Leonor Fini Salvador Dali Originals and Graphics from the Dali Bible

VGALLERY&STUDIOOL. 4 NO. 1 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 New York The World of the Working Artist Leonor Fini Early Works Leonor Fini “Les tragediennes” 1930-31 Oil on Board 45" x 64" on Board 1930-31 Oil “Les tragediennes” Leonor Fini Salvador Dali Originals and Graphics from The Dali Bible

September 7 thru October 7, 2001 CFM Gallery 112 Greene Street, SoHo, New York City 10012 (212) 966-3864 Fax (212) 226-1041 Monday thru Saturday 11am to 6pm Sunday Noon to 6pm [email protected] www.art~smart.com/cfm/ Untitled 2001, acrylic on canvas, 60" x 72" Missy Lipsett

September 4-22, 2001 recent paintings “Coney Island Boardwalk,” Monotype, 30" X 22" Pleiades Gallery KELYNN Z. ALDER 530 West 25th St., 4th fl (betwn 10th and 11th Aves.) People and Places • Monotypes and Paintings New York, NY 10001 tel: 646.230.0056 October 16 - November 3, 2001 gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11:00-6:00pm VIRIDIAN@Chelsea 530 West 25th Street, 4th Floor, NY, NY 10001 Studio tel: 212.369.9795 Tel(212) 414-4040 • www.viridianartists.com e-mail: [email protected] Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 6pm Helene Johnson • Sculptor

“En La Plaza De Sanbándia” Terracotta 13"w x 14"deep x 11"h “We Are Sorry” (Didactic Series) 2001, Acrylic, Photographs, Mixed Media Photo by: Zinovenko Photography on Wire Mesh, 60" x 72" x 7" Recent solo exhibitor at the Paul Gazda “Triple Vision” Pen and Brush Club, Inc. Mixed Media Paintings in Three Series Works can be viewed by appointment October 3 - 27, 2001• Reception Thurs Oct. 4, 6 - 8 pm 860.767.0445 email [email protected] 568 Broadway at Prince St., # 607 NY, NY 10012 (212) 226-8711 • Tuesday - Saturday 11 - 5:30 pm Commissions will also be considered

Inspiration. Still Point. Pastel Paintings by Terry Kalayjian August 30 thru October 31, 2001

James Beard Foundation Greenhouse Gallery. (M-F 10 am to 5 pm) 167 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10011. T: 212.627.4984 www.Kalayjianfinearts.com Loose Canon

We hope you’re as pleased with our new look as we are. As we begin our fourth year of publication, we feel it’s time for an upgrade. G&S Better quality paper means that we can now reproduce works of art in full color throughout the magazine, as well as on our outside cover pages. Our more compact format makes it easier to display G&S in galleries where counter space is limited, as well as in more hotels, museums, book Highlights stores, art supply stores, and other places frequented by those interested in keeping up with the art world. Miriam Wills, pg. 7 This is all part of our ongoing effort to make G&S the best publication that it can be, and to continually expand our readership. We feel that we have something special to offer, and we want as many people as possible to know about it. Initially, we were encouraged in the daunting task of starting a new art publication by noticing that so much of the art writing that we saw Missy Lipsett, pg. 9 elsewhere was frankly terrible: jargon-filled, pretentious, and needlessly obscure. Since art is one of the most exciting of human activities, it struck us as Paul Gazda, pg. 13 inexplicable that so much art criticism was so boring. Once, critics who were also poets and artists––people like Frank O’Hara, John Ashbery, James Schuyler, Elaine de Kooning, and Fairfield Porter––wrote about Anne Bachelier, pg. 15 art with clarity, wit, and enthusiasm. So, we knew from the beginning that there was a precedent for the kind of writing that we wanted to present in G&S. We knew that art writing, in order to be intelligent, did not have to be dull. We’ve made it our business to put this belief into practice, and the response from so Kelynn Z. Alder, pg. 17 many of our readers has been gratifying (especially when they give us that extra vote of confidence by including completed subscription forms in their letters). Ron English, We’re also determined never to succumb to the tendency of many other centerfold publications to cover only artists who are already well known or who fit into some currently trendy category. This strikes us as criminally narrow, not to mention shortsighted. Never before in the history of art has there Terry Kalayjian, pg. 20 been such exciting diversity, such delicious uncertainty... such a “loose canon,” so to speak. All of which confirms our conviction that there is a real need for a magazine such as G&S, presenting a more balanced view of visual culture; covering established artists, as well as artists who stand a good Judith Peck, pg. 31 chance of being well known in the future. In fact, for many artists who had not yet received the attention they deserved (at least, before we wrote about them and other publications, GALLERY&STUDIO including The New York Times, followed our lead) we have often been An International Art Journal the only forum in town. PUBLISHED BY We are proud of this fact, and we take the responsibility that goes with © it very seriously. EYE LEVEL, LTD. 2001 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 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 Jeannie McCormack DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Karen Mullen Editor and Publisher CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Juliet M. Ross

4 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Fini and Dali: Sacred and Profane Monsters Wedded in Spirit n Neil Zukerman’s definitive book on sical figure grouping is made up solely of ILeonor Fini, “La Vie Ideale,” there is an women. And for all the formal austerity of extraordinary photograph from the 1950s its composition–– its cool color harmonies of Fini and Salvador Dali posing with Yul and the reposeful quality of most of the fully Brynner at some elegant event in Paris. As clothed figures––sapphic undertones already dynamic a presence as Brynner is, with his make themselves felt in the fervent embrace gleaming bald pate and the regal manner of two of the women, hinting at something that made him so perfectly cast as The King decidedly more erotic than the stagy consol- in “The King and I,” the actor is so ing gesture one might glean from the title. upstaged by the two Surrealist luminaries In contrast to the more domestic languor that he all but vanishes in the aura of their of Picasso’s family, its members lingering combined charisma. listlessly in a barren landscape as though With her Medusa mane of scalloped black awaiting transport to their next performance ringlets, her feline features, her dangling ear- and contemplating nothing more urgent rings and black evening dress with flowing than the meal they will consume after it, white collar and cuffs, Fini resembles a Fini’s painting hints at complex relationships beautiful vampire costumed in parody of a and emotional entanglements. These radiate fallen nun. Sporting a double breasted black out from the two embracing women, one of velvet cloak, clutching in one talon his cane whom reaches out to another nearby figure and what appears to be either a lily or a pair as she accepts a kiss from her partner. of white gloves, Dali looks, as usual, like Set slightly apart from the group, yet Salvador Dali, “Asperges me Hyssopo et The Phantom of the Opera. Seeing them another woman covers her face with both Mundabor,” 1964 Mixed Media together, we can only gawk at Fini and hands in a dramatic gesture of sorrow. While Dali—and muse upon what a perfect mar- none of the modestly clothed women com- subject would have dared to juxtapose two riage of monsters they make! ports herself as lasciviously as other nude or nude figures as explicit as those in the mixed Of course, Fini and Dali were never lovers; seminude figures will in some of Fini’s later media work entitled, “Asperges me Hyssopo nor could they have been. Even if Dali had paintings (when the classical cloak of ambi- et Mundabor,” one a rear view of a sexually not been in thrall to his domineering Muse, guity will no longer be necessary), the erotic ambiguous being, the other a cherub with Gala, and even if Fini gave up all her male glow of Fini’s best work already burns hands clasped in prayer and pubic hair visi- and female lovers, these two willful geniuses through the theatrical trappings of this mag- ble above dangling genitals. Neither the would only have eaten each other alive with nificent early painting. halo over the taller figure’s head nor the lev- their enormous, carnivorous egos... Other eye-opening formative works by itating cross to which this dubiously saintly No, for all the aesthetic sympathies that Fini make this show indispensible: being points a languid finger does much to make them the yin and yang of Surrealism, “Zorniga” and “Eola,” two major oils from diminish the picture’s blatant sensuality! no mating of these two icons could have the late fifties, each depicting a single female Even when Dali treats Biblical subjects in gone much beyond the cool social necessity figure in the throes of some seemingly a more traditional manner, he is never so of friendly rivals agreeing to a “photo op.” demonic metamorphosis; a large color litho- reverent as to stifle the imaginative and Still, Neil Zukerman has accomplished the graph of a ravishing face with lowered eyes; technical freedom that makes his work next best thing: In his joint exhibition of and an exquisite little wash drawing of a extraordinary. In “And after the morsel early works by Leonor Fini and originals wan harlequin, among several other tran- Satan entered into him,” he juxtaposes the and graphics from “The Dali Bible,” at scendent images in various mediums. looming foreground figure—boldly CFM Gallery, 112 Greene Street, from It is “Les tragediennes,” however, that brushed, bloated and of excremental hue— September 7 through October 7, he gives should make most abundantly clear that against a rendering of The Last Supper in us an aesthetic marriage of unsurpassed Leonor Fini, even before she emerged as delicate red tones. Dali’s version of “The compatibility and beauty. one of our premier Surrealists, was well on Annunciation” sets the the Angel and the Inarguably, the centerpiece and jewel of her way to becoming one of the major dove afloat above the figure of Mary, whose the exhibition is a large, previously unseen artists of her century. face is delineated in exquisite, expressive oil on board by Fini, circa. 1930-31, enti- Salvador Dali’s credentials in this regard detail, while the other elements of the com- tled “Les tragediennes.” This multi-figure are long established. Say what one will position are evoked in sketchy lines and composition, all of 45 inches high by 64 about the antics that have at times upstaged luminous colored washes. Then there is inches wide, is painted in a style somewhat his greatness, he remains one of the master “Jeremiah’s Prophecy Against King reminiscent of Picasso’s “Blue” and “Rose” draftsman of this or any other century. Joachim,” where Dali shows his singular periods. Fini employs a similarly subdued And nowhere is this more evident than ability to bring a figurative image to the palette of pale, subtly harmonized hues in in the drawings and lithographs for “The brink of abstraction, clearly articulating the this composition, which compares most Dali Bible.” silhouette of the prophet shaking his fist favorably to Picasso’s 1905 masterpiece Executed at the behest of the devout with righteous indignation in a gestural “Family of Saltimbanques.” Catholic collector Giuseppe Albaretto, who flourish that appears as though accom- However, although both paintings depict reportedly hoped to save the artist’s soul by plished with one swift, bold stroke. traveling troupes of performers, and both commisioning him to illuminate the Holy Never have the talents of these two great are comprised of six figures, Fini’s inde- Book, this audaciously named project artists been paired so auspiciously as in this pendent spirit is already very much in evi- demonstrates Dali’s ability to combine the remarkable exhibition, which firmly estab- dence. While Picasso shows us a traditional sacred with the profane as no other artist lishes Leonor Fini and Salvador Dali as the family of acrobats, encompassing both sexes, can. uncontested First Couple of Surrealism. including adults and children, Fini’s neoclas- Surely no other interpretor of a Biblical ––Lawrence Downes

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 5 Dan Bergman’s Half-Hidden Heavy Metal Metaphors an Bergman is by no means your lat- contours that Dest disposable art world wunderkind. could resemble He did not become a full-time sculptor rolling waves. until the age of fifty, and although he has Such interpre- been exhibiting regularly in group shows tations are sub- and winning prizes in juried shows since jective, howev- 1989, he took his own sweet time about er, since the having a solo exhibition. Thus Bergman overall thrust brings a welcome depth of vision, as well of the piece is as a healthy dose of mature wit and abstract. wisdom, to his first one-man show of steel Indeed, this is sculpture, at Phoenix Gallery, 568 part of what Broadway, from October 3 through 26. makes (The reception is Thursday, October 4, Bergman’s from 6 to 8 PM.) sculptures so It is unusual indeed to hear a sculp- engaging. tor––much less one whose work is largely Initially, they abstract––refer to one of his pieces as a grab one with “picture.” But that is what Bergman, a with their “The Old Man,” 2000 pleasantly unpretentious chap with a neat- wonderfully ly trimmed white beard, did when we pre- articulated viewed the exhibition at his studio in abstract shapes, which command space explore. However, in “Phototrope” and Union City, New Jersey. with a seemingly effortless, almost serpen- “Lord Nightingale,” the elongated rec- In his artist’s statement, Bergman tine, grace. Then they slowly reveal their tangular space becomes a kind of cage, its explains that he uses “shape, movement more pictorial elements, which are never austere geometry enclosing more organi- and color to evoke memories of real or so specific as not to leave plenty of room cally flowing forms suggesting entrapped imaginary places that have powerful asso- for the viewers’ own imaginative collabo- human figures. ciations for me––hidden crannies where as ration. Even more enigmatic is “Horn of a child I could imagine being invisible; Along with the simplified cut-out of the Plenty,” a smaller steel piece with high places that were frightening but reclining man, which can be seen in other squared-off contours suggesting the bare exhilarating; spaces full of strange objects sculptures as well, Bergman has other outline of a briefcase (complete with a that bewilder but intrigue me.” recurring images, such as rectangular carrying handle at the top), containing Some of Bergman’s sculptures are also forms containing negative spaces cut out more convoluted linear shapes that extend inspired by literary references, as seen in of found, often rusted, I-beams. These beyond its boundaries like ominous trails “The Old Man,” its title drawn from a suggest those “hidden crannies” and of smoke. phrase that William Faulkner used in one other safe places of childhood fantasy and Of course, this, too, is a highly subjec- of his stories to describe the sea. In this memory that he referred to in his artist’s tive take on an essentially abstract piece. powerful steel sculpture, the cut-out fig- statement. In the steel sculpture entitled But Dan Bergman obviously encourages ure of a rudimentary man in a horizontal “Children’s Park,” sinuous shapes sug- this sort of participation on the part of position is suspended vertically between a gesting dancing figures are seen atop a the viewer, and that, along with the casual shape with serrated edges that could sug- one such I-beam derived rectangle out of grace and beauty of their forms, makes his gest the snaggle-toothed grin of a shark which Bergman has cut a kind of wiggly sculptures all the more fascinating. and another form with slightly gentler tunnel that looks like it would be fun to ––Ed McCormack

THE BROOME STREET GALLERY

Ground floor, 1,300 sq. ft. Exhibition space rental available

498 Broome Street New York, NY 10013 Tel: (212) 941-0130

Myron R. Heise, “Carla White with Band,” oil. See “Street Painters” in New York Notebook (centerfold).

6 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 The Baroque Contemporary “Maximalism” of Miriam Wills

