tethered,” depicting weeds and lily pads in reflective water, all the more remark- able. Equally meticulous yet unlabored is “Cold Empty Bed,” a light-filled interior by Dick Cole. Other painters convey immediacy via a looser technique, as seen Dick Cole in a splashy picture of two blues musicians by Alvaro Castagnet, as well as in Connie Dillman’s painting of a young woman and a black cat relaxing on boldly patterned cushions under a crucifix. Linda Baker’s “Woven Patterns” was a tour de force of “abstract realism,” in which a plethora of clothespins and wick- er were depicted for their formal effect in a whirlwind composition, while Dorothy Dallas’ “Red Series # 2” and “Southwest Moon” by Carole D. Barnes both proved that watercolor can be an exciting vehicle Dean L. Mitchell for nonobjective expression. Because it can be such a distinctive sented in the recent 137th International medium when it is used in a traditional Exhibition of the AWS, at the Galleries of manner and because some of its most the Salmagundi Club, 47 Fifth Avenue. famous exponents have left such an indeli- This abundant worldwide survey is a ble impression in our memory, we tend to Donna Watson must-see for anyone interested in diverse stereotype aquarelle. In doing so, howev- N.C. Wyeth in a watercolor such as Dean approaches to this difficult yet rewarding er, we can overlook its various possibili- L. Mitchell’s picture of a pensive knight medium. ties. Indeed, one of the things that this in armor, “Prepare for Battle,” or One of the qualities that one looks for year’s show made especially clear is that employed with the drippy, expressionistic in good watercolor painting is the sense there need be no more rules to govern boldness that we see in a cityscape by of freshness and spontaneity evident in the use of watercolor than of any other Carole McDermott or an equally vigorous some of the prize-winning works such as medium. We can have the detailed photo abstract composition of circular forms and Dan Burt’s sparkling marine subject “Big realism of Patricia Herlihy’s “Double T linear elements by Donna Watson. Sister,” as well as in street scenes by Eric Diner,” as well as the lyrical abstraction of The great value of an exhibition such Wiegardt and Wai-Hin Law. All three of John Mc Iver’s “Stele X”; the expressive as the American Watercolor Society’s these artists make use of the white of the figuration of Robert Barnum’s “Sick 137th International Exhibition is the paper and employ translucent washes in Child” (with its echoes of Thomas Hart opportunity that it provides to view so the traditional manner to imbue their pic- Benton’s regionalism), as well as a spare, many diverse approaches to the medium tures with a sense of light and life. buoyant floral composition called under one roof to be reminded, not only The definitions of what is permissible “Friend’s Lilies” by William Ternes or of its unique qualities, but of the breadth in watercolor painting have become more Janet Walsh’s magical nocturnal view into and scope of the creative imagination. liberal in recent years, however, and more a studio window, “Closed for the Night,” opaque techniques incorporating acrylic with its symphonic use of light and shad- and other water-based mediums were also ow. The medium can be used to reinvigo- ––J. Sanders Eaton on view. Anne Bagby, for example, builds rate the mythic illustrational tradition of

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 27 The Art of Latin America at Agora Gallery