oboken, a seven minute ride from HGreenwich Village on the PATH train, has long been a haven for artists of all kinds. A booming rock music scene in the local bars and galloping gentrification have turned the mile- square Jersey burg where Frank Sinatra was born into something of theme park for yuppies in recent years. Many artists, however, are still hanging in there, as evidenced by the Hoboken Artists Studio Tour, which takes place on Sunday, October 14, from 12 to 6 PM. Miriam Wills, whose studio address is 89 Park Avenue, is well worth the trip. Wills, a frequent exhibitor in New York City galleries, is one of the few contemporary artists whose style can be termed baroque––at least with a lowercase “b.” Whether working abstractly or figuratively––and Wills moves easily between the two modes––Miriam Wills is a Maximalist, filling every inch of her canvases with energy, color, and movement. At times, her compositions are so compressed that her canvases appear on the verge of exploding and sending the stretcher bars flying in four directions! Wills’ mixed media painting on canvas, “Mardi Gras,” for example, is filled with swirling semi-circular abstract shapes that create a veritable vortex at the center of the composition. Areas of vibrant red, yellow, and blue hues, reinforced by linear elements that glow like dancing neon, radiate outward from this central force field to strain against the edges of the composition, creating powerful pictorial tensions. In “The Kiss,” a work in acrylic and collage on canvas, we see how Wills may have influenced younger, more highly hyped neophytes like Mary Boone’s newest protege Inka Essenhigh, who employ anatomically suggestive yet non-specific shapes to create compositions that hover ambiguously between the abstract and the figurative. Although Wills’ forms here do not so much hint at human anatomy, their contours are sensually rounded and the visceral reds that she employs in concert with slightly softer ochre and Miriam Wills, “Carousel Horse #3,” in the Hoboken Artists’ Studio Tour, 89 Park Ave. blue hues generate a good deal of heat. Here, Hoboken, New Jersey on October 14, and also by appointment (201 659-3437). too, Wills’ color areas are relatively hard-edged, the carousel, its poles, wheels, gears, and decora- Miriam Wills apparently imposes no arbitrary yet more in the intricate and eventful manner of tive patterns energizing every area of the com- limits on the range of expression that she allows sixties psychedelic art than of austere geometric position, creating a dynamism akin to that of the herself, moving between the figurative and the painting. Futurists, albeit with a somewhat more surreal abstract as the moment demands or simply The same qualities that animate Wills’ abstract spin, as well as an emotional component remi- merging the two in a personal synthesis that paintings are present in her more representation- niscent of the Expressionists. These are dream- belongs to her alone. She is a consummately al work, as seen in her “Carousel” series. In like evocations of a childhood experience filtered adventurous artist for whom discovery invariably these mixed media paintings beautiful white through a highly sophisticated aesthetic sensibili- takes precedence over a humdrum consistency, merry-go-round horses take on the almost ty, conversant with several diverse art historical and the viewer is the ultimate beneficiary. demonic quality of mythic, smoke-snorting precedents and possessing a singular ability to ––Andre Bove steeds. Their manes swirl like the curls of satyrs make them coverage in a coherent contempo- as they whirl amid the kaleidoscopic colors of rary manner.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 7 Nature and Aesthetics in the Art of Momoji Matsumoto he Japanese naturalist and painter pains to evoke their natural habitat, placing TMomoji Matsumoto takes photo- all manner of wild creatures in landscapes graphs and makes sketches as part of his limned with an unabashed Romanticism preparatory process, and these preliminary akin to that of the Hudson River School. works are complete and interesting The plight of an endangered species is expressions in themselves. The full effect depicted especially affectingly in “Piping of Matsumoto’s sympathy for his animal Plover,” set on Jones Beach (where their subjects and his ability to evoke minute eggs are often thoughtlessly trampled nuances of their natural environment, under the feet of human bathers), as well however, can only be fully appreciated in as in “Iriomote Wildcat,” a feline unique- his paintings. ly drawn to water and indigenous to the In “Cottontail and Crocus,” one of the Painting by Momoji Matsumoto area between Okinawa and Taiwan. paintings in Matsumoto’s recent solo In “Arctic Fox,” the sleek canine show at Cast Iron Gallery, 159 Mercer a nearby tree-trunk are each distinctly inhabits a rarefied realm of snow and cool Street, early spring light encircles the delineated. blue shadows; in “Big Horn,” the two entire form of a small rabbit like an aura While Matsumoto’s use of microscopic, magnificent beasts balance gingerly on a or a halo, as it crouches alertly among finely woven brushstrokes to build textur- steep cliff against a magnificent mountain- delicate purple flowers. Although this al verisimilitude, as well as to activate and ous vista in Colorado; in “Japanese painting is an oil, the artist also employs unify the entire surface of his composi- Beetle,” the tiny insect’s world is evoked tempera, acrylic, or gouache, as the sub- tions, is fully equal to Andrew Wyeth’s just as vividly, as it traverses an intricately ject demands, in order to achieve the technique, the Western master to whom veined leaf. degree of detail that he needs to depict the most obvious comparisons must be If Momoji Matsumoto captures these not only the many subtle qualities of light made is John James Audubon. Yet, while and other wild creatures with an innate but also the different textures found in Matsumoto is every bit as scientifically empathy that makes us identify with their nature. Here, the tactile contrasts accurate in capturing the specific charac- plight, it is because his painterly abilities between the hairs in the animal’s coat, the teristics of the much wider range of ani- are fully equal to his knowledge of their grass in which it crouches, and the bark of mal species he depicts, he takes greater habits and surroundings. Willis, Rosas, and Anderson Shine in Soho Solo Shows hree talented artists who use subject art of the past to forge a highly expressive cy, having served in the latter regard in Tmatter as a point of departure, either and poetic personal style. Vietnam, China, Japan, and elsewhere. to evoke a sense of other periods and Melcina Rosas is another artist who His architectural experience has obviously places in a contemporary context or as a employs aspects of antiquity to create influenced the structure of his semi vehicle for formal exploration, were fea- contemporary art of a high order, in her abstract compositions, while his diplomat- tured recently at Montserrat Gallery, 584 installation of uniformly intimate oils, all ic assignments have given him an appreci- Broadway, in Soho. of the same subject. Rosas began the ation for Asian art that influenses the While attending the Academy of Art in series that she showed with the acquisi- images that he chooses. San Francisco, Judy Willis fell under the tion of a Florentine head, created by an Anderson employs mountains, moons, influence of the Impressionists and later Italian sculptor. She was so struck by the and other natural subjects as recurring she became interested in the work of John androgynous beauty of its features that motifs in his paintings, along with simpli- Singer Sargent. Since, she has put these she was inspired to paint “portraits” of fied structures based on tall buildings. influences to good use, developing her this head again and again. Her purpose, Grids of gold leaf are combined with own distinctive style in paintings of come- however, was not to paint the same facial vibrant lacquer-like reds in compositions ly young women with the rosy-cheeked expression over and over, and she suc- that are at once minimalistic and evoca- wholesomeness of some of Renoir’s mod- ceeded in not doing so by virtue of her tive. Indeed, Desaix Anderson’s paintings, els, albeit combined with darker accents ability to make each image unique for all their Asian opulence, are even more reminiscent of Singer’s society portraits. through the subtlest variations of form akin to those of the well known “New While paying tribute to her mentors, and color. Surprisingly, in the latter Image” painter Robert Moskowitz in Willis’ paintings evoke a personal world of regard, Rosas cites Andy Warhol’s por- their combination of formal brevity and dreamy romantic reveries where a couple traits of Marilyn Monroe as inspiration. poetic resonance, as seen in the large who resemble Bonnie and Clyde pose Rosa’s oils, however, are considerably acrylic with gold leaf entitled “Look Ye proudly before a 1930s sedan, or groups more subdued coloristically than Warhol’s Mighty on My Works and Despair,” with of young women in elaborate hats are silkscreens, with their garish dayglo hues. its dominant gold structure juxtaposed seen in nostalgic landscapes. Indeed, she is an exquisite colorist who with a black orb, afloat against a deep That Judy Willis can also depict consid- favors soft blue and brown hues that, ochre ground. erably more elaborate scenes is made clear combined with her refined paint handling, Although he also cites the Japanese in her painting “Song at Tiffany’s,” where lend her compositions a cumulative for- artist Toko Shinoda as another influ- a folk singer entertains a leisurely crowd mal strength that unites them as a singu- ence, in his impressive exhibition at in a country town with a decidedly lar aesthetic enterprise. Montserrat Gallery, Desaix Anderson Woodstockian charm. The Mississippi-born artist Desaix proved himself to be a unique painter Judy Willis is a neoclassical realist in the Anderson has an interesting dual back- with his own distinctive style. best postmodern sense, drawing upon the ground in both architecture and diploma- ––Stuart Leslie Myers

8 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Form, Faith, and Romanticism in the Art of Missy Lipsett

voked serious critical divi- mate value is to be found in its own innate sions and perhaps even a few physical qualities, rather than in its ability of the fist-fights that often to evoke, through allusion or illusion, the settled aesthetic issues in the qualities of something else. alcohol-fueled, macho art And that this is still a valid approach is scene of the abstract expres- made manifest in the dynamic presence sionists. and immediate power of Lipsett’s new That Missy Lipsett, a paintings, which have a visual impact one theretofore unknown female has come less and less to expect in recent painter who had never exhib- years. Her bold yet lyrical large canvases ited anywhere at all before hark back to that pre-ironic period in her first New York solo show American painting when heroic scale was a year ago (although it was synonymous with high aesthetic ambition, obvious she had been work- rather than merely an attention-grabbing ing and planning her attack device. The large size of Lipsett’s canvases in private for some time) is integral to their sweep and grandeur, to found a way—at least within their generous spirit, to a formal rigor mar- the perimeters of her own ried to romanticism that one is at pains to canvases—to quietly resolve encounter in much recent art. these long simmering issues Missy Lipsett’s new paintings engulf the in the less explosive climate viewer in subtle chromatic auras, created of the postmodern era, with sumptuous saturations of color that made her debut deliciously pool and converge in cloud-like configura- Untitled, 2001 audacious. How dare this tions or culminate in fluid rivulets of relative neophyte—and a diluted pigment that are as likely to run issy Lipsett’s first New York solo woman to boot!––presume to settle upward as down, given the artist’s habit of Mshow was so impressive that one accounts with the long-gone bully boys of working from all sides of the canvas and feared she might find herself a tough act to the New York School...and to do so with sometimes reversing the flow of the com- follow. The good news, however, is that such savvy, such undeniable painterly position by tilting it in the working Lipsett’s second solo exhibition, at authority! process. Lipsett’s approach is so intuitive, Pleiades Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, Now, having made her point about the spontaneous, and exuberant that the adjec- from September 4 through 22, is even fictive illusion of implied movement in sta- tive exhilarating cannot be overused in more impressive. tionary art objects, Lipsett has moved on. relation to her paintings, which restore our Previewing Lipsett’s new paintings in She has done away to a large degree with belief in the lyrical impulse as an impetus her studio, one was reminded of the fol- the swirling skeins, the drips and splashes, for pure painterly endeavor. lowing lines from Howard Nemerov’s and other “gestural” elements that made On the superficial evidence of the new poem Runes: “This is about the stillness in comparisons to Pollock so inevitable. openness in her compositions, with surface living things / In running water, also in Perhaps the most audacious aspect of her generally upstaging form or gesture as the the sleep / Of winter seeds, where time to most recent paintings is her absolute faith compelling element, one could suppose come has tensed / Itself, enciphering a in painting as a pure and meaningful enter- that Missy Lipsett has shifted her alle- script so fine / Only the hourglass can prise in a period when much critical ballast giances from abstract expressionism to magnify it, only / The years unfold its sen- has been mustered to deny its relevance color field painting. But that would be too tence from the root.” For it is this vital and elevate conceptual modes above it. pat a conclusion, for Lipsett’s majestic new stillness that Lipsett lassos and ensnares in Of course, Lipsett is not altogether alone canvases evade easy description, with their skeins of pigment cast onto expansive areas in this faith––countless others share it, ethereal compositions and colors more like of color that have now grown even more judging from the huge number of artists liquid light than any familiar spectrum of amorphously luminous than those in the who continue to paint, and to paint well, hues in the palette of Pollock or even of earlier paintings. despite the critical naysayers who would Jules Olitski. Indeed, her sources are too Lipsett’s considerable accomplishment in reduce all art to empty theorizing (and personal and diverse to be traced to her her first show was finding a way to elevate criticism above art itself in the American predecessors alone, encompass- “freeze” the gesture, thus effecting a process). Nonetheless, Lipsett belongs to ing Eastern influences as well (albeit with- detente between the “action painting” of that relatively small company of contempo- out indulging in the kind of chinoiserie or Jackson Pollock (the predecessor to whom rary artists who still put their faith in the japonaiserie that one encounters in the she could appear most beholden to the power of paint alone––as opposed to pic- work of some western artists influenced by uneducated eye) and the formal impassivity tures, images, or symbols created with Zen). of his less hyperactive colleagues such as paint—to convey the meaning of the actual Missy Lipsett has come a long way in a Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. The as material reality, rather than a significa- very short time, establishing herself as a differences between the New York School tion of something or other. In fact, few formidable presence in the intriguingly painters who championed action painting painters today adhere so fervently to diverse yet still ill-defined area of postmod- and those who favored formal stasis was a Clement Greenberg’s anti-representational ern abstract painting. Her second exhibi- bone of contention picked over ad absur- credo; few hold so steadfast as does Lipsett tion at Pleiades Gallery makes clear that dom by tastemakers like Clement to the belief that a painting should be an she will continue to evolve and be a force Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg. It pro- autonomous aesthetic object whose ulti- in its development. –—Ed McCormack

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 9 The Chromatic Rebirth of Rosalyn A. Engelman

“And beauty came like the setting sun,” Acrylic on Canvas To View Rosalyn Engelman’s work in her studio in DUMBO by appointment, call 718.643.6696.

ne of the true highlights of the past Ofew months was the showcase exhibition of new paintings by Rosalyn A. Engelman at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery Baruch College, 135 East 22nd Street. What made this solo show immediately remarkable was the brilliant coloristic flowering of an artist who in two previous In the series of paintings that Engelman bines a linear fluidity akin to Mark exhibitions at Adelphi University Center showed at Baruch College, that hope has Tobey’s “white writing” with a succulent Gallery, in Garden City, New York, and apparently blossomed beyond all expecta- tactility and a painterly intensity that can the National Arts Club, in Manhattan, tion, judging from the sonorous coloristic only be compared to Jackson Pollock. showed black-on-black paintings. richness that reaches its apex in the large Engelman, however, combines the inti- At the time of those earlier exhibitions, canvas named for a quote from Siegfried mate poetry of the former artist with the which both took place in 1999, Engelman Sassoon, “And beauty came like the set- powerful presence of the latter and employed black in the manner of the ting sun”. In this composition, as in other enhances them with a distinctive personal ancient Chinese as surrogate for all other recent paintings, vibrant red, yellow and ecriture that belongs to her alone. colors. And indeed she managed to wrest orange hues are employed in concert with Unexpected as Rosalyn A. Engelman’s an amazing range of nuances and subtle deeper blues and other darker colors, lay- chromatic rebirth may seem, it is part and chromatic suggestiveness from the all ered with the feathery cursive strokes that parcel of the aesthetic evolution of an encompassing blackness. Deeply disturbed lend Engelman’s canvases much of their artist who has continually striven to by the worldwide political turmoil and energy and depth. expand the limits of what is possible in carnage that filters into our daily lives via Engelman’s gestural calligraphy is at its postmodern abstraction. news media, Engelman sought a way to most vigorous in paintings such as Currently featured in a major exhibition reflect human suffering in an abstract con- “Capriccio VIII,” an acrylic on Arches at Nico Gallery in Seattle, and preparing text, without indulging in graphic histri- paper where swift white strokes are lay- for a one woman retrospective at the onics of the “social realist” sort. She suc- ered liberally over dense concentrations of Quick Art Center for the Arts of Fairfield ceeded splendidly in somberly compelling blue, red, pink, and gold hues to create a University, in Connecticut, scheduled for canvases lit from within by a deep, shimmering rhythmic density that fairly 2003, Engelman is clearly a painter at the redemptive beauty, suggesting a flicker of hums with energy. In this painting, as well height of her powers. hope in the midst of darkness. as others in a similar vein, Engelman com- ––J. Sanders Eaton

10 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Neoclassical Immediacy in the Sculpture of Helene Johnson estalt criticism holds that we do not a cozy rustic tavern in “Tap Gproject aesthetic and emotional quali- Room, Griswold Inn.” In ties into a work of art but find them there the former work, the piece waiting for us. However arguable this view de resistance is the witty may be, Helene Johnson, a sculptor from contrast between the nude Connecticut who recently had a solo exhibi- “sculptures” frozen in still- tion at the Pen and Brush, Inc., 16 East ness on their pedestals and Tenth Street, makes a good case for it by the implied movement of the making her terra cotta, clay, and bronze “people” in contemporary tableaux literal slices of life so complete as to dress; in the latter, even constitute self-contained miniature worlds. though they comport them- One of the mere handful of contemporary selves with more middleclass artists capable of rendering genre subjects decorum, the drinkers at the convincingly, Johnson is refreshingly unbe- tables and the bar call to holden to the precepts of postmodernism. mind Breugel’s reveling Yet her sculptures are fully as contemporary peasants. as the more cartoony tableaux of Tom Johnson’s conjoining of Otterness or Red Grooms. Although contemporary immediacy Johnson professes great admiration for the and art historical references, latter artist, her genre subjects, while every which she accomplishes as bit as detailed (albeit on a much more inti- successfully in sculpture as mate tabletop scale), are imbued with a far Reginald Marsh did in paint- greater formal unity. In addition, Johnson’s ing, can also be seen in the ability to depict a scene in great detail with- clay original “The Stone out being in the least bit fussy in technique, Carvers,” an affecting tribute as well as her unerring sense of what to to the tradition of the master include and what to leave to the viewer’s craftsmen, as well as in the imagination, makes her sculptures not only bronze “La Femme en Bleu Zinovenko Photography I,” where a famous master- evocative of very particular places and set- “La Accademia,” Manzini tings but more aesthetically pleasing than piece by Corot is lovingly those of other artists working in a similar sculptures add to the sense of boundlessness rendered in relief behind the vein. that belies their relatively modest size and more three dimensional figures seated on a Like fragments from antiquity, many of also imbues them with an organic dynamism bench in a museum. Johnson’s profusely detailed scenes from that creates a perfect context for her animat- In other works, such as “The Secret daily life, showing several figures in restau- ed figures. Garden” and “In My Dream,” the private rants, galleries, museums, or in exterior set- For above all, Helene Johnson’s scenes fantasy worlds of children are captured with tings such as city streets or on the steps of seem to teem with a sense of life, their many the characteristic poetry and finesse that grand municipal structures, are contained small figures captured in movement, their makes Helene Johnson one of our most within irregular formats that have the casual gestures made immutable in clay or gifted and compelling neoclassical sculptors. appearance of having been broken off bronze, as they stroll amid classical columns abruptly. The asymmetrical formats of her and statues in “La Accademia” or imbibe in ––J. Sanders Eaton

MUKYO HIRAMA Contemproary Calligraphy sumi ink paintings Irene’s Art Studio, Inc. www.irenebailey.com [email protected] November 1 - 24, 2001

CAST IRON GALLERY 159 Mercer Street, Ste 4 E New York, N.Y. 10012 The GALLERY&STUDIO advertising deadline 212-274-8624 Fax 212-925-0342 for the November/December/January issue is Open Tues - Sat 12 - 6pm October 11 for color, October 18 for black/white.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 11 Body & Soul: An Ambitious Survey by the West Side Arts Coalition illed as “an art exhibit exploring peo- employs her impressive technique to evoke Bple’s connections with each other, both the surfaces and underlying rhythms their inner selves, nature and the cosmic of nature. energy field,” the group show “Body & Jack Dittrick, best known for his painted Soul,” curated for the West Side Arts foam core constructions, surprised us in Coalition by Reena Kondo, took place this exhibition with a small, intense recently at Broadway Mall Community abstract oil in a manner somewhat akin to Center, at 96th Street and Broadway. the pioneering American modernist Arthur While the show’s theme might have Dove. At the same time, its bold compo- seemed a bit dispersed, the “cosmic ener- sition was consistent with Dittrick’s assem- gy” part was seen to by the curator herself: blages, one of which was also on view. Reena Kondo showed dynamic collages in Beth Kurtz never fails to surprise one a tondo format featuring photographic with her diverse range of imagery, images of whirling dervishes, wavering although her paintings are invariably rec- Reena Kondo, “Dissolution” patterns and a fragmented nude inhabiting ognizable for their meticulous neosurrreal- a realm of planetary orbs. The round ist style. Here, Kurtz showed two charac- shape of Kondo’s collages enhanced their teristically enigmatic still life compositions sense of eternal, infinite spaces. (one featuring a classical head, the other of Contrastingly down to earth, the pastels two helmets) that confirmed her growing and charcoal drawings of Carolyn Marx reputation as one of our most intriguing image inventors since Magritte. James Glass, on the other hand, seems more related to that postmodern school of the 1980s known as “New Image” painting, judging from his large, frenzied canvas of a cat riding a bicycle. The point, of course, was not the weird subject matter, but Glass’ vigorous and authoritative paint handling. A more calligraphic approach is employed by Margarett Jhun to convey the movements of dancing figures in mixed media paintings such as “Cha- Cha.” Jhun treads her own fine line between figuration and abstraction in Beth Kurtz,“The Light of the Moon” compositions that are notable for their energy and immediacy. Fletcher feature autumnal fields filled with Another kind of immediacy was appar- pumpkins and other landscape subjects ent in the intimate, ink and watercolor depicted in rich strokes of color as densely drawings of Ruth Friedman, who captures knit as those in the abstract paintings of the distinguishing characteristics of her fig- Milton Resnick. Fletcher, however, urative subjects with economy and grace.