ot many years ago, in her book tural elements that lend her mixed media tion in the work of Pedro Wrede, born in N“Dimensions of the Americas,” art works sensuality and presence. Rio de Janeiro, whose paintings of room historian Shifra Goldman bemoaned the Also from Mexico, Cyntia Caballero, interiors reveal an array of intriguing sym- absence of a coherent, critically framed shows anatomically accomplished paintings bols. Inspired by modern poetry, Laura history of Latin American, Brazilian and of angelic gender blending beings and Castanedo creates a visual language of her Caribbean art.” While we are still awaiting other fascinating anomalies. The neo-sur- own with evocative abstract forms in such a history, exhibitions such as real paintings of Brazil’s Lucemar deSouza mixed media paintings with weathered “Masters of the Imagination: The Latin imbue streets and landscapes with mystical surfaces that suggest the passage of time. American Fine Art Exhibition,” seen significance. Luciana Futuro creates richly Memory and geometry transmuted recently at Agora Gallery, 415 West patterned figurative works that assimilate through a lyrical abstract sensibility Broadway, in Soho, help to fill the gap. indigenous influences to forge a new, dis- inform the paintings of Maria Teresa F. Vaeta Zitman, a gifted artist trained in tinctly Brazilian iconography. Gaos, an artist born in Spain who has Caracas, projects earthy sensuality in the Carivano, who lives in the Venezuelan lived in Mexico City for several decades. forms of the full-figured women who Andes, employs a distinctive stippling Brilliant colors and gestural dynamism populate her compositions as symbols of technique to create abstract compositions animate the oils and acrylics of Zelanis, “plenty.” Unlike Botero, however, Zitman that compel our attention with their visual whose intense palette has been influenced does not parody corpulence; rather, her fireworks. Caribbean plant life provides by the German Expressionists. Then there figures are Big and Beautiful, proudly dis- inspiration for Peyo, whose organic is Katherine de Camargo, who lived in playing their size and strength as positive abstractions are notable for their sensual New York for five years, before returning role models for young women in our forms and vibrant colors. Brazilian painter to Brazil, where she creates imaginary anorexic age. Fer Veriga also employs the female figure, landscapes and cityscapes integrating Fredelle Romano, another impressive nude or clothed, as an emblematic entity photo-imagery with vibrant passages of painter who has exhibited throughout in her oil and mixed media paintings, with painting. Mexico, employs subdued, sometimes their vibrant colors and vigorous brush Indeed, what this exhibition demon- somber hues, layering and scraping the strokes. Like her spiritual mentor Orozco, strated above all is that it is impossible to surfaces of her abstract paintings to create Elsa Zarduz is a Mexican muralist who stereotype Latin American painting; for its tactile effects of exquisite subtlety. studied art in the U.S.; Zarduz, however, diversity and vitality defy easy definition. Romano’s paintings are remarkable for often adds mystery to her figures by her ability to evoke a strong sense of nat- obscuring their faces in various ways. ural forces and essences through bold ges- Surrealism is combined with abstrac- ––Peter Wiley

The Complex Abstract “Narratives” of Carrie Smalley bstract painting is at a crucial juncture series they were in a vertical format of formats suggesting full-length mirrors.Yet Aat the present time. As the founda- four by nine feet––suggests a sequence of it is an adamantly abstract vision of the tion of modern art, it must create a new pages, albeit on a monumental scale. On artist’s, as well as the viewer’s, inner selves space for itself in order to remain relevant encountering the paintings in Smalley’s that is reflected in Smalley’s energetic for the postmodern era. One artist who recent exhibition at Montserrat Gallery, compositions, with their richly layered exemplifies the new attitude in abstraction the viewer was struck immediately by juxtapositions of geometric forms overlaid that will assure its continued vitality is their stately scale and presence, as well as by vigorous gestural elements, including Carrie Smalley, whose exhibition of paint- by their sense of visual continuity. All of energetic splashes and drips that add to ings was seen recently at Montserrat the paintings, however, while numbered, the overall rhythmic velocity. Gallery, 584 Broadway, in Soho. Smalley were untitled, and one suspects that Eschewing brushes except to mix col- refers to her work as “visual storytelling... Smalley refrained from naming them in ors, Smalley applies paint with palette developed through moments and frag- order to allow their underlying narrative knives, window squeegees, and rollers, ments of gesture.” to emerge of its own accord, without any creating richly variegated surfaces that To suggest the notion of a narrative, suggestive prompting that might interfere lend her paintings a sumptuous tactility. even in the most nonlinear terms, would with their sheer visual impact and imme- Mixing oils, acrylics, and house paints have been verboten among an earlier gen- diacy. with powdered pigments, oil sticks, and eration of abstract painters––particularly The wisdom of this strategy was borne other materials that strike her fancy, she among the Abstract Expressionists, to out by the manner in which one became combines sensual textures with vibrant whom Smalley would appear a legitimate caught up on a visceral, rather than a colors to imbue her compositions with a heir. The inclusion of literary allusions, merely intellectual, level with the gestural dazzling sense of depth and complexity. however, is one of the radical new depar- and chromatic drama: the “push and pull” Indeed, it is her ability to successfully tures that the work of advanced postmod- ( to employ Hans Hofmann’s famous juggle so many diverse elements and final- ern abstract painters has introduced, along term, of which Smalley indicates her ly resolve them harmoniously by virtue of with the deconstruction of the two- awareness by paraphrasing it poetically in her impressive painterly panache that dimensional picture plane, and Smalley her artist statement) that animates her makes Carrie Smalley a quintessential takes such strategies a step further when compositions. postmodern abstractionist. She appears she asserts that creating her paintings is Tellingly, Smalley also speaks of “lead- intent on making an ambitious contribu- “like writing a book; I am painting one ing the viewer to personal reflection” and tion to the art of her time and her talent chapter after another until I feel I can enabling him or her to “find your own is such that it seems likely she will, partic- rest.” reflection of feeling and memory,” and ularly if she continues on her present tra- Indeed, Smalley’s practice of working her paintings convey this idea both figura- jectory. on panels of a uniform size––in her latest tively and literally, their extremely vertical —Ed McCormack 28 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 The Painterly Dance of Korean Artist Eun Soon Lim