D EXPRESSION IN FORM A S October 3 through T October 26, 2001 N E September 19 - October 9, 2001 B E Reception Reception: September 20, 6 - 8pm L Thursday, October 4, E S 6-8 pm R C Aegis Hands G U Amy Lamenzo L Christopher Swift MP A T 568 Broadway at Prince St., # 607 560 Broadway, SOHO, NY NY 10012 N U New York, NY 10012 212 - 226 - 4151 / Fax: 212 - 966 - 4380 R (212) 226-8711 www.agora-gallery.com • www.art-mine.com Tuesday - Saturday 12 - 6 pm E Tuesday - Saturday 11 - 5:30 pm

12 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Paul Gazda: The Grid as Armature for Material Metaphor hile the drawn or painted grid has ty experienced while gaz- Wlong been a device that modern ing at a scrap pile of torn artists employ to locate forms on the pic- photographs in a corner ture plane, the widely exhibited artist Paul of his studio, he was Gazda takes the grid into a more physical inspired to expand his dimension, using wire mesh in place of can- range of expression into vas as a surface to hold an intriguing variety collage and assemblage. of materials and objects. The wisdom of that In his solo exhibition of mixed media decision is borne out in works, “Triple Vision,” at Phoenix Gallery, the power of works such 568 Broadway, from October 3 through as “Evolution,” where a 27, Gazda shows three related series under photographic image of a the categories of “Archetypal,” “Didactic,” stretch of desert is com- and “Household Icons.” The first series bined with thickly paint- focuses on singular and distinctive visual ed clouds and human statements; the second addresses social and footprints (juxtaposed ethical issues; the third offers a refreshing with photographed view of common objects one often takes for clouds and feet) and granted. “Dam,” in which land- All three series are enlivened by Gazda’s scape photography and highly original way with nontraditional “Evolution” painted passages create materials such as sand, appliance or com- equally evocative combi- puter parts, and deconstructed blue jeans, ernments that employ their technological nations of great imagistic precision and tac- as well as his equally inventive way with prowess to dominate less advanced cultures, tile succulence. more familiar mediums like acrylic paint from the perspective of an artist decrying In these and a number of other works, and photography. Gazda also combines the increasing soullessness of modern socie- Paul Gazda employs a unique personal the freedom and directness that we most ty. iconography to create images that often often encounter only in so-called “outsider” “Tower of Babel,” another large mixed combine aesthetic quality and righteous artists with a sophisticated conceptual sensi- media work on wire mesh, protests another anger. Gazda’s passionate mixed media bility. This results in a plethora of unexpect- atrocity: the crass materialism that perme- paintings provide a most welcome antidote ed juxtapositions that lend his compositions ates our entire culture and the art world in to flaccid postmodern irony. unusual vitality. particular. Here, tottering structures con- ––Lawrence Downes Not the least of these are the taining photographic images of glass front- textural/textual contrasts that Gazda ed skyscrapers soar heavenward in a bloody achieves through his use of assemblage red rain, scrawled with the crass graffiti of materials and fractured fragments of lan- unabashed consumerism: “BUY MY guage, as seen to especially lively advantage STUFF.” in the large mixed media work on wire The theme of rampant materialism is mesh entitled “We Are Sorry.” The domi- explored even further in another major nant feature of this work is a large Cyclops- work entitled “The American Ten like central figure sporting an actual lab Commandments,” its composition center- TALENT coat. From the outstretched sleeves of this ing on two tablet-like forms inscribed with forbidding figure, presumably a one-eyed such phrases as “THOU SHALT NOT 2001 extraterrestrial scientist, sprout long lengths SPEAK THE TRUTH” and “THOU of wire connected to continuous blocks of SHALT NOT RESPECT ANY LIFE BUT new artists • new works • all media text that comprise a rambling mea culpa THINE OWN.” that appears to refer to torturous experi- Gazda makes such images succeed by ments performed on earthlings: “WE virtue of the aesthetic qualities that elevate FOUND YOU TO BE CONVENIENT even his most didactic statements. In the EXPERIMENTAL VEHICLES FOR aforementioned “Tower of Babel,” for TESTING METHODS AND PROCE- example, the intricately worked surface, DURES WHICH WOULD BENEFIT with its elegant linear elements, has qualities September 15 - October 27 OUR SPECIES...TO THIS END WE in common with the paintings of that other SUBJECTED YOU TO DISEASE, PAIN, provocative eccentric Fritz Hundertwasser. DEPRIVATION, MUTILATION, TER- Indeed, like that of Hundertwasser, the ROR AND DEATH...WE ARE SORRY...” work of Paul Gazda eludes easy categories, This eerie litany (excerpted here––it’s perhaps because it has developed along actually much longer and more detailed), unique lines, out of necessity, as it were. combined with the equally disconcerting Born in Detroit Michigan, Gazda earned Allan Stone Gallery image of the frightening yet abjectly apolo- his MA from the University of Toronto, getic figure, results in a singularly powerful and later relocated to Sedona, Arizona, 113 East 90th Street, NYC 10128 where he still lives and works. He began his piece. It could also serve as a metaphoric Fax. 212.987.1655 Tel. 212.987.4997 indictment of human scientists who experi- career as a photographic artist, but after five ment frivolously on lower species or gov- years, in a sudden epiphany of creative clari-

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 13 Taking the “Art Express” to Cork Gallery in Lincoln Center ne of the more focused group shows “Hollow Man,” a strong mixed media witty material metaphors that provoke Oto take place in recent months was work featuring a figure with straw sprout- smiles, as well as a serious aesthetic “Art Express,” featuring members of the ing from its head caught in the grip of a response. Metropolitan Artists organization, at Cork viselike wooden structure, Janus gives Miriam Hirschhorn ‘s clear, lively forms Gallery, in Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln material form to a theme by T.S. Eliot. hint at cartoon origins, yet her paintings Center. are more abstract than Pop. Still, boldly As the show’s title suggests, this was a Miriam Wills is a painter of cosmic simplified eyeglasses, stars, cigars and streamlined survey of several widely abstractions. Wills sets a variety of clus- other recognizable objects can be dis- exhibited New York artists. Rhoda Greif’s tered orbs and other shapely forms adrift cerned among her less recognizable paintings, for instance, exemplify no-non- in mostly blue expanses. Her intense col- shapes, making Hirschhorn one of those sense directness in her handling of land- ors and swirling compositions create an rare painters, like Guston in his late phase, scapes and urban scenes. Greif’s oil of an evocative sense of infinity and eternal flux who can have it both ways. idealized New York City skyline was espe- that activates the imagination. However, Also included in “Art Express” were the cially appealing. Wills is essentially an abstract painter and sculptures of Debora Villalon-Gonzales, Marlene Zimmerman has her own her mixed media works finally succeed on whose anatomical fragments, such as the refreshing sense of whimsy, which their more formal virtues. plaster piece simply entitled “Knee” have enlivened her oil of a goddess-like face Kim Na, on the other hand, combines a a peculiarly haunting presence; Julia A. amid a sprinkling of stars, among other wide variety of calligraphic gestures and Rogge’s poetic, exquisitely painted fanciful subjects. Zimmerman is an eccen- exquisite chromatic harmonies to create Central Park scenes; Myrna Harrison- tric talent whose pictures have a fanciful canvases that are primarily about the act Changar’s mysterious color photographs New Age quality somewhere between of painting as a discrete activity and lan- of subtly shifting reflective grids; Noel Henri Matisse and Peter Max. guage. Na’s oil on canvas “Symphony in Schneider’s witty, animated sculptures of Daniel Daeshik Choi is another artist Pink” featured irregular rectangles of soft symphony conductors and jitterbug whose progress bears watching. Choi’s pastel hues frozen in stasis amid more dancers, as well as paintings by Meyer paintings in this show were his best to active drips and splashes. Tannenbaum, whose recent solo show was date, with mountains, moons, waves, and Another exciting discovery were the reviewed in a previous issue, and Carmiah other natural elements stylized in a man- mixed media sculptures of Tadashi Mitsui, Frank, who is reviewed at length else- ner simultaneously suggesting the influ- whose “Dream of Carrot Cake” had an where in this issue. ence of Paul Klee and Korean folk art. originality that seemed peculiarly Japanese A new discovery, for this writer at least, for its combination of funk and elegance. —Wilson Wong were the sculptures of Judith Janus. In From unlikely materials, Mitsui makes Craft and Art: Conjoining Forms of Excellence at Pen and Brush nherent in the hyphenated named of the sterling silver, gold, diamonds, yellow and essentially abstract compositions; and the IArtist-Craftsmen of New York, Inc., a blue sapphires and other such materials sensual ceramic bowls and vases of Cecily non-profit group formed in 1958, is the employed to create delicate and fanciful Fortescue, with their gracefully furled point that art and craft are inseparable and necklaces, bracelets, and pins, such as one forms simultaneously suggesting floral should both meet the same high stan- prize-winning piece with a fish motif. shapes and aspects of the human body. dards. Surely this came across clearly in the One of the pleasures in a show such as Other kindred qualities could be found organization’s most recent exhibition, this one is the sheer variety of methods in a variety of unexpected places. For juried by the well known ceramic sculptor and materials on view, which persistently example, Shirley Venit Anger’s relief-like Hilda Steckel, at the Pen and Brush, 16 posed the question of whether there wall pieces (in which batik, silk screen, and East 10th Street. should really be any difference between a rich variety of fabrics are employed to Liz Cenedella, a leading fiber artist and how we look at craft and so-called “fine create intricate figurative narratives), and the current President of the Pen and art” objects. Certainly the level of inven- the earthy clay sculptures of Bobbi Brush, won an Outstanding Merit award tion here was equal to any other exhibi- Rayfield––particularly one in which a fig- in the textiles category with a dynamic tion in recent memory, and indeed the ure resembling a Native American mater- wall hanging in which elegant, wavering, inclusion of photography, sculpture, and nal spirit swarms with many smaller fig- abstract shapes suggested the movement collage along with more traditional craft ures. of ocean waves. Dermot Naughton was mediums such as jewelry, pottery, and tex- Then there were Shula Mustacchi, who another prize-winner for a clay and wood tiles bespeaks an enlightened refusal on exhibited both wall hangings and photo sculpture with a delightfully odd and the part of the Artist-Craftsmen of New callages, and Barbara DeBaylo, whose use funky quality called “ Reliquary for York to make arbitrary distinctions of digital imagery, handmade paper, silk, Absolute Space.” between one form of excellence and the roses, feathers, shells, rhinestones and Jeanelle Myers also challenged the other. sundry other materials made her assem- boundaries between craft and art with her This catholic curatorial attitude made it blages intriguingly impossible to classify. elaborately crafted dolls, layered with lace possible to draw comparisons between the Like several others in this splendid exhi- and brocade, encrusted with baubles and expressively distorted terra cotta figures of bition, too numerous to do justice here, beads, projecting a bizarre, fetishistic pres- the sculptor Claire Clark; the photo- these artist-craftspeople challenged our ence. By contrast, the jewelry of Ronnee graphs of Sandra Sgarro, in which female preconceptions while providing great Lee Medow has an opposite appeal, with nudes are posed and cropped to create pleasure. ––J. Sanders Eaton

14 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Bachelier: Art’s Enchanting Scheherazade ad he known her, the great French the parapet like Sleeping Beauty or a to trot! The poor fellow seems over- HSymbolist painter Odilon Redon, corpse. whelmed by this demonically sexy being, who took pleasure in fashioning beings Roughly translated, the painting’s English its long, tapered tail entwining his legs, its that, in his own words, were “impossible title is “Days of the Storyteller.” Yet, as is curvy torso impinging on his frail chest, its according to the laws of possibility,” could often the case with Bachelier’s paintings, flaming head and wings thrown back like a only have been delighted with his worthy which defy too-literal interpretation, it is buxom, tight-gowned torch singer in the countrywoman, the contemporary artist not entirely clear which of these figures is throes of some kind of uncontrollable, all- Anne Bachelier, whose star has been rising the storyteller. From its agitated “Chicken consuming Charo-like “coo-chi coo-chi” steadily in recent years. Little” gestures, one might suppose the passion ! He is clearly a man more alarmed Even while exemplifying Flaubert’s sound winged skeleton to be the narrator and take than charmed by having his wildest erotic advice that the artist should “live like a this to indicate that Death is sounding a fantasy come true. bourgeois” by eschewing bohemian excess warning...Or could it be that the young Much more coolly composed and seem- for a serene family life in the foothills of the woman wearing the blindfold is actually ingly adequate to cope with her companion Alps, Bachelier inhabits an “impossible” pri- telling the tale, to which at least two of her is the petite slip of a girl in a silky pink che- vate world. Populated by fairy tale companions are avid listeners? mise who strides along, in another large ingenues, chimeras, unicorns, and myriad This second interpretation gains credibili- canvas, beside a towering black creature other fanciful beings, this with a noble equine head rarefied realm and its and a long, phallic horn. denizens is once again The stallion-like unicorn the subject of Bachelier’s stands upright in the man- latest solo show of draw- ner of a man, as the cou- ings and paintings at CFM ple goes on its merry way Gallery, 112 Greene Street against a vibrant green from, October 12 background that suggests through November 4. a Sunday stroll in a lushly The show coincides with verdant, even Edenic, gar- the release of “Anne den. Here, while one Bachelier, The Book,” a could certainly read lavishly illustrated 266 romantic reverberations of page monograph pub- “Beauty and the Beast” (a lished under the gallery’s story Bachelier has illus- imprint. trated, definitively) into Faced with the art of these two figures, the virile Anne Bachelier, the unicorn seems more like a writer’s prose invariably protector than a lover to threatens to turn purple; the nubile young woman, indeed, poetry would suggesting that the artist seem more appropriate to has always felt safe in her convey the exhilaration of secret garden. encountering so unfet- Another unicorn image tered an imagination in a can be seen in a large time when the power of “Nous serons ensemble, toujours?” (“We will be together, always?”) round canvas, as yet unti- subjective fantasy has been tled when the paintings so sadly undervalued. But the task, one ty when one considers that the young hero- for the show were previewed at the gallery quickly realizes, is one of translation, rather ines of Bachelier’s paintings often seem to by this writer. In this boldly composed than of poeticizing, since poetry is abun- serve as surrogates for the artist herself. tondo, a creamy-shouldered blond beauty dant in the paintings themselves. And this begins to seem even more likely in a low-cut, blood-red gown with long, Still, how can one translate dreams into when one remembers that Bachelier takes matching gloves is seen in profile, placing a words? How does one even begin to no credit for creating her private world; large white unicorn mask over her head, as describe a painting such as “Le regard de la that she claims it has existed intact in her though in preparation for a costumed ball. conteuse?” In this relatively small, exquisite- imagination since early childhood, and is Here, for all of Bachelier’s far too humble ly beautiful oil on canvas, painted succu- simply channeled ––blindly!––through her protests that she is merely performing a lently in predominantly brownish tones brush... kind of “reportage” when she paints pic- reminiscent of the Old Masters, we see one Like Scheherazade, Anne Bachelier never tures culled from her inner world, there is a of Bachelier’s characteristically willowy seems to exhaust her store of stories. veiled implication of the conscious artifice young women perched demurely on a kind Indeed, each of her pictures seems the informing her art. of parapet in space. Enigmatically, she is painterly equivalent of a film still for a larg- Indeed, like the young woman hiding her blindfolded and is joined by three of those er narrative that is unfolding endlessly in beauty behind the equally beautiful head of bizarre little creatures that inhabit her fertile imagination. How else to the white unicorn, perhaps Anne Bachelier Bachelier’s world. One is a miniature account for the genesis of a painting such as finds in her secret garden of innocent day- humanoid skeleton with feathery wings, “La chimera amoureuse,” —or “The dreams a place to seek refuge from the which it raises above its naked skull in the Amorous Chimera?” In this large oil on demands that her brilliance imposes, even manner of a preening bird. The other is an canvas, one of Bachelier’s wan male protag- while simultaneously revealing the con- actual bird, preening in a similar manner. onists appears to have his hands full with a summate creative sophistication that makes The third is a hybrid being, part woman fiery red female creature that wraps itself her paintings so paradoxical, so endlessly and part bird, reclining on a lower perch of around him like a humanoid serpent–– hot enchanting. ––Ed McCormack

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 15 “Inside/Outside Art” at The Broome Street Gallery leven artists who demonstrated a variety two ruggedly elegant large collage paintings The mixed media collages of Ellen Faith Eof surprisingly congenial stylistic con- featuring bold, interlocking forms. Although Daniels are contrastingly monochromatic. trasts were seen in the recent group show Pascoe is best known for more sculpturally Daniels creates energetic compositions in “Inside/Outside Art,” presented in con- aggressive assemblages of funky materials, which gestural elements in ink intereact with junction with Metropolitan Artists, at The these pieces have a stately simplicity akin to photos and text from Asian newspapers with Broome Street Gallery, 498 Broome Street, that of Conrad Marca-Relli. lively immediacy. in Soho. Meyer Tannenbaum, one of the most fre- Although they are outnumbered, the figu- Michele Bonelli grows ever more compo- quently exhibited and reviewed painters in rative artists in this show acquit themselves sitionally eccentric as time goes on. Her the city, is represented here by older works every bit as impressively as the abstract ones. recent paintings are as jazzily hardedged as from his “Gesture Collage,” “Gesture Maria E. Leather’s mixed media paintings ever. However, they are more spatially open, Flow,” and “Gesture Geometric” periods, as employ imagery as darkly disconcerting as with sinuous linear elements and geometric well as one new acrylic from his “Direct that of the well known social realist Sue forms in bright comicstrip colors converging Impact” series. The latter painting and oth- Coe. Leather, however, layers plexiglass and on pristine white grounds like shards of Art ers like it mark a significant breakthrough other physically imposing materials to lend Deco deconstructed by a diabolically inven- for this constantly evolving proponent of her bold anatomical anomalies a dynamic, tive postmodern sensibility. earnest, energetic abstract painting. almost brutal presence. E. Janya Barlow is another abstract painter Another frequent exhibitor, Kim Na, has a The landscapes of Elizabeth Moore, on with an antic approach to form and surface. palette as deliciously varied as a Ben & the other hand, are exquisitely painted and Barlow likes to paint on the backs of joined Jerry’s ice cream flavor chart . Here, she was enlivened by a luminous lyricism. Moore’s canvases, layering all manner of intricate, represented by paintings with titles such as oils on canvas capture the moods of nature colorful geometric forms, confetti-like dots, “Tribute to Pink” and “Red Dream” that and make them immutable in pigment, as and symbols right over the stretchers to cre- conveyed the essences of those hues in seen in one picture where gathering storm ate shaped compositions with a festive, delectable, creamily pigmented compositions. clouds cast a subtly ominous pall over ver- Aztec two-step quirkiness. Another transcendent colorist of Korean dant fields. Joyce B. Flora also works with odd modu- origin, Eun Hee Park, showed three vibrant Then there is Carmiah Frank, who also lar units in her mixed media wall sculptures. paintings in which rectangular fields of a sin- works abstractly (as seen in her solo show, Although Flora calls her intriguing pieces, gle color were bordered by other hues that reviewed elsewhere in this issue) but was made with elongated bundled and tied forms set off subtle chromatic fireworks. Eun Hee represented here by figurative bronzes, the “Cathedral Series,” they actually suggest Park’s compositions are so austere and skill- including one, “Woman Standing on a the fetish objects of some imaginary tribe. fully controlled as to amplify each tiny Cube,” that effectively combined both Estelle Pascoe, who has her own way with painterly incident, making an errant dash of modes. unusual materials, is represented here with violet or blue a major event. ––Maureen Flynn Joan Schreder’s Artful Pas De Deux lthough Joan Schreder is a doubly gift- lying the studiedly disingenuous surface Aed artist, proficient in both photogra- which serves to unify her vision as a whole. phy and painting, her approach in each In Schreder’s contrasting approaches to medium is so conspicuously unassuming as photography and watercolor, the pas de to almost deflect our attention from the deux of sophistication and innocence plays true depth and breadth of her gifts.Yet the itself out most dramatically. As a photogra- deceptive simplicity that distinguishes pher, she strikes a fine balance between the Schreder’s photographs, watercolors, and documentary and the picturesque in “Lone oils is so inseparable from their special Windmill, England.” In formal terms, as charms that one can only assume it to be a well as informationally, this is a stunning “Sunset by the River” sly conceptual strategy on the part of this image, with the large structure cast in shad- give even freer vent to the more whimsical consummately sophisticated artist. Indeed, ow and looming monolithically over verdant aspects of her vision by virtue of their faux her sophistication is such that she can hills and fields, reminding us that such love- naif style. assume the pose of a globe-trotting flaneur, ly anomalies still exist in isolated locales in Especially delightful was a Santa Fe scene a casual, almost disinterested observer of the the modern world. At the same time, the with lizards scurrying around on a patio, world’s many splendors, quite distant from way Schreder frames the scene, from a dis- while buzzards soar ominously overhead. the gladitorial arena of contemporary aes- tance that allows for a vast expanse of blue Two other small gems were “Sunset by the thetics. Yet, while she presents herself with sky, with feathery clouds floating by, lends it River” and “On the Yangtse,” both memo- undue modesty as a “travel artist,” and such a fanciful atmosphere that one almost ries of China. Schreder, however, turns the while much of her inspiration does indeed expects Don Quixote and Sancho Panza to Chinese landscape into a fanciful realm as spring from her sojourns to faraway places, come galloping over the countryside. evocative as that in J.R. Tolkien’s own close study of her work proves Schreder’s Similarly atmospheric qualities enliven all of watercolor renderings of Middle Earth sensibility to be firmly entrenched in the Schreder’s sharply focused color photo- (which have never been surpassed by any of considerably more selfconscious spirit of graphs, from an Irish lake turning into a the more “professional” artists who would postmodern pluralism. bog at ebb tide; to a narrow, shadowy later illustrate his fantasy epic). In Schreder’s recent solo exhibition at Parisian street where silhouetted pedestrians Also including somewhat more abstract Artsforum Gallery, 24 West 57th Street, all navigate among reflective rain puddles; to oils, such as “Blue Landscape,” which reveal of her mediums were well represented. Thus an ancient stone portal in Burma, its black a formal savvy she sometimes subordinates it was possible to discern the distinct differ- opening gaping in sunlight like the womb to her more visionary tendencies, Joan ences between each of her modes of expres- of all creation. Schreder’s exhibition at Artsforum was sion, as well as the complex subtleties under- Joan Schreder’s watercolors enable her to bountiful and exuberant. —Peter Wiley