or the widely exhibited FKorean artist Eun Soon Lim, whose solo show will be seen from July 15 through August 14 at Gallery @ 49, 322 West 49th Street, painting and dance are inextricably linked. Lim has always been fascinated with both modern dance and traditional Korean dance. (Artist reception on July 15, from 6 to 8 p.m.) Although she paints many other subjects as well, dance has always been one of her favorites. Her paintings of dancers are especial- ly rhythmical, capturing the twirling movements of human bodies with brush strokes that are themselves a form of terpsi- chore frozen in motion. Indeed, Kwang-Myung Kim, a professor of aesthetics at Soongil University, in Seoul, Korea, made an especially astute observation about the relation- ship between Lim’s work and traditional Korean dance in a catalog essay for an exhibition last year in the same New York City venue. Kim stated that in Korean dance “the performers appear to move and at the same time to stand still.” One can add that Lim has achieved a remark- Painting by Eun Soon Lim able synthesis of movement and stasis in her paintings through her combina- ly flowing outlines to define the mountain this simple subject with considerable interest tion of gestural vivacity and solid composi- peaks––revealed her Korean roots through a due to the picture’s autonomous painterly tion. Her vibrant colors add the chromatic calligraphic fluidity that few Western artists appeal. And these purely physical qualities of approximation of emotion which further can match. Thus even Lim’s mountains color, tactile pigmentation, and gestural animates her work. appeared to dance by virtue of her graceful excitement remain in place and provide pri- The purely formal qualities that lend brushwork. mary interest when Lim takes on a more Lim’s canvases much of their thrust can be Lim achieves an even more thorough characteristic subject, as seen in her painting attributed to the fact that she has gone synthesis of the abstract and the representa- of a pas de deux between male and female through abstract as well as figurative phases. tional in other recent paintings, particularly Korean dancers. For example, in a 2001 exhibition at The one in which the bulky forms and overlap- As they clasp hands in semi-profile, the Korean National University of Art, which ping lines of the masts of ships in drydock female dancer thrusts one leg high in the air included well known American artists like provide her ample opportunity for free- behind her while balancing gingerly on the Alfred Leslie and Graham Nickson along wheeling formal expression. Here, her ges- other foot, creating a sweeping composition with equally distinguished Korean artists, tural dynamism is especially evident, result- that fills the canvas with a dynamic sense of Lim showed a 1997 mixed media painting ing in a composition enlivened by strokes movement. The white costumes of the two called “Fantasy.” While completely nonob- and even drips that assimilate the sponta- dancers, subtly shaded with various grada- jective that painting shared qualities in com- neous techniques of Abstract Expression, tions of purplish hues, add to the bold for- mon with the figurative oils in her recent while preserving the essential spirit of the mal thrust of the picture, giving the sense show at Gallery @ 49. subject. Here, as in another fine painting of that the two dancers are captured in a few One vigorously executed oil was a view boats lined up on a pier, a kind of aesthetic swift strokes, even while closer examination of mountains that could be compared, in sleight of hand enables her to indulge in of the painting yields a considerable amount terms of its subject matter, to traditional gestural pyrotechnics akin to “action paint- of detail. Asian landscapes. Lim, however, infused this ing” yet to simultaneously convey authentic Here, too, the luminous quality of the painting with a thoroughly contemporary atmosphere and a convincing, very specific, background hues––yellows, blues, and energy by virtue of her bold brushwork and sense of place. browns applied boldly in softly brushed use of brilliant blue, green, and fiery orange Almost violently slashing strokes reminis- areas that float like clouds––enhances the and ocher hues. The painting had a raw cent of Chaim Soutine are employed by romantic subject and attests to the innate power more comparable to Western expres- Lim to evoke the feathery forms and energy grace and beauty that characterizes all of sionism than to the poetic delicacy of of a pair of game cocks in another painting Eun Soon Lim’s paintings, making her an Eastern painting. At the same time, Lim’s where a combination of dark and fiery hues especially exhilarating and rewarding artist. paint handling––particularly her use of swift- convey a flurry of movement. Lim invests ––Peter Wiley