16 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Kelynn Z. Alder’s Dazzling Documentary Realism or certain artists there has never been artists. Rather, she savors the Fmuch need to construct artificial barri- unique qualities in “ordinary” ers between fine art and illustration. At people working or relaxing in a the same time, it could be argued that the a decidedly unfashionable more “reportorial” graphic works of amusement area in an animated Toulouse Lautrec and Honore Daumier gestural manner that is simulta- ––particularly the Moulin Rouge posters neously swift and detailed. of the former and the social caricatures of Alder has a dazzling ability to the latter––possess a vigor and expressive- combine snapshot immediacy of ness that is sometimes lacking in their movement, attitude, and gesture paintings. Perhaps even these masters, so with those more classical virtues unfettered with a sketchpad in the cafes that render a passing moment and courtrooms of their time, approached immutable. This is especially the easel with slightly too much rever- impressive in her monotype ence, stifled by preconceptions concerning “Head Shots,” where a small the sanctity of so-called High Art. boy stands with affecting awk- Fortunately the more permissive cli- wardness before a boardwalk mate of the postmodern era does not shooting gallery, holding one of place such burdens on an artist such as the stuffed toys that it apparent- Kelynn Z. Alder, who blithely refers to ly awards as trophies. An antic herself as “a visual essayist with a wander- array of other stuffed animals lust” and whose solo exhibition of mono- clutters a high shelf behind the types and paintings, “People & Places,” counter, where the pony-tailed can be seen at Viridian @ Chelsea’s new attendant casts a sidelong glance location, 530 West 25th Street, 4th floor, at the viewer as he paces restless- from October 16 through November 3. ly as a caged tiger against a (The opening reception is Saturday, backdrop of bold red and yellow October 20, from 5 to 7 PM, and a stripes and images of clown- “coffee and conversation with the artist” faces. event will also be held at the gallery the Altogether, it is an unusually following Saturday, October 27, from busy composition, but Alder “Head Shots” 2 to 4 PM.) controls it skillfully, using the Alder, an instructor at the School of bold striped designs behind the counter, In “Gloria in Coney Island,” Alder Visual Arts and a frequent guest lecturer as well as on the facade before which the depicts a plus-size African American and workshop instructor at other institu- boy stands (where they thrust downward, woman wearing a bright red t-shirt, pur- tions, has had considerable success as an as in one of the abstract artist Kenneth ple pedal pushers, and winning grin. In illustrator and portrait artist for The New Noland’s chevron paintings), to unify the “Joe with Jump Rope,” she shows us the Yorker, The New York Times Book various areas of the picture. She is able to macho pride of a shirtless middle aged Review, and numerous other publications. balance harsh, potentially clashing colors man sporting droopy shorts and the atti- A writer as well as an artist, her expedi- and a variety of disparate elements, mar- tude of someone who still glories in his tionary work, combining sketching in the shaling them to create dynamic tensions physicality and flaunts his physique, even field and painting in the studio, has taken that activate the entire surface. Thus, she as time takes its toll. In both pictures, her to Peru, Australia, New Guinea, and makes a composition cohere that could what comes across strongly is the artist’s Mexico, to document lives of indigenous collapse into chaos at the hands of a lesser genuine affection and appreciation for the people, as well as to explore her own artist. Indeed, she seems to thrive on set- individual character of her subjects. Mexican heritage. In 1999, as “Artist in ting difficult compositional problems for Other portraits, such as “Marshal Residence” for the Smithtown Arts herself and drawing pictorial power from Arisman,” in which the well known Council, in Smithtown, New York, she the aesthetic solutions that she employs to artist/illustrator’s head takes on the chronicled her extended family in an exhi- solve them. nobility of a Roman emperor, and “Mame bition entitled “Portraits of Family Life.” Her work is made even more impressive Vendor,” where a woman in a Mexican Alder’s present solo show extends her by her apparent refusal, as a “visual essay- market has her own stoic dignity, are subject matter further afield in genre ist,” to falsify or “fictionalize” the infor- equally affecting for what Alder tells us scenes set in Coney Island and Mexican mation in her pictures, in order to facili- about the character and humanity of these marketplaces, as well as in landscapes of tate a smoother composition. Instead, she people. locations in Long Island and Italy. The employs selective emphasis and succulent Kelynn Z. Alder brings such subjects to tawdry attractions and varied citizens of brush work to create a compelling com- life by virtue of her insightful draftsper- the Coney Island Boardwalk provide her position from the material at hand. sonship and considerable painterly with particularly lively fodder for captur- Witness her monotype “Coney Island prowess. That she does not eschew partic- ing character amid a visual cacophony of Boardwalk,” where her loose, painterly ulars or feel compelled to distort or gen- colorful signs, rickety facades, and gaudy handling of the planks of the boardwalk eralize her figures in order to achieve the novelty items. serves to anchor the main figure and the expressive power that distinguishes all of While Alder’s skills as a portrait artist green refuse pail to the picture plane, her work makes her monotypes and paint- are equal to those of Don Bachardy and while the intricate patterns on the man’s ings all the more remarkable. Billy Sullivan, her sympathies here lie not sport shirt create a lively counterpart to with the famous authors, artists, and fash- the profusion of colorful signs and flags ––Ed McCormack ionistas favored by both of those older on the facade of the arcade behind him.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 17 statements by sheer virtue of Heise’s passion for the city in all its aspects, from the seamy to the scenic. Like Sherrod, Simon Goan is drawn to aspects of Times Square that have escaped the grasp of Disney in powerful portraits of the area’s denizens, the dealers and smalltime players who hang at Mickey D’s, Burger King, and other fast food havens, waiting perhaps for some hip hop Godot. Other “Street Painters,” such as Tad Day and Ronald DeNota catch the spirit of the city from slightly more mellow angles––a church steeple soaring high above the humped backs of parked cars, a sunny day in a funky park—contrasting transcendent and mundane elements to powerful Quilt art by Arzu Titus effect. Strictly speaking, not all of the “Street Painters” specialize in streets. The name seems most legal of these were some bags of rice and to bespeak an attitude rather than a required noodles of unknown origin that a bedraggled- subject. Peter Schwarzburg paints landscapes looking couple tried to sell to us outside the that appear lit by neon rather than sunlight. Everything Goes Resale Shop. A few doors Jessie Benton-Evans, the sole woman in the down, some people were having a sidewalk group, captures the visionary aspects of nature. barbecue outside the storefront campaign offices Strong portraits by both Richard Castellana and of City Council candidate Debi Rose, as we Ivan Nunes’ bring their sitters alive through crossed the street to check out Gallery of Painting by Philip Sherrod vibrant color and vigorous paint handling. Precious Things. Kenneth McIndoe, who also teaches at The Arzu Titus, the owner of the gallery, is a The Street is Their Beat League, painted streets in the past, but has friendly woman who informed us that she was Although we have seen other exhibitions by turned recently to Amazonian female nudes. born in Honduras into the Garifuna, the only “The Street Painters” over the years their most Also including strong work by Andy Pizzo, tribe outside of Africa with its own language. recent, in the gallery at The Art Students Richard Rash, and Philip Southern, this group An internationally known fabric artist, she League, 215 West 57th Street, showed this exhibition (sadly ignored by most of the art creates large quilts that combine opulent sur- loose-knit group of painters at their raucous press, with its head up its anus looking for the faces akin to those of Faith Ringold with best. latest avant garde wrinkle) seemed especially imagery reminiscent of Romare Bearden. She Formed in 1977, the “Street Painters” have appropriate at The League, where members of has received commissions from the Smithsonian been praised by elder colleagues no less distin- the Ashcan School such as Robert Henri and Institute, among others, and exhibited in guished than Alice Neel, who cited their “pas- John Sloan once taught. Among their students numerous galleries and museums. sion and immediacy” and Raphael Soyer, who were Reginald Marsh, Isabel Bishop, and “The prevalent theme of my quilts is women enthused about their pictures “fairly bursting Raphael Soyer, who could have been called discovering the dignity of their lives,” she says. with vitality and energy.” Unquestionably the “Street Painters” in their day. “In many ways my quilts reflect my own spiritu- best known painter among them is Philip Now that both Phil Sherrod and Ken al path and evolution as a woman.” Lawrence Sherrod, a popular League instructor. McIndoe teach at The League, it appears that Titus also called our attention to intriguing Making our rounds over the years, we have seen the loaded brush of lively, humanistic urban work by Montana, an artist of mixed Apache burly, bearded Sherrod attacking his portable genre painting is being passed like a baton to a Indian and African American heritage who easel amid the charging traffic, lurid billboards, new generation. creates dream catchers and Native American and horny marquees of Times Square to capture Staten Island on The Brink masks, as well as oil paintings; and Florence the frenetic visual cacophony and crazy simul- Being just a short, free ferry ride from Wall Berry, who is best known for her watercolors, taneity of midtown in strokes of glistening oil Street and now boasting a brand minor league collages, and spirit dolls. pigment thick as cake frosting––New Hades in baseball stadium, Staten Island seems destined As we spoke with her and browsed around her all its flaming glory! for dubious development––especially in light of a tiny but visually rich premises, various neighbor- If Alec Guinness had not been available, green-eyed front page feature on the borough in hood people stopped in, one a local writer who Sherrod could have played the lead in the film the Times’ Real Estate section last month. grew up on Staten Island and complained about version of “The Horse’s Mouth,” based on Although we’re told a fair number of artists live the recent influx of “yuppies with attitude from Joyce Cary’s novel about an eccentric bohemian on the Island, a recent Saturday afternoon visit the city” who are buying up property and “cut artist. In fact, Sherrod’s paintings have a bit in revealed no threat to Williamsburg or Dumbo, you off with this snobbish look if you simply try common with those of John Bratby, the leader in terms of boasting any visible art scene. to be friendly and say hello to them.” of London’s “Kitchen Sink School,” who actual- Nonetheless, we did discover one tiny storefront From the sound of things, big changes are in ly painted the huge canvases attributed to Gully venue, at 58 Victory Boulevard, called Gallery of store for Victory Boulevard. So, If you’re inter- Jimson, Guinness’ character in that film. To be Precious Things, with its own unique appeal. ested in discovering a grass roots venue where fair, though, Sherrod’s paintings are more in a That part of Victory Boulevard, a crooked no unnecessary distinctions are drawn between class with Soutine. stretch of funky, ramshackle structures within art objects and power objects––where the magi- Myron R. Heise has his own grasp of spitting distance of the ferry terminal, is still a cal properties of all art, secular or sacred, are Gotham’s nocturnal mystery in his darkly pris- real neighborhood. People still hang out on the apparently still taken for granted––we highly rec- tine paintings of smoky, funky cellar jazz clubs streets, some of them looking like they don’t ommend that you visit Gallery of Precious right out of a novel by Jack Kerouac; atmos- have a great deal to do or anything much to do Things before the Island is overrun with specu- pheric little streets illuminated by glowing store- it with. There’s a beauty parlor, a bakery, and a lators and loses some of its more authentic fronts; subways or porno theaters populated by Jamaican fast food place, among other small charms. lonely zombies; or visions of bridges, boats, and shops offering an odd variety of merchandise, Putting Some English on Pop twinkling skylines that flirt with black velvet and you get the impression you could buy vari- Ron English, who shows at Opera Gallery, kitsch––yet rise above it to become compelling ous things on the street as well. Among the 115 Spring Street, may be The Last Pop Artist. 18 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 However, his approach is significantly different side. than that of the late Andy Warhol, who appears So far, so good. Since his release from prison, as a skeleton on the cover of “Popaganda: The Rios has been clean and sober. He supplements Art & Subversion of Ron English,” recently the income from the sale of his paintings by published by Shortwave books. While Andy was working as a carpenter, and he has reunited with the guru of passivity, accepting the mass media a formerly estranged daughter who now acts as at face value and feeding off its amoral banality, his agent. English loves nothing better than biting the All of this would be simply another “human hand that feeds him, much the manner of some interest” story, the stuff of tabloid journalism of the famous rock musicians who are among his rather than art criticism, if not for the fact that most avid collectors. For example, Joe Camel is his first solo show at Gelabert Studios revealed ancient history, thanks to English’s scathing Jose F. Rios to be an exceptionally gifted genre “pirated” billboards calling attention to how painter whose pictures pulse with the same infec- that popular cartoon character was used to mar- tious salsa beat as the verses of the Puerto Rican ket cigarettes to kids. So much for cynical claims poet Emilio Cruz and the plays of the late that art can’t affect social change: English Miguel “Mikey” Pinero, author of “Short Eyes.” proved that one man with a brush can nip a Part of the power in his work comes from the multimillion dollar advertising campaign in the fact that Rios paints what he knows by heart: In butt, so to speak. “Hope,” a single dandelion growing through a But English is a lot more than merely a Pop crack in the sidewalk is taken as a positive omen iconoclast, as he is often billed, judging from his by a homeless man living in a cardboard box; in recent exhibition at Opera Gallery, which com- “Subsiding Demons,” a man recently released bined a good deal of painterly prowess with Painting by Konrad Bercovici Abbott from prison still must deal with demons whisper- visual wit. Two reprises by English of Pop icons also painted by Warhol were especially rich in not need huge scale to make an impact. One highlight among many in the memorial exhibition was the relatively small oil called “The Aggressor,” depicting an expressively distorted female nude with a predatory expression, leaning forward in a chair as if about to spring. At once witty and visually dynamic, it has qualities akin to both de Kooning’s “Woman” and the sophisticated primitivism of Jan Muller. Yet it is wholly original, stamped by Abbott’s distinctive style. Then there is “Pianoman,” where the boldly outlined musician , emerging from a roughly rectangular form, demonstrates Abbott’s ability to combine dynamic figurative elements with abstraction. Jose F. Rios with his paintings Although he was nowhere near as well known as he should have been during his lifetime, ing in his ears; “Windows” offers rich glimpses Konrad Bercovici Abbott was an immensely gift- into the varied lives of tenement buildings, its ed painter and the art world is sadly diminished bricks and other details evoked with an atmos- by his loss. pheric exactitude reminiscent of the late Martin Jose F. Rios’ Barrio Dreams Wong. A harrowing story with a happier ending is Jose F. Rios paints the life of the inner city–– that of Jose F. Rios, a self-taught artist born in its rotten-tooth tenements, prison-like housing Puerto Rico and raised in New York City, who projects, flypaper bodegas, crumbling schools, recently had an impressive first solo show of treacherous playgrounds, and too-often-thwart- Painting by Ron English paintings at Gelabert Studios, 255 West 86th ed aspirations with an authenticity and passion Street. Like Claude Brown, the author of that should not be ignored. Rios is The Real Deal. allusions: Marilyn Monroe with two Mickey “Manchild in the Promised Land,” Rios is a Mouse faces protruding from her breasts and ghetto kid who overcame the odds–– but not Vegas in the East Village Jacqueline Kennedy in black mourning veil, without difficulty: Although he loved to draw superimposed over Picasso’s “Weeping Woman.” and his talent was obvious from childhood, he In Memoriam: was an alcohol abuser and a heroin addict by age Konrad Bercovici Abbott (1945–2001) eleven. That Westbeth remains one of the few artist’s To escape a turbulent family life, he left home housing complexes worthy of being called a at sixteen and ended up living on the streets for community was proven once again when one of ten years. Still doing drugs, sleeping in a card- its residents died unexpectedly. Other residents board box in the Village, he used his creative rallied with the deceased artist’s family in the talents to survive as best he could, scavenging eleventh hour to mount the memorial exhibition for junk to create funky assemblages that he sold of paintings by Konrad Bercovici Abbott, seen on the streets. But he supplemented his income recently at Westbeth Gallery, 155 Bank Street. by selling another kind of “junk”––drugs—and A third generation painter in a family of well was finally busted for dealing. known artists and writers that included his Prisons don’t have a great record for rehabili- grandfather, noted author Konrad Bercovici, tating people, but Rios, once again, was the gift- Abbott showed alongside his mother, painter ed exception: he rehabilitated himself. No longer Mirel Bercovici, and his grandmother, sculptor scuffling to survive on the streets––one of the Naomi LeBrescu, in the Westbeth Generations toughest full-time jobs in the world!––lots of Show this past April. Selected for the United time on his hands, he began to draw again. Painters Barbara Petitto and Nations Human Rights Commission on Peace Soon he was talking commissions from other Anthony Benedetto (who also sings under the Exhibition, in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1988, prisoners to draw portraits of their families and name “Tony Bennett”) take a photo-op at Abbott, who resembles Arshille Gorky in the actually making a living, of sorts, from his art. If Petitto’s recent exhibition at Nexus Gallery, photograph in the exhibition brochure, was a he could do this well in jail, he reasoned, then 345 East 12th Street...What else is there to say? painter’s painter. Unlike a lot of others, he did there might still be hope for him in on the out- SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 19 Deep Mortal Beauty in the “Edible” Pastels of Terry Kalayjian he French term for still life, nature behind physical objects, suggesting deep- Tmorte, seems especially applicable to er, more enduring mysteries beyond tem- the pastel paintings of Terry Kalayjian, poral things in the material realm. precisely because the fruits she depicts are In another pastel, entitled “Inspiration,” so so ripe with vibrant life that we know pears, squash, and other fruits and vegeta- they will soon be on the verge of decay. bles, predominantly in vibrant red and This dramatic dichotomy is the first thing yellow hues––along with a single white that strikes one on encountering the flower—are arranged on a blue patterned works in Kalayjian’s solo exhibition at the plate, set against a blue-purple ground, James Beard Foundation Greenhouse resulting in a composition of an almost Gallery, 167 West 12th Street. (The show Persian richness. The lush colors, com- runs from August 30 through October bined with the intricate designs on the 31, with a reception on Sunday, round plate create the effect of a natural September 9, from 2 to 5 PM.) mandala composed of actual objects, hint- Terry Kalayjian’s pastels are portraits of ing in yet another way at the larger order fruit in the same way that the late “magic behind the seemingly random processes of realist” Ivan Albright’s oils are portraits of life and death. people: They are so particular and vital in In “Firenze,” we see patterns of flow- the moment that she paints them; yet ing, fiery leaves, vines, and purple grapes they will inevitably face the same fate as on a large pitcher with sensually swelling the figure in “The Picture of Dorian contours that fill a good portion of the Gray,” painted by Albright for the film composition. These are juxtaposed with version of Oscar Wilde’s famous story of an actual pear rendered with the same the same name. “Composition from the East” degree of verisimilitude as the decorative Only, while Albright depicted the tale’s elements on the pitcher, so that both protagonist as a decrepit old man, Terry the good news conveyed in her paintings, appear to share the same space, the same Kalayjian captures her fruits in the full to balance the sense of mortality that she solidity. Here, again, magically, Terry bloom of their ripeness, before decay sets touches upon so much more gently, more Kalayjian introduces a sly note of ambigu- in. This lends even greater poignancy to subtly––yet just as insistently––as her ity that causes the viewer to question her pictures, which enable us to simulta- great predecessor Chardin, whose gaping, what is real and what is illusory. neously graze on beauty and anticipate its eviscerated fishes and bloody blades serve What makes this and all of Kalayjian’s imminent demise. It is this ability to as jarring mortal reminders. pictures succeed so well is that she invest inanimate objects with philosophi- How the sense of this transformation, employs pastel with consummate skill, as a cal and emotional resonance that makes while hardly a tangible quality, comes full-fledged painting medium, rather than Kalayjian’s paintings so much more affect- across in Kalayjian’s pastels, coexisting a drawing tool, to create compositions in ing than those ordinary still life set-ups in harmoniously with her more palpable which richly nuanced surfaces and sub- which even fruits, vegetables, or flowers subject matter, can be seen especially well tleties of light are conveyed as convincing- seem as inert as bottles or vases, since in the still life called “Composition from ly as in any oil or acrylic painting. Thus they merely exist to provide the artist an the East.” In this exquisitely simple com- she is able to evoke a world entire, in opportunity to create a formal effect. In position, a bunch of glistening green which to locate her still life subjects and Kalayjian’s pictures no single plum, pear, grapes spill out of a small purple jar onto with which to seduce the viewer into or grape is a generic object; each is an a gossamer white curtain, beside a single complicity with the more metaphysical individual entity, imbued with its own red plum. The curtain continues upward aspects of her pictures, which she makes vital energy; each is caressed in soft and out of the composition, as though every bit as convincing, finally, as their strokes of pastel, revealing the artist’s billowing down from a window above the more physical properties. obvious reverence for every living thing. surface that supports the vessel and the It is interesting to note that Terry In looking at the pictures of Terry fruits. This surface could be a tabletop, Kalayjian created the pastel paintings in Kalayjian, it is relevant in this regard to yet might actually be a floor, since it is this exhibition exclusively for the James know that, along with being an artist, she covered by a thick, darkly patterned Beard Foundation, the mission of which is is a body and energy therapist who also fabric more suggestive of a rug than a to promote the culinary arts. Naturally, works with dolphins to, as she puts it, tablecloth. the edible subjects of her paintings makes “support the healing process for people.” Similarly ambiguous is the upper part of them an auspicious choice for the founda- When she speaks of her work she uses the composition, where yellow spots, set tion’s Greenhouse Gallery. Being an phrases such as “pure life force energy” against something deep blue, seem to exceptionally gifted and imaginative artist, and “chi,” and she asserts with utter con- glow through the gossamer white fabric. however, Terry Kalayjian gave them a viction that “Facilitating the healing These could initially resemble stars in a good deal more than they bargained for. process is the same as facilitating the cre- view of the night sky seen through a near- ––Ed McCormack ative process, there is no difference.” by window, until one realizes that their From her obviously evolved spiritual patterns are far too regular. Thus, they perspective, as well as on the evidence of must be yellow designs on a deep blue Subscribe to her work, one can safely assume that fabric behind the semi-translucent white GALLERY&STUDIO Kalayjian is as confident as any of us can curtain. Through such layers of ambigui- be that, while matter decays, energy does ty, Terry Kalayjian subverts mere verisimil- See page 35 not die; it is merely transformed. This is itude, to convey a sense of the mystery

20 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Variousness and Poetry in WIA’s Lincoln Center Exhibition omen in the Arts Foundation, Inc. McNamara is a painter with a particular W(WIA), whose recent group show gift for finding a peculiar lyricism in was seen at Cork Gallery, Avery Fisher obscure corners of the city. In her deli- Hall, in Lincoln Center, is an organiza- cately limned acrylic painting, tion with a distinguished membership that “Amsterdam Avenue,” McNamara evoked includes many familiar New York artists. a tender mood with a fragmented, wind- Among them is Olga Sheirr, whose blown sign saying “Heros” and the cor- luminous watercolor landscape, “Giverny ner of a fire-escape enshrouded in lumi- Tree” showed her at her casual best. With nous mists. a brilliant red road running alongside a Then there was Jutta Filippelli, another vibrant blue body of water, Sheirr’s frequent exhibitor, here represented by a sparkling aquarelle turns a landscape into simple still life in her characteristically a symbolic rainbow. straightforward realist manner. Filipelli’s Another frequent exhibitor, Miriam Olga Sheirr, “Giverny Tree ” small oil of a china vase filled with color- Wills (reviewed at length elsewhere in this ful flowers on a yellow kitchen chair was issue), showed powerful collage paintings an unpretentiously affecting ode to com- animated by vibrant colors and dynamic monplace objects and everyday life. figurative and absstract compositions. Another painter well known for still life Roberta Crown captured another kind is Rebecca Cooperman, represented here of dynamism in her abstract acrylic on by an oil entitled “Spreading.” As in all of canvas “Turkish Delight,” with its cursive Cooperman’s recent paintings, this com- ecriture and luminous hues. As its title position of graceful green leaves set suggests, Crown’s composition has a against rectangular yellow and ochre decidedly exotic quality, its gracefully forms verged on abstraction. floating forms at once allusive and elusive, Also including a strongly stylized paint- hinting at poetic meanings just beyond ing of a woman’s head by Marlene the viewers’ grasp. Zimmerman; a small, exquisite painting of Nydia Preede is an artist who conveys a ballerina by Marjeta Lederman; a vigor- her own kind of poetry in her mixed Estelle Pacsoe, “Might As Well Be Spring” ous gestural abstraction by Barbara media paintings, albeit of a more concrete Schaefer; Beatrice Rubel’s graceful com- kind. In Preede’s “Roots of tiny springs affixed to it like piquant position of flowing, rhythmic ribbon-like Regeneration,” images of children, birds, exclamation points! forms in colored pencil; a characteristically flowers and butterflies are combined with The sculptor Estelle Levy has her own painterly abstraction by Emily Rich; and cryptic printed phrases to create a com- way with rugged materials, as seen in works of equally high quality by Eran Far, pelling personal semiotics. “Tower of Babel,” a piece in found met- Theresa Bates, Deborah Beck, Pamela Estelle Pascoe’s metaphors, on the als. With its convoluted coil, propeller, Hawkins, Susan Asarian, Joanne Turney, other hand, are material ones, complete and other cunningly combined forms Marilyn Coen, Sari Menna, Erin Butler with witty physical puns. They result from stripped of all utilitarian function and and Maria Formoso, this was by far one of Pascoe’s ability to layer various shards and assembled with surprising elegance, Levy’s the WIA’s best and most varied exhibi- shapes in her commanding wall reliefs piece had the gadgety visual wit of a Rube tions to date. with intriguing titles such as “Might as Goldberg invention. Well Be Spring,” which actually has two Like the late Loren McIver, Marianne ––Marie R. Pagano

NEW YORK FIGURATIVE MUSINGS IMPRESSIONS paintings by October 12 - November 1, 2001 Charles E. Reception: October 18, 6 - 8pm Murphy Young Sun Lim Sept. 29 - Nov. 3, 2001 Suzanne Blaustein Artist’s Reception: Patricia Mulko Thurs., Oct. 11 Edna Pena 5:00 - 7:00 pm Hours: M-Tu-W-F 8:30-6:00 Th. 8:30-7:00 Sat 9:00-5:00 560 Broadway, SOHO, NY NY 10012 212 - 226 - 4151/ Fax: 212 - 966 - 4380 ROCHESTER www.agora-gallery.com • www.art-mine.com BIG & TALL 67 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005 212 952-8500 Tuesday - Saturday 12 - 6 pm

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 21 Campisi’s Celebratory Art he Brooklyn-based painter and print- more traditional cornucopia that includes Tmaker Naomi M. Campisi has long two plates of assorted fruits, a smaller plate been known for her ability to invest still life of eggs, a bottle of wine, a blue vase, and a and landscape subjects with a peculiar reso- loaf of Italian bread. Painted with character- nance. Campisi’s recent exhibition of paint- istically uninflected restraint, these elements ings and etchings, at Dag Hammarskjold offer an elegant argument that, as F. Scott Towers, 47th Street and 2nd Avenue, was Fitzgerald once put it, living well is the best one of her most accomplished to date, for it revenge. emphasized the qualities that make her work That Naomi M. Campisi’s handling of “Emerald Lake, Canadian Rockies” uniquely appealing. landscape is equally appetizing can be seen Like the poetry of the late Denise in another oil entitled “Emerald Lake, unforgiving as aquarelle, but Campisi’s Levertov, Campisi’s paintings and prints Canadian Rockies.” This is an exhilarating combination of gracefully articulated drafts- often take inspiration from the ordinary picture, in which snow-flecked mountains personship and clear washes of color are trappings of domestic life. Through their hover above pine trees and a brilliantly more than equal to the task. celebration of commonplace food items, reflective body of water. Here, Campisi’s Especially impressive in the latter painting albeit with an Italian accent, such still life sense of clear winter light is as precise as that is her handling of the delicate cloud forma- paintings as “Making Caponata” and in the best Alaskan scenes of Rockwell Kent, tions in the luminous blue sky. Here, too, “Abundancia” suggest that a grocery list can whose fame as an illustrator unfortunately she employs the light colored rock forma- be every bit as profound an affirmation of overshadowed his considerable gifts as a tions in the foreground in much the same life as a poem. The former painting–– in landscape painter. way that she uses the areas of snow on the which an eggplant, bottles of olive oil and In another fine oil, “Dr. Zim’s Lilies,” mountains in the aforementioned “Emerald Harvey’s Bristol Cream sherry, a bulb of Campisi paints a subject so often associated Lake, Canadian Rockies,” to create com- garlic, an onion, green peppers, and other with Monet in a manner so distinctly her pelling abstract pattern. items are arranged on a tabletop––consti- own that she avoids such comparisons with Such touches appear to be second nature tutes a literal recipe. Presumably, one could admirable finesse. Her own distinct style to Naomi M. Campisi, whose etchings–– cook this popular Italian eggplant dish by comes across as well in her watercolors, such particularly an exquisite print of autumn taking careful note of these ingredients. And as “Rock Gorge, NH” and “Jordan Pond, leaves entitled “Summer’s End”––are as Campisi makes them so palpable, so palat- Maine,” where rugged landscape subjects richly nuanced as her oils and watercolors. able, that one is sorely tempted to try! are captured in a manner at once fresh and “Abundancia,” on the other hand, is a particular. This is not easy in a medium as ––J. Sanders Eaton Vigor and Wit in the Paintings of Mary Fader are rough silhouettes and the towering and huddle in near-abstract masses in hues buildings are blocked in bold outlines and as boldly evocative as those of Georges pigment the color and texture of pastel cake Rouault. frostings. The whole scene shimmers with a The human figure is another favorite confectionery pink, blue, green, and yellow theme for Fader, as seen in several excellent hues that look good enough to eat. paintings centering on the domestic activi- A similar energy and gestural vivacity ani- ties of women. “Little Women” is especially mates “Fifth Avenue Library,” where the notable in this regard, with its witty treat- familiar facade is brushed in broadly, brack- ment of three women doting over vases of eted between green foliage, and further flowers. “Holiday Music,” another oil of a enlivened by flocks of swooping pigeons woman in an elaborate dress seated at an that Fader evokes with two or three strokes. uptight piano, has an almost Victorian Her ability to conjure up a complex charm––as though one of Whistler’s society “The Gospel Singers” cityscape through the most elemental ladies had somehow wandered into the consider myself a Staten Island painter,” means is akin to that of Abraham world of Emile Nolde! Another oil, “The Isays Mary Fader. “A town set against a Wolkowitz or Beauford Delaney. Piano Player,” brings a similar subject panoramic harbor is a perfect setting to cre- Other city subjects include “Central Park several steps closer to total abstraction with ate and be inspired constantly by nature South,” where crowds of pedestrians and the simplified figure almost vanishing into and urban life.” tall apartment buildings across from the the painter’s thickly pigmented gestural Although Fader was born and still lives park appear to dissolve in sweltering late pyrotechnics. on Staten Island, her subject matter is by afternoon sunlight, under a hot pink-violet Even more bold, in terms of form and no means limited to that borough, scenic as sky. Through her vigorous neo-expression- color, are portraits such as “Sunday it may be. Manhattan provides inspiration ist paint handling, Fader makes the entire Morning” and “Proud Athlete.” The for- for several oils in Fader’s solo exhibition at surface of her compositions appear to shimmer painting depicts a woman wearing a the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, 26 mer and shake with light, rhythm and huge hat that looks like it was inspired by Federal Plaza, through September 28. movement. the chapeau of Napoleon Bonaparte; the In “The Theater District,” for one lively As a Staten Islander, presumably used to latter is a broadly grinning face that fills the example, clustered buildings awnings and traveling via the ferry, Fader has also been entire canvas with the thrill of victory. marquees overlook matinee crowds wend- inspired to paint harbor scenes such as Mary Fader, who has exhibited widely in ing their way between cabs and buses. “Ship with Tugs.” In this oil, the boats are her native borough and elsewhere, com- While Fader captures the particular flavor of painted in bold outline, in strokes as liquid bines painterly zeal with a warm, humane that part of town, her approach is by no as those that capture the movement of the wit, making this a doubly engaging exhibi- means fussily realistic. The human figures murky harbor waters. The crafts converge tion. ––Maureen Flynn 22 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Noho Gallery Brings a Proud Tradition to Chelsea t should always be remembered that create vital contemporary statements, IAbstract Expressionism, the most signif- shows a stitched construction entitled icant American art movement of the “Mapleleaf/Dragonfly Dance,” combin- twentieth century, sprang not from the ing poetic natural elements with formal commercial venues uptown but from the grace and austerity. artists cooperatives on Tenth Street. This The Brazilian artist Edgar Barbosa is a is especially important to keep in mind consummate colorist, as he demonstrates when one visits an exhibition such as once again in a vibrant oil on canvas com- “Noho Gallery...New Digs,” which cele- posed with rectangular forms and rainbow brates that venerable co-op’s move from stripes. Sinuous, sharply defined black and Soho to its new venue at 530 West 25th white shapes confound figure-to-ground Street (4th floor), in Chelsea. relationships to create dynamic contrasts Featuring small works in various medi- in Zarvin Swerbilov’s hard-edged painting Marilyn Henrion,“Impromptu #2” ums by some 26 artist members, the “Wave.” By contrast, David Deutsch show, which runs from September 25 employs patches of color and a fluid line through October 13, with a reception on to create figurative compositions with off- Saturday, September 29, from 3 to 6 PM, hand abstract attributes akin to those of demonstrates by its overall high quality Larry Rivers. Stephanie Rauschenbusch the diverse aesthetic riches that this highly makes her own peace with the tensions respected artist-run venture, founded in between abstract form and representation 1975, brings to New York City’s hottest in her luminous watercolor of rock forma- new gallery area. tions in Cornwell. Leon Yost, best known Sharon Florin shows a realist oil “White for his photographic exploration of spiri- Restaurant,” which captures the layered tual sites, also makes a characteristically quality of urban life, with figures and strong aesthetic statement with an image buildings reflected in the plate glass win- of a specific place, in a hand-tinted dows of an elegant dining place, the scene Cibachrome of an ancient Egyptian made palpable by the artist’s unerring way obelisk re-erected in Romeb Bernini in Sharon Florin, “The White Restaurant” with light. Siena Porta is a realist of a the 17th Century. more metaphysical bent, as seen in “Just Rebbeca Cooperman is represented by Sitting,” an assemblage in clay, stone, and “Green Fantasy II,” one of her most plastic that depicts a man meditating in a abstract and successful oils based on plant desert landscape. Equally ethereal in a dif- forms. Daniele Marin employs a grid of ferent manner is Dianne Martin’s poetic nine squares to contain a variety of mixed media drawing of a single feather intriguing pictographic images in her floating within a precise rectangle set mixed media piece, “Nuits Blanches. ” against a delicately modulated grey Jacques Simons demonstrates a funky ele- ground. gance in his energetic, brilliantly colored A monochromatic palette is also used abstract collage of fractured gestural effectively in Amarillis Kroon’s acrylic forms. Sheila Hecht reveals her own ges- painting “Black and White Trees,” where tural power in “Gorilla Warfare,” an the sense of a dense forest penetrated by acrylic on canvas with a frenzied painterly shafts of sunlight is evoked in a near energy that reflects its amusingly punning abstract painterly composition enlivened title. Stephanie Rauschenbusch, “The Chûn by touches of gold leaf. Hester Welish’s Other exhibitors whose works were not Quoit, Morvah, Cornwall” “Shoreline” is a beachscape notable for its available for preview include Diana freewheeling composition and vigorous Freedman-Shea, Lynne Friedman, Mark paint handling. In a color lithograph enti- Jacobson, Bruce Laird, Hyeon-Seok Lee, tled “Dusk,” Akiko Naomura employs an Pat Feeney Murrell, Frances Jacobson, intricate network of tree limbs set against Jessica Fromm, and Judy Zeichner. New York tenement buildings to create The addition of artist-led venues to graceful compositional rhythms. Chelsea, especially ones as respected as Two artists in the forefront of the Noho Gallery, is a healthy sign that the movement to elevate quilt-making and area is developing into an inclusive and other textile techniques in a fine art con- varied gallery district concerned with text are featured with strong works: In more than chic commercialism. No one two pieces from her “Impromptu” series, has higher standards than artists them- Marilyn Henrion, an award winning inter- selves. Nor do any galleries bring more national artist, employs hand quilted silk vitality and legitimacy to keep an art area to explore the relationship of abstract art from turning into Boutique Row than to music through vibrant geometric com- those galleries over which artists preside. positions with a jazzy impact akin to Stuart Davis. Erma Martin Yost, who ––Andrew Margolis Leon Yost, “Obelisk of Santa Maria” draws upon her Mennonite heritage to

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 23 “Tropicos”: Five Venezuelan Painters in New York lthough contemporary art in growth rather than its outward appear- his or her heritage that must be acknowl- AVenezuela has kept a relatively low ance. His paintings are essentially abstract, edged in assessing the contribution that profile in the international art world, and their components colors and forms rather he or she makes to mainstream world most particularly in the New York art than actual objects or specific landscapes. culture. Thus, it is important to recognize world, up to now, a recent exhibition of They shimmer with a sense of movement, and celebrate the unique characteristics of Venezuelan artists in Soho indicates that of flux and action that speaks of nature in Venezuelan history and culture that con- there is a good deal of first rate work a general sense, as the substance of all cre- tributed to making this exhibition memo- being produced in that country. The exhi- ation, for which Justo Osuna makes the rable and valuable. bition, at Montserrat Gallery, 584 substance of pigment itself a sensual sur- * * * Broadway, featured the work of five rogate. Also on view at Montserrat Gallery dur- painters, each of whom showed a level of Jose Martinez, on the other hand, is ing the same period as the Venezuelan development that would indicate a major concerned with essences of quite another exhibition were two solo shows by the talent in any national context. Indeed, as kind. Martinez fills his canvases with small Mexican sculptor Maria Lagunes and the their exhibition credits made clear, each of pictographic figures that appear to allude Norwegian painter Astri Eidgeth Rygh. these painters has important credits in his to mankind’s origins and to the soil and Along with her bronze sculptures, native country, and in some cases in other culture of his native land. These are fig- Maria Lagunes also showed a large group countries, including the United States, as ures that could as easily grace the wall of of watercolors and drawings that related well. Even more important, however, each an ancient cave as the canvas of a contem- to her three dimensional work and were of these artists has evolved a very definite porary painter. They appear to hint at that every bit as compelling in their own way. style, the stamp of a fully matured aes- exact moment when primitive pictograms Indeed, Lagunes is an excellent draftsper- thetic sensibility. metamorphosed into the letters of a writ- son whose drawings and watercolors stand Enrique Finol is an expressionist whose ten alphabet, and yet they also seem on their own as finished works of art, gestural abstractions present an ambigu- immutable, eternal, at home in any age, rather than preliminary studies, even while ous sense of an askew landscape that can including our own, by virtue of their relationship to her sculptures is cer- be favorably compared to the upside- Martinez’s ability to integrate them––or tainly clear. down figures of the well known German one might more accurately say to embed As for the sculptures, most of them are painter Georg Baselitz. Finol, however, them––into the surface of his canvases and roughly figurative forms that command has his own distinct approach, with vigor- make them function as elements of decid- space with impressive substance and grace. ous, slashing strokes of fiery colors filling edly abstract compositions. Indeed, in the bronze entitled “Paraja large canvases with a sense of untram- Then there is Giovanni Escala, who II,” the space between the two slender meled natural energy. Finol’s work can brings his own private mythology to bear figures that stand next to each other on also be compared to that of Susan in canvases with bold signs and symbols the same pedestal is so beautifully articu- Rothenberg for the way in which the sub- that echo the ancient past. Brilliant colors lated as to constitute as much a part of merged image asserts itself through the and expansive forms are set afloat to do the overall statement as the figures them- highly-charged painterly pyrotechnics. battle on the picture plane in Escala’s selves. Enrique Finol, though, employs a much large canvases, conjuring visions of Maria Lagunes’ bronzes compare more vibrant palette of hues, often in the ancient cultures––their signs and symbols, favorably to those of such predecessors as red and yellow range, to create a chro- their beliefs and primitive tools. Nothing Henry Moore and Alberto Giacometti for matic frisson that is altogether his own. is spelled out, nothing is specific, yet all of her ability to capture a monumental sense Luis Rocca Brito also employs a loaded these diverse things resonate in the colors of the human presence through strong brush in a lively expressionist manner to and shapes that Escala summons up in his formal generalization. create compositions in which the central compositions. Here, evoked by a swift, Astri Eidgeth Rygh employs a unique motif is a single tree emerging from a calligraphic gesture of the brush we see technique in which the artist’s own pho- highly activated, tactile paint surface something resembling a written symbol; tographs of micro-structures form a black where vibrant areas of color vie with more there, we discern the outline of a simple and white basis for acrylic paintings that monochromatic passages for supremacy. It boat; another shape suggests a tree take the profound theme of time itself as has been accurately observed that Rocca glimpsed in passing; in this earthy area we a starting point for their genesis. They Brito is a neoclassicist in the sense that his seem to perceive a body of land afloat on depict “objects placed on walls at differ- compositions are distinguished by a for- an ocean, while the circular shapes that ent periods in history, to worship, deco- mal austerity that plays off against his grace many of Escala’s paintings invariably rate, inform or communicate.” In each of gestural paint handling to create dynamic suggest either suns or moons. Yet each of Rygh’s paintings, images and symbols spatial tensions. Thus his paintings are these elements is so integral to the inhabit compositions that often have the endowed with a sense of contained energy painterly vocabulary of Giovanni Escala weathered appearance of ancient parch- that considerably enhances their innate that we cannot finally name it; each is a ment scrolls or tablets. Calendars with vitality. unique manifestation of the artist’s per- dates crossed out are a recurring motif, Although also driven by an exuberant sonal vision and must finally be regarded along with vertical lines intersected by painterly impulse, the canvases of Justo as a discrete creation. diagonal marks. By these devices, Astri Osuna are primarily concerned with lush All five of these gifted artists bring Eidgeth Rygh gives the sense of a prison- effusions of color that approximate, but something distinctively his own into con- er biding time in a cell, suggesting both do not imitate, elements of landscape and temporary painting, so each must be the fleeting nature of time, as we measure nature, even though the artist acknowl- taken for his own merits in an art world it by the days of our lives, and its larger, edges his natural inspiration with titles in where national boundaries are rapidly van- more eternal truths. which the word “Floral” is often promi- ishing, or at very least becoming irrele- ––Sheldon Oster nent. All the same, it is the energy and vant. At the same time, it is important to essence of nature that Osuna strives to recognize that every artist, no matter how capture, a sense of the process of natural modern or postmodern, retains traces of