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 29 Prize-Winning Works from CLWAC at Broome Street Gallery ounded in 1896 and named for a scholar Fand philanthropist who was the only woman among the founding members of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club recently held its 2004 Members Exhibition at the Broome Street Gallery, 498 Broome Street. While the opinions of the jurors in any show such as this are always arguable, the prizes this year seemed especially well awarded, with each artist displaying the pre- requisite mastery of her medium. Pastelists made a particularly fine showing, with first prize going to Jacquelyn Kammerer Cattaneo for her atmospheric woodlands scene “Winter Aspens,” and Florence Biondi taking second place for her composi- tion “Concert in Prospect Park.” Kammerer’s picture was a tour de force of chiaroscuro, evoking precise qualities of light and shadow on trees and patches of snow, while Biondi’s composition captured the intense concentration of young sympho- ny musicians in performance. Karen Whitman Winners in the graphics category were especially diverse. First place went to Cary Painters invariably make a strong showing Thorp Brown for “Summer Memory,” a in CLWAC exhibitions and this year the subtly modulated monoprint in which recol- prizes seemed well deserved. The Horse’s lection was obviously abetted by fantasy, Head award for best painting went to resulting in a glowing bucolic vision of an Gabriela Dellosso for her self portrait in oil, enchanted inner realm. limned in a style of picturesque realism akin By contrast, Karen Whitman’s “Midtown to that of Malcolm Liepke, with the artist Mambo,” the linoleum cut that won second decked out in a feathered hat and fluffy boa place, conveyed the visual cacophony of peering out at the viewer like the heroine in urban rhythms with its expressive distortions a Victorian drama. Dramatic in another and atmospheric details, such as the conflu- manner was “A.K.A. Samson,” the oil by ence of clouds and smoke floating above Gaile Snow Gibbs that won the award for rooftops, water tanks, and billboards. portraiture, which depicted a middle aged man with flowing locks, his ruddy complex- Florence Biondi ion and intense expression conjured with bravura brushstrokes. First prize for oil/acrylic went to Carolyn Hess Low for her vigorous landscape in oil, a romantic tour de force called “Through the Trees.” Kathy Krantz Fieramosca was awarded second prize in the same category for “Bird’s Nest,” a trompe l’oeil still life in oil in which the various elements of the composition––a plaster relief of a stylized bird, a fragment of egg shell, a cluster of twigs and berries, and a yellow flower––are rendered with pristine verisimilitude. Then there was Dorothy Dallas, who won the first place award for watercolor with a luminous abstract landscape, its flow- ing forms and vibrant hues taking off from Priscilla Heep mesas and mountain ranges with a layered translucency exemplifying the aquarelle Sculpture was another category in which medium at its best. diverse styles took top prizes. Jinx Also including fine work by Jeanette Lindenauer took the Horse’s Head Award Martone, Maida Rosenheck, Gloria for “Golden Head,” an exquisitely minimal- Spevacek, Amy Bright Unfried, Jean T. ist form in polished bronze, while second Kroeber, Elvira Dimitrij, and others too Jacquelyn Kammerer Cattaneo prize for sculpture went to Priscilla Heep for numerous to mention here, the CLWAC’s this organization one of our most consis- “Hurry Up Lady,” a semi-abstract figure 2004 Members Exhibition once again tently rewarding artist’s organizations. combining humor with formal elegance. revealed the overall excellence that makes ––J. Sanders Eaton