24 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Hierholzer’s Industrial Dreamscapes hile it has long been fashionable for poem “Patterson,” the acrylic paintings of Wartists to rail against technology, Joan Hierholzer prove that beauty, as the decrying its dehumanizing effect and other old saw states, truly is in the eye of the supposed evils, Joan Hierholzer is as capti- beholder. vated by its romance today as the Futurists By her ability to ennoble sites that others were in the relative infancy of the machine might consider eye-sores, making us see in the early nineteenth century. Further- them anew, Hierholzer accomplishes one of more, viewer be warned: Hierholzer’s the most difficult tasks of art: that metamor- enchantment with technology is quite phosis by which the commonplace, even the contagious in her exhibition of acrylic ugly, takes on a visionary gleam, an unantici- paintings, “Age of Marvels,” at The pated glamour. Part of her success in this is National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park due to her technical proficiency in evoking Joan Hierholzer, “Bloomation” South, from September 16 through 29 atmospheres that provoke an epiphany in (reception Wednesday, September 19th, the viewer. She employs acrylic paint almost “Bloomation,” for example, the piece de from 6 to 8 PM). in the manner of watercolor, in luminous resistance is a fanciful white bird perched The show, which includes Hierholzer’s semi-transparent washes that overlay her contentedly in a scrubby tree amid a variety large, panoramic mural, “The Refinery,” forms like diaphanous colored veils, suggest- of structures that loom like ominously spi- recently acquired by the Zimmerli Art ing ethereal shifts of light, imbuing her dery poles and towers straight out of some Museum for the permanent NAWA collec- industrial landscapes with a sense of time, as science fiction setting. An even more deso- tion, develops the artist’s themes of indus- well as space. late vista is transformed in “Wireless try, science, fusion, space, and landscape. In this regard, the allusive, even haunting, Spires,” where the mundane structures of These themes are skillfully interwoven in her atmospheric magic that Hierholzer creates the title become a distant fairy tale city. dreamlike compositions, where turbines, can only be compared to that in the paint- Equally fanciful are “Power Cones,” a pyramids, space capsules, homes, and other ings of the late great Chinese American dynamic juxtaposition of modern towers elements are seen in atmospheric imaginary watercolorist Dong Kingman. Just as and ancient pyramids and “World Tree,” landscapes with a decidedly unearthly quali- Kingman could capture the hidden poetry where not even the presence of three struc- ty. of a berubbled street at the foot of the tures that look like industrial dumpsters ruin Those who have traveled by train or auto- Brooklyn Bridge, so can Hierholzer unveil a rapturously pastoral landscape. mobile through the industrial areas of New the underlying lyricism of utilitarian man- Indeed, Joan Hierholzer demonstrates an Jersey and other parts of the United States, made structures imposed on a once-virgin imaginative freedom, along with a consider- perhaps holding their noses to shut out the landscape. Hierholzer alone seems capable able gift for for form and color, that makes noxious odors and gazing ruefully at some of convincing us that this can constitute a her work not only magically allusive but also of the sights to be glimpsed there, may be compatible marriage of visually harmonious formidable in formal terms. amazed at the poetry and the beauty that entities, rather than an unconscionable act Hierholzer manages to perceive in such of corporate rape! ––Lawrence Downes places. Like William Carlos Williams’ epic In the acrylic on canvas entitled Kumi Ito Evokes Childhood Magic the antic energy that animates Ito’s paint- shaped kites, cavort in swarms under a ings in gouache and acrylic. brightly blooming cherryblossom tree, or “My idea,” Ito says, “is to create a world splash each other good-naturedly with buck- in which my viewers are released from their ets of water. Occasionally, they even engage tightly constrained feelings, a place in which in more elegant and stately activities, staging we can play together.” tea ceremonies or placing dolls on altars on Indeed, the most active elements of her the traditional holiday known as “Girl’s Day.” compositions are swarms of children, often More often, though, Ito’s colorful paint- in the company of beautiful young women ings and considerably more elaborative dec- in colorful traditional costumes that have orative screens rival the peasant festivals of not changed significantly since Hishikawa Brueghel for their boisterous charms. Kumi Ito, gouache on paper Moronobu painted his similarly populous Yet, there is also an element of pure fairy rowing up in a small village in Japan, panoramas during the Edo period. tale fantasy to her pictures, as seen in one Gwhere traditional games, crafts, and Like Moronobu, Ito began her creative lovely composition of kids in pure white festivals still flourished, made a lasting career as a fabric designer, and it is in his kimonos playing pattycake within the petals impression on Kumi Ito, whose solo show great tradition that this gifted contemporary of gigantic flowers or another beautiful was recently seen at Cast Iron Gallery, artist continues. At the same time, Ito image of graceful young women floating 159 Mercer Street, in Soho. updates the tradition with her singularly freely in space, scattering delicate pink petals Think first of Hokusai’s swarming market innocent sensibility: Rather than painting from baskets, while grinning children scenes; then add to their antic intricacy the racy scenes of swaggering samurai and fash- employ wisps of white pollen as parachutes. vibrant color and meticulous execution of ionable young ladies flirting, dancing, and Painted in meticulous, hard-edged detail Indian miniatures; now mix in an element roistering gaily in town squares, Ito lends in vibrant primary hues, often unfolding of the hermetic obsessiveness that we see in equal energy and animation to the more against luminous gold or ochre grounds, the paintings of the American “outsider” innocent carousings of children. Her Kumi Ito’s pictures are radiant visions that, artist Henry Darger (albeit with all the dark plump, round-faced kids clamor aboard fes- for all their celebration of Japanese culture, perversity replaced by sunlit innocence) tive parade floats or carts filled with colorful evoke an idyllic fantasy realm that is finally ––and perhaps you will have some idea of flowers. They soar through the air on fish- universal. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 25 Hilda Green Demsky “New Naturist” the title of her new solo exhibition some of her best opportunities to schema- “Existence Sprang Forth,” which can be tize nature in near-cubistic terms in paint- seen at Pleiades Gallery, 530 West 25th ings such as “The River of Life” and Street, from September 25th through “Colorful Canyon.” In the former compo- October 13th. The opening reception is sition, the winding movement of the water Saturday, September 29 from 3 to 5 PM. over boulders and between larger rocks And Demsky may cast some light on the conveys the symbolic meaning of the title issues raised above in the “Artist’s with a strong visual metaphor put forth Dialogue” that will take place at the gallery with haiku-like succinctness; in the latter, on Thursday, October 4, from 5 to 7 PM. the majestic sweep of the craggy peaks, The paintings, however, speak eloquently limned in muscular strokes, creates a com- for themselves, as seen in the large oil on pressed composition bursting with quiet “Rock City” canvas,“Rock City,” where Demsky displays internal energy. her ability to depict the movement of a The rugged beauty of Demsky’s land- ilda Green Demsky, a much exhibited waterfall, capturing the thrust of the tor- scapes can be favorably compared to earlier Hpainter whose awards include a rents convincingly, even while locking all American artists such as Marsden Hartley, Fulbright Fellowship and a grant from the the elements in place in a composition as Georgia O’Keeffe, and Arthur Dove, who National Endowment for the Arts, takes air-tight as a Cezanne. While inspired by extracted vital essences from nature and inspiration directly from nature, and partic- the landscape Demsky never allows its ener- reorganized them in compositions that ularly from certain areas of the western and gy to sweep her off course. Her apparent often hovered between the real and the northern United States. Yet, her forceful mission is to capture the underlying forces abstract. Since Demsky is a postmodern oils are also related to the visionary abstrac- of nature and contain them in a composi- painter, however, it seems more accurate to tions of Gregory Amenoff and Bill Jensen. tion that translates those innately chaotic classify her as a New Naturist, for to paint In part, this has to do with the subjects that forces into a coherent visual statement. She landscapes today is a much more radical Demsky gravitates toward: craggy canyons, succeeds admirably in “Rock City,” where enterprise than it was in the early nine- exploding geysers, bubbling mudpots, the various elements of the composition–– teenth century. And Hilda Green Demsky ancient volcanos, and other aspects of the rectangular shape of the sheer wall of does so with a skill, passion, and conviction nature that tend to bring out the visionary water, the more rounded contours of the that makes her work a natural wonder in its tendencies in even an avowed realist. surrounding foliage and rocks, and the less own right. Indeed, the deliberately phenomenologi- regular shapes of the gushing white ––Feliks Karoly cal bent of Demsky’s work is expressed in foam––are at once schematized and vital. Rock formations provide Demsky with •CLASSIFIED•CLASSIFIED•CLASSIFIED•CLASSIFIED•CLASSIFIED• COMPETITIONS WEST SIDE ARTS COALITION welcomes SERVICES INTERNATIONAL JURIED EXHIBITION. members from all areas. Visual arts exhibits, ADVISORY SERVICE / CONSULTATIONS "Manifestations: Form & Function", theater events, multi-media opportunites. to assist ARTISTS and COLLECTORS - Exhibition Dec. 6 - Jan. 5., A call for mature, Phone: 212-316-6024 e-mail: Artists: in career management, publicity and dynamic artists who create functional fine art [email protected] promotion, resume and grant writing, and objects. Slide Deadline: Oct. 20. For publicity and installation (212) 647-7030; prospectus, SASE to Denise Bibro Fine Art, FOR RENT Consultations to Collectors: for 529 W. 20th St., New York, NY 10011. GALLERY FOR RENT • Upper West Side, art placement, art appraisals, estate sales, art well equipped, by week, street level. 212-874- installation (212) 647-7030. 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26 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Sung Mo Cho: A Korean Artist’s Highway Songs

“Along the Road II,” Acrylic on Canvas Sung Mo Cho’s solo show is on view at Pleiades Gallery, 530 West 25th St., from Sept 4 thru 22.

lthough the Beat writer Jack Kerouac take on nature is decidedly surreal. The Of all the paintings in Sung Mo Cho’s Aand the Pop painter Allen right side of the composition, meticulous “Along the Road” series perhaps the most D’Archangelo have both celebrated the in technique as all of Cho’s paintings are, suggestive and in many ways most intrigu- mythic American highway in their respec- depicts a seemingly infinite highway weav- ing is the square shaped acrylic on canvas tive mediums, some of the most vivid ing between tall rows of trees. But the entitled “Along the Road––S,” in which evocations of the road have been created most amazing element is the sky, where a the image of a sexy young nude striking a by foreign-born artists gazing upon that weird canopy of clouds with inner shad- seductive pin-up pose and two mysteri- unique and gaudy wonder with fresh eyes. ows shaped like myriad craggy peaks in a ously masked faces appear in the upper Witness, for two excellent examples, the Chinese landscape scroll looms mysteri- right hand corner. Here, too, the symbol- neon-splashed highway passages in the ously, forming a phenomenal portal of ic highway borders wind sinuously around Russian emigre novelist Vladimir cumuli through which we see a more or a variety of other images, including those Nobokov’s “Lolita,” and transplanted less normal stretch of stratosphere. Asian-style mountain peaks; petroglyphic British painter David Hockney’s many Stylized Asian mountain peaks also appear symbols of birds, deer, and fish; a gnarled long and winding California vistas. in a small area on the upper left side of Bonsai-like tree in a verdant field under No artist in recent memory, however, the painting, while a larger area below gathering clouds, and the yellow peering has captured the metaphysical aspects of contains a sideways image of slender win- eyes of two blue cats. The cumulative the view from behind the wheel from ter trees. In a manner that could be effect of these images (the juxtaposition quite as unique a perspective as the termed cinematic, the three sections of of the nude woman and masked faces Korean born painter Sung Mo Cho, the composition, separated by swooping recalling aspects of Stanley Kubrick’s final whose solo exhibition can be seen at grey borders with a white line down the film “Eyes Wide Shut”) is to hint at the Pleiades Gallery, 530 West 25 Street, from middle that suggest an aerial view of a adventures and casual trysts that can September 4 to 22. highway, appear to transcend time and occur far from home––or at very least, the For one thing, Cho introduces the space. Remarkably, these metaphysical opportunities for fantasy that being delicate poetry of the Asian landscape juxtapositions all occur on a canvas not removed from one’s normal life by travel tradition into the equation, letting much larger than an Indian miniature, the can afford. Eastern aesthetics collide head-on with intimate scale adding to the somewhat In these and other paintings, Sung Mo raw Western banality. Yet his view, while disconcerting beauty of the picture. Cho gives us the odd juxtapositions of intriguingly skewed, is anything but The use of a symbolic highway as a nature and man-made elements that make vulgar. border to separate disparate images is modern life so innately surreal. With bril- Working in acrylics or mixed media on employed just as effectively in a larger liant colors and images that become visual canvas, Cho creates compositions in acrylic on canvas called “Along the Road metaphors for the restless modern spirit, which the road and its natural surround- II.” Here, these borders flow between he chronicles the journey of a Korean ings take on an unearthly beauty. One of glimpses of graceful, golden autumnal immigrant in America from the first his most impressive paintings in this trees; a full moon set like a jewel in a bril- tremors of culture schock along the lone- regard is the acrylic on canvas entitled liant red sky, and misty blue skyscrapers some highway to the mirror at the end of “Along the Road––Nature,” where Cho’s that loom like some distant Oz. the road. ––Ed McCormack

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 27 Spain, The United States, and Korea: Three Cultures, Three Painters urora Shakespeare, Norma B. Heisler, composition with an underlying abstract when “postmodern” is often used as an Aand Ke-Won Lee, come from different power. This was Aurora Shakespeare’s first excuse to cease experimenting. parts of the world and have diverse aesthetic New York exhibition and it was an auspi- At Montserrat, Ke-Won Lee used geomet- approaches. Yet, their three recent solo cious debut indeed. ric forms, modular sequences, and mono- shows at Montserrat Gallery, 584 Broadway, Norma B. Heisler is an American artist chromatic colors to express what he refers to made for complementary contrasts. who began her career in 1958 and has been as the “intrinsic common features in all Aurora Shakespeare was born in Manila, exhibiting at Montserrat Gallery since 1997. human beings”––even while it is the differ- Philippines, of Chinese parents, but lives A noted psychotherapist as well as an artist, ences between individuals and cultures that and works in Majorca Spain. Over the Heisler’s recent paintings are essentially are more commonly stressed. course of her career she has evolved from an abstract. At the same time, they suggest Toward this end, this adamantly avant abstract minimalist style to figurative radiant visions of light streaming through garde and much respected innovator imagery. clouds and other transcendent natural showed a grouping of small, monochromat- Shakespeare’s acrylic on canvas, “Two imagery. Titles such as “Blizzard,” “Storm ic paintings in plain wood frames. Their Women,” is an especially bold composition Clouds,” “Mediation,” and “Warming impassive surfaces were devoid of incident, in a perfectly square format. One woman Spirits” simultaneously suggest outer per- yet their precise arrangement on the wall sleeps, while the other is awake, watching ceptions of nature and inner states of mind. created austere yet complex spatial tensions. her. A scarlet sheet flows over their nude It is the forces of nature, its underlying Also outstanding were gridded compositions bodies against a brilliant orange back- essences and energies, rather than the objec- centering on the interplay of rectangular ground. They share a bed but could also tive appearances of clouds or ocean waves, shapes and primary colors, as well as another appear to be floating freely in space, their that Norma B. Heisler evokes with such intriguing minimalist painting suspended sensually rounded forms limned in warm tan stunning power. That her paintings are as from the gallery’s ceiling. and ochre hues. intriguing in formal terms as they are emo- All revealed the uncompromising aesthetic In “The Pool,” another powerful painting tionally evocative makes them doubly com- that has made Ke-Won Lee one of Korea’s by Shakespeare, a sinuous nude reclines like pelling. most celebrated artists over the past decade, a living arabesque on a dark red blanket The Korean artist Ke-Won Lee necessi- culminating in a prestigious exhibition at beside a swimming pool filled with lumi- tates the coining of a new term: conceptual The National Museum of Contemporary nous blue water, the juxtaposition of the abstractionist. He is an artist with an abiding Art, in Seoul. organic and geometric shapes bolstering the faith in the avant garde impulse in an era ––Maureen Flynn Varied Pleasures: From the Everyday to the Metaphysical welcome relief from self-conscious self vicarious adventures of childhood, even as orange magnificence over a body of water. Areferential art was seen in the recent we savor his pictures for their more painterly On closer inspection, however, one can exhibition of septuagenarian Swiss artist pleasures. enjoy the vigorous yet controlled brush Germain Chassot, at Montserrat Gallery , Equally commendable, in a time when work that lends Rob Duvall’s paintings their 584 Broadway. too many galleries place a premium on subtle power. Chassot’s sophisticated primitive canvases youth, was Montserrat’s decision to show Cristina Hoyos, an artist from Colombia, celebrate the simple things in life with an another brilliant French painter of advanced is a postmodern surrealist who explores the affection that is contagious. At the same years: the abstract artist Emile Mariotti. In theme of the “witness” through the ubiqui- time his detailed scenes of peasant farmers, his “Catharsis” series, Mariotti compels tous image of a mysterious eye in the sky card games in cozy family parlors and other one’s attention with swirling forms and fiery that appears in many of her paintings and folksy subjects have real aesthetic merit. hues that project a remarkable sense of ener- collages. Hoyos’ compositions are visionary Combining the rustic charm that we see in gy. These canvases truly are cathartic, with journeys, depicting fragmented figures in the masters of Yugoslavian folk painters like their rhythmic, vortex-like compositions of metaphysical spaces in luminous colors that Milo Kovacic with the innate formal fractured planes and shard-like forms that enhance their rarefied, dreamlike imagery. qualities more common to French naifs suggest exploded cubism. The paintings of The addition of organic materials, such as such as Rousseau and Bambois, the Emile Mariotti share qualities in common leaves, in some of her smaller mixed media paintings of Germain Chassot possess the with the work of both Jackson Pollock and works adds to the poetry that makes unique healing power of an uncorrupted Lee Krasner, yet the work of this mature Cristina Hoyos an appealing and compelling pictorial imagination. master also has an easel-scale intimacy and a painter of personal dreamscapes. Among several other refreshing interna- European finesse that sets it apart, in a class The Texas-born artist Robert Holsch also tional talents recently encountered in the by itself. made an impressive showing at Montserrat same Soho venue was the ninety year old Speaking of intimacy, few artists bring to Gallery with abstract carved wood sculp- French painter Jean-Claude Chertier, who the small picture as much compressed tures distinguished by a remarkable formal specializes in picturesque marine scenes that power as Rob Duvall, an American artist unity. Holsch has a real way with sensual hark back to a long-gone era of galleons and whose paintings are not much bigger than organic forms, which he enhances texturally conquistadors. Blustery gales, billowing sails, postcards, yet convey the vast grandeur of with a tactile carving technique, using his and rough seas lend Chertier’s pictures a waterfalls, mountains and other landscape chisel like a painter employs brush strokes, charm comparable to reading a romantic subjects. At first glance one could mistake to energize the surfaces of his pieces, which seafaring novel. Chertier paints clipper ships Duvall’s pictures for color photographs, so often combine continuously flowing, sensual and similar subjects with a conviction that accurate is their depiction of light, especially forms with sharper, more abrupt shapes. transports the viewer, making us relive the in one little gem of a sunset spilling its ––Andrew Loomis