30 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 “Bird Man” James Grashow’s Imaginative Flights ames Grashow has to be some Jkind of loony genius. What else could you call someone who cre- ates intricately detailed, anatomi- cally accurate sculptures of various avian species with ordinary corru- gated cardboard and those wiry little twist ties that we use to secure our garbage bags? When a visitor to the Allan Stone Gallery, 113 East 90th Street, suggested as much to Grashow during his recent solo exhibition “Cardbirds,” the artist did something Groucho Marxian with his salt and pepper eyebrows and said, “ If I lost the loony part, would I also lose the genius part?” In fact, in Grashow’s case, the two are inseparable. What makes his pieces so spectacular is that they are so zanily obsessive, sug- gesting that it is the wildly imprac- tical nature of artmaking that makes it so essential to our very survival ––particularly at a time in “Herons in a Stream” history when so many of us seem to have ingly comic qualities. He captures this Stream” is as fully realized as a nature abandoned our sense of wonder. combination of the ethereal and the amus- museum diorama. The latter piece depicts Surely the group of school children who ing especially well in the large sculpture two birds knee-deep in lush Technicolor were being led into the gallery by their called “Corrugated Crane.” Although flora, replete with dragonflies and salaman- teachers were thoroughly in tune with most of Grashow’s sculptures are painted, ders. While one bird stands guard, the Grashow’s unique vision of the animal in this piece the tan cardboard and twist other plucks a fish from a stream with its kingdom as they gawked with delight at his ties are left in their natural state, revealing long, dagger-like beak. cardboard creations. Grashow seemed just the naked nuts and bolts of his technique. Along with bird subjects, the show at as delighted, and rushed over to greet However, every one of the slong necked, Allan Stone also included surreal cardboard them, as though recognizing his ideal audi- long legged creature’s feathers is meticu- sculptures in which city buildings sprout ence––the people who, if we could only lously delineated, as are the weeds, cat- from floral bouquets, as well as some of open our own eyes as wide, could teach tails, and flowers of its natural habitat. And the equally fanciful woodcuts for which the rest of us how to view the world as the crane preens, spreading its formida- this artist is also well known. All demon- afresh! ble wings, one can easily imagine that it is strated the technical inventiveness and Birds are the perfect subject for about to take flight around the gallery. visionary humor that have won James Grashow, being the least earthbound of By contrast, “Painted Corrugated Grashow exhibitions at the Aldrich, creatures yet simultaneously possessed of Cock” represents a strutting rooster with MOMA, the Whitney, and numerous other an innate gawkiness that lends them affect- brilliant plumage, and “Herons in a major museums. ––Ed McCormack Ruth Poniarski June 10th - June 30th, 2004 The Cloak of Athens Reception: Thursday, June 10th, 6-8pm

Dorothy Govinda Lama Linda Leigh Jette van der Lende “Venus at the Beach” Acrylic 36" X 30" at the Beach” “Venus July 8 - 24, 2004 In Perspective Reception: Thursday July 8, 6-8pm Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 12-6pm Jadite Gallery 530 West 25th Street, Chelsea NY, NY 10001 413 West 50th St, NYC 10019 Agora 212 - 226 - 4151 / Fax: 212 - 966 - 4380 Tues - Sat 12 - 6pm 212 315 2740 www.jadite.com Gallery www.Agora-Gallery.com / www.Art-Mine.com Artist Website: www.poniarskipaintings.com

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO 31 Oh, Hyun-Young: A Sophisticated Artist Channels Childhood’s Innocence he Korean artist Oh, Hyun-Young irrelevant; the stark lyricism of the picture Tworks in lithography, watercolor, and lends it a poignant immediacy, capturing the monoprint, producing painterly prints with sense of vulnerability and trust that all chil- the haunting quality of superimposed mem- dren feel in such situations. ories. A few years ago, she was known for a In another especially colorful lithograph, kind of nostalgic realism, as seen in a 1997 Oh captures a more joyful sense of child- watercolor called “Dr. Oh’s Afternoon,” hood memory in a faux naif style somewhat which depicted her physician father wearing akin to the Art Brut of Jean Dubuffet, with his white coat and doting over plants in a fanciful figures, houses, flowers, and lollipop garden, the gentle demeanor of the healer trees delineated in a manner at once primi- obvious even when he was taking a break tive and elegant. Indeed, the sheer graphic from his medical duties. freedom of Oh’s newest lithographic excur- In Oh’s more recent lithographs, sions enables her to switch her point of view however, tender nostalgia is replaced by within a single work from the innocent mysterious juxtapositions of imagery that vision of a child to that of a mature artist. evoke an even more complex response in And while Oh’s ability to appropriate the the viewer, as seen in her solo show at freedom that we generally see only in the Gallery 32, 32 West 32nd Street, from June drawings of very young children is a remark- Lithograph by Oh, Hyun-Young 17 through 30, with a reception for the able feat that few other artists can match, it artist on June 18, from 6 to 8 PM. is their combination of eclectic elements that and filled with tree-limbs, are seen under an Now, Oh has cast aside the considerable makes her prints so visually rich. image of birds and leaves. aesthetic sophistication and anatomical mas- In one print, a young woman wearing a Although one cannot decipher the mean- tery evident in her earlier work to channel white nightgown and wings such as those ings of Oh, Hyun-Young’s new pictures as the sensations of childhood with refreshing one might don to impersonate an angel in a readily as her earlier ones, they possess a directness. Particularly affecting is one school play stands on a folding chair, encir- visionary intensity that makes them more image, drawn in a deliberately crude, child- cled by strange shadowy shapes. In another, profoundly affecting in a manner reminis- ish style of kids lying in beds while nurses an infant is juxtaposed with an unidentifiable cent of Borges’ line: “Perhaps a bird was walk among them. Whether this is an actual object covered with circular shapes and singing and for it I felt a tiny affection, the memory of a hospital stay in the artist’s large, staring eyes. In yet another, the iden- same size as a bird.” childhood or a scene from imagination is tical profiles of two children, one silhouetted ––J. Sanders Eaton

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32 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 New Realities A Fine Arts Exhibition Co-curated by Ernesto Camacho and Isabel Rivera

May 26 - June 13, 2004

ERNESTO CAMACHO • ISABEL RIVERA MEYER TANNENBAUM • LINDA LESSNER MADI LANIER • DIANE G. CASEY CATI BLANCHE • MARY ANNE HOLLIDAY CARRIE LO Broadway Mall Community Center Broadway at 96th St., NYC (center island) Wed 6 - 8 pm/Sat & Sun 12 - 6pm 212 316 6024 [email protected] www.wsacny.org Oh, Hyun-Young Recent Works June 17 - 30, 2004 Reception: June 18, 6 - 8 PM

Gallery32 32 W. 32nd St., 4 fl. New York, NY 10001 212-643-4872, 2988

A Mid-Summer’s Dream E.M.I.E. CULTURAL ARTS A multi-media salon art show COUNCIL, INC. Co-curated by Lori Weinless Fischler Proudly presents and Jennifer Holst Osamede Obazee June 16th - July 11th, 2004 Upcoming events Khuumba Ama • Carole Barlowe • Meg Boe Birns Fran Del Re • Juta Filippelli • Lori Weinless Fischler Sept. 25-26 Carmiah Frank • Kathleen Gibbons • Robert Helman Amherst fine art show, MA Jennifer Holst • Beth Kurtz • Lori Lata Oct. 7-10 Mary Laren • Marianne McNamara • Miguel Angel Mora ”Off the main” Renee O’Sullivan • Mikki Powell • Lucinda Prince Jean Prytyskacz • David Ruskin • Betty Thornton The Puck Building, NYC Elton Tucker • Gloria Waslyn • Scott Weingarten Feb. 6-26, 2005 Gelabert International Gallery, Broadway Mall Community Center NYC Broadway at 96th St., NYC (center island) http://www.emieartcouncil.com Wed 6 - 8 pm/Sat & Sun 12 - 6pm 212 316 6024 [email protected] www.wsacny.org T: 718-409-3389 F: 718-504-5326

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2004 GALLERY&STUDIO Sandra Gottlieb Beyond Horizons June 1 - July 31, 2004 Opening reception: June 11, 6 - 8pm “Beyond Horizons #1” WORLD FINE ART GALLERY 511 West 25 Street, Ste. 803, New York, New York 10001 PHONE: 646 336 1677 • EMAIL [email protected] WEBSITE http://www.worldfineart.com/Gottlieb

GALLERY&STUDIO FEBRUARY/MARCH 2004