28 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Hartsock, Dupoux, and Sant’Anna: Reality’s Many Faces hree woman artists with diverse ethnic “Selfconversation,” small silhouetted blue Tbackgrounds and distinctly different and red figures swirl around the larger fig- approaches to representation were featured ure of a woman, encircling her head like a in the recent exhibition “Faces of Reality,” halo and surrounding her from all sides. at Agora Gallery, 560 Broadway. The most The picture comments on how we become realistic approach could be seen in the oils prisoners of our memories. In these, and of Carol Hartsock, an artist of mixed other colorful and boldly composed canvas- European and Native American ancestry, es, Marithou Dupoux creates warmly presently living and working in Seattle, who humanistic and enduring statements intend- refers to herself as a “hostage to faces.” ed to counteract the grim, often violent, Hartsock started painting portraits in Hong political realities that plague her country. Kong, where she lived from 1984 until Carla Sant’Anna, an artist from Rio de 1991. She has also traveled extensively Janeiro, Brazil, living and working in Los throughout Asia, where she has encoun- Angeles since 1998, paints luminous, often tered many faces that have inspired some of pensive, images of women in a style that her best work, such as the smiling young incorporates elements of Art Deco. In a woman in vibrantly patterned garb in “Thai manner akin to that of Tamara Lempicka, Girl,” and the handsome grandma, framed but in colors considerably more intense, by a bamboo window and holding a small Sant’Anna employs smoothly painted areas child, in “Nipa Hut.” of shading to highlight the sensual contours Hartsock has also created insightful por- of her beautiful female figures. Their melan- Carol Hartsock, “Pride of America” traits from subjects closer to home, as seen choly poses enhance their sultry appeal, as in “Pride of America,” an oil on canvas Gothic.” they daydream like the young woman in the depicting a senior farmer at work. Wearing a Although the best known art from her brilliant red robe gazing longingly from her bright blue baseball cap and plaid shirt with country is folkloric, the Haitian painter window in “Watching the World Go By,” red suspenders, he perches on the seat of Marithou Dupoux creates sophisticated one of Sant’Anna’s most beautiful and what one assumes is a tractor, from the semi-abstract figurative compositions that affecting oils on canvas. machine parts visible in the severely cropped nevertheless retain elements of her heritage. Like the other two women artists with composition, with which he almost appears In “Once Upon a Time, Freedom,” for whom she was paired in this impressive to merge. With a weathered shed and a row example, a little girl clutching a doll is set showcase exhibition at Agora Gallery, Carla of tall trees behind him, he also appears to against various signs, symbols, and simplified Sant’Anna is a painter with a distinctive style merge just as thoroughly with the land that human and animal figures painted in a style and world view. Indeed, all three artists he works daily. Gazing frankly at the viewer that combines African influences with the demonstrate that reality has as many faces as from his elevated position, he is a figure as colors and bold forms of the Fauves. there are artists to celebrate them. quintessential as the couple in “American In another acrylic on canvas called ––Joyce Morrow Levy Hilda Green Demsky “Existence Sprang Forth” ART CLASSES IN COLLAGE For both artists and non-artists who wish to learn the joy of collage and working with mixed media; emphasis is on a sense of play and discovery and the use of multiple techniques that incorporate basic principles of art. Classes to be held in the relaxed atmosphere of the home and studio of the teacher. Christine Graf has been working as an artist for 30 years; with 17 years experience in collage, assemblage and sculpture. Her work has been exhibited in both museums and galleries in the U.S. and Europe. For information call: Christine Graf (212) 535-7352.

Sept. 25 - Oct. 13, 2001 Reception: Sat., Sept. 29 3 - 5 pm GALLERY&STUDIO Thurs., Oct. 4 5-7 Artist’s Dialogue: 217 E. 85th Street PMB 228, NYC 10028 530 West 25th St, 212 861-6814 4th Fl, NYC 10001 646-230-0056 e-mail: [email protected] For subscription information, see pg. 35. Tues-Sat 11-6pm & by appointment

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 29 A Gemlike Survey of Thiebaud’s Kandy-Kolored Mastery

“Reservoir” 1999 Oil on board 9 1/4" x 17 1/4" hile it can be a daunting task for a from hovering angles that lend them an ostensibly Pop painting in the exhibition, Wshow in a private gallery to compete unearthly quality. One of the most spec- resembled nothing so much as a fanciful with a retrospective in a major museum, tacular of these is the panoramic oil tree blooming with Thiebaud’s own pecu- the strength of the recent show of paint- “River Boats,” with its strident yellow and liar produce. ––J. Sanders Eaton ings by Wayne Thiebaud at Allan Stone peach-colored land masses set off by the Gallery, 113 East 90th Street, was its inti- piquant accent of a single sailboat afloat macy. Although the exhibition at The on a lime-green body of water. Whitney (which can still be seen through A smaller landscape from 1999, September 23) offers a comprehensive “Reservoir,” in a somewhat more roman- overview of this important American real- tic vein akin to that of Bill Pellicone, a ist’s career, the show at Allan Stone was lesser known painter who has also shown curated with a jeweler’s eye for the subtle at Allan Stone, demonstrates Thiebaud’s pleasures that make Thiebaud’s work so willingness, unusual in an artist of his special. stature, to take whatever risks are neces- Among its delightful surprises was sary to keep his vision fresh. He obviously “Butcher,” a 1998 oil on board in which likes to surprise himself and is secure the tiny figure of the title is seen at a deli enough in his overall vision to let each counter where glass enclosed display cases picture go exactly where it wants to go. offer several signature Thiebaud food Thus, it was possible for Thiebaud to paintings in miniature. Equally unusual rework an older painting such as “Two were “Receptionist” and “Sales Girl,” two Players (1978-2001)” without forcing it other small oils from the same year, in to conform to his most recent mode. In which Thiebaud’s handling of a single fact, the broadly generalized forms and female figure in an interior illuminates his frenetic brushwork in this fairly large oil kinship with that other great American on canvas of two scrimmaging athletes realist, Edward Hopper––particularly the hark back to Thiebaud’s origins in the latter’s austere office scenes. Yet, Bay Area Figurative School of the 1950s. Thiebaud demonstrates the zesty brush- Perhaps this painting was included to MARY FADER work and electric color that makes his make the point that Wayne Thiebaud was Recent Works work temperamentally antithetical to wrongly inducted into the Pop movement Hopper’s. to begin with––that his work was always Aug. 20 - Sept. 28, 2001 More typical of Thiebaud’s recent pre- all about painting for its own sake, rather occupations are the sweeping Western than about pies or other novel subject Jacob K. Javits Federal Building landscapes in which lollipop trees, fur- matter. In fact, there were no confec- 26 Federal Plaza, NY, NY rowed fields, and serpentine lakes and tionery paintings on view at Allan Stone, 212 264-9290 • 9 - 5 weekdays rivers are captured in kandy-kolored hues and even “Hat Stand (1999),” the most

30 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Judith Peck’s Amazons Confront the Towers of Midtown nless it is intended to make a provoca- Utive political or moral statement, most reasonable people would probably agree that sculpture installed in public spaces has a responsibility to edify rather than to oppress those citizens who come in casual contact with it in the course of going about their everyday activities in the city. All too often, however, the opposite is true: The anti- humanistic scale and aggressiveness of much public sculpture is such that at worst it pro- vokes either hostility or outrage and at best it is met with indifference. Happily, this is not the case with the four large steel sculptures by Judith Peck installed in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, at 47th Street and Second Avenue through February 12, 2002. Indeed, like the late great former Secretary General of the United Nations for whom the plaza is named, Judith Peck’s sculptures are exemplary for their diploma- cy; not only do they occupy space agreeably but they make great strides toward ending the long Cold War between the general public and High Art. To a good extent, this is because Peck, a widely exhibited artist with work in the col- lections of several major museums, as well as a Professor of Art at Ramapo University, in New Jersey, creates sculptures that ingratiate rather than alienate viewers of diverse aesthetic persuasions by virtue of her ability to combine monumental form with upbeat themes. Not that Peck cannot be satirical or provocative when she so chooses, as anyone will recall who saw her show last year at Fordham University, Lincoln Center. That show, in an academic setting, included elements or eroticism as well as affecting social statements in pieces with titles such as “Appalachia” and “Refugees.” In her present installation at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, however, Peck presents four monumental sculptures of zaftig female figures whose cheery presence can be favorably compared to the “Nana” figures Judith Peck’s “Seated Woman Red” Welded steel 5' x 4' x 8' of Nikki St. Phalle. Indeed, like that distin- www.judithpeck.com, 201-529-5105, [email protected] guished French artist’s sizable painted papier mache Amazons, Peck’s more formally for- thetic experience that the sculptures afford. inert. Indeed, the layered sheet-metal shapes midable and enduring welded steel sculp- Each of the much-larger-than-life figures in this piece have a rhythmic flow akin to tures make a feminist statement, however has its own unique appeal: “Seated Woman the calligraphic strokes of a Franz Kline lighthearted. For they are powerful images Red,” so named because it is painted a bril- or––perhaps even more appropriately––one of women with their curvaceous contours liant fire engine red, is especially exemplary of Willem de Kooning’s famous femmes. asserting a healthy classical alternative to the in terms of demonstrating Peck’s genius for Then there is “Reclining Woman–– Black, anorexic contemporary ideal put forth by formal abbreviations of human anatomy. Red & Yellow,” in which Peck combines fashion designers and fashion victims. Through a kind of formal alchemy, Peck can aspects of sculpture and drawing with the Judith Peck’s Big Beautiful Women make a flat sheet of metal suggest a crossed two dimensional cut-out figure of a majestic, appear to luxuriate in their full-bodied femi- leg, complete with knee, calf and foot, by serenely reposeful female nude, her salient ninity and could conceivably empower virtue of its precise placement in the context features delineated in a spare, sinuous line. working women to take proper nourishment of the rest of the figure. Like Judith Peck’s other sculptures, without guilt when they spend their lunch “Falling Woman,” on the other hand, is “Reclining Woman––Black,” asserts a hour in the plaza, an oasis in midtown with notable for the sense of gesture, movement, dynamic and uplifting human presence, comfortable benches and pleasantly bab- and buoyancy that Peck achieves in a medi- poised against midtown’s soaring glass bling fountains, which complement the aes- um that is, by its very nature, heavy and towers. ––Ed McCormack

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 31 Rehfeld, Rosic, and Vargas: From Lyricism to Funk teven H. Rehfeld, who earned his B.A. in some supernatural sense. paint aesthetic of graffiti to create lyrical Sin studio art from the University of The other paintings in Rehfield’s show, shadows and chromatic effects. California, in Santa Barbara, is the quintes- however, were abstract works in mixed Although one might make more obvious sential California artist, continuing the tradi- media on canvas in which subtle colors, comparisons to the color fields of Jules tion of Richard Diebenkorn, Frank Lobdell predominantly in the pink and blue range, Olitski and the ethereal shadow-elements in and others as a viable aesthetic enterprise for were combined with geometric forms and the paintings of Ed Ruscha, Paco Rosic the postmodern era. Like the Bay Area vigorous paint handling to create dynamic actually cites Claude Monet as an influence painters of the 1950s, Rehfeld seems to draw compositions anchored by strong spatial and it shows in the subtle refinement of this inspiration from the existential zeitgeist of tensions. gifted young painter’s work. the Abstract Expressionists, yet like them Another excellent recent exhibition at By contrast, Joe P. Vargas, another young too, he does not totally reject the figure. Montserrat Gallery featured the work of artist who had an impressive solo show at In fact, one of the most powerful paint- Paco Rosic, an artist born in Bosnia, who Montserrat Gallery in recent months, is a ings as well as the largest canvas in Rehfeld’s studied in Germany, where he became funkmeister in the tradition of Chicago’s recent solo show at Montserrat, 584 involved in the hip hop scene, joining a “Hairy Who” school. Vargas activates his Broadway, was “Roman Year 3001,” a mag- break dancing group called The Unique paintings with a wild visual wit that makes nificent oil of three nude figures in a land- Wizards, which toured all throughout them full of delightful surprises. Floating scape. Posed frontally as though in a neo- Europe. As we all know, the hip hop scene smiles, carrots, goldfish, and ladybugs are classical frieze, two of the figures are female and breakdancing have intimate connections combined with strong abstract color areas in and one is male. One of the female nudes is to graffiti art, and like Keith Haring and Vargas’ paintings, which have a freedom conspicuously missing an arm, giving her Kenny Scharf, when he took up painting comparable to Miro and Calder, two other the appearance of a statue from Rosic was able to bring that same youthful artists who created serious works without antiquity––an effect enhanced by the grey energy into a fine art context. However, giving the impression of taking themselves cast of all three figures. At the same time, Rosic has done so differently than his East too seriously. the casual, animated gestures of the figures, Village predecessors, creating radiant color It takes a lot of skill and self confidence to as well as their expressive eyes, complete field paintings in which the vitality of his hip paint as Joe P. Vargas does, combining with pupils, gives the scene a more meta- hop background is expressed more subtly imagistic free association with solid aesthetic physical quality, as though they are “living in his use of color as the main element in his qualities and making it all look rather off- statues” or mythical beings who are sentient light-filled canvases, which adopt the spray hand. ––Timothy Morrison Carmiah Frank Adds to a Great Tradition tarting with the work done by Julio Geometrics.” This work combines the SGonzalez in the late 1920s, welded steel “drawing in space” that David Smith adopt- was as important to the development of ed from Julio Gonzalez with Frank’s own modern sculpture as cubist collage was to idiosyncratic combination of geometric the evolution of modern painting. Although forms. These forms are simplified and fur- she also works in a range of materials that ther emboldened in the welded steel sculp- includes plaster, clay, terra cotta, bronze, ture “(In)stability,” where shapes that sug- aluminum, iron, concrete, wood, most gest a Russian Constructivist painting are recently the Jerusalem-born sculptor and developed in three dimensions. The mat collage artist Carmiah Frank has been mak- black surface of the piece enhances its for- ing her own contribution to the medium. mal dynamic. steel sculpture The impressive results were seen in Frank’s Then there is “Landscape,” where the recent solo show “Reconstructed Steel,” at basic vocabulary of circles and squares, on sense of exquisitely precarious balances, its New Century Artists, in its former address which Frank seems capable of working a flat, square outer forms poised around ar 168 Mercer Street. seemingly endless number of variations, is swirling circular shapes. The latter sculpture Fascinated by what she calls “the elusive, employed in a more horizontal format to is a more grounded configuration of circular uncaught moment of realization of interpre- suggest a fanciful abstract terrain. This is forms supported solidly on a flat base and tation and creation...that vast area that is one of those unique abstract tableaux like painted with a green hue that enhances its forever changing between the eye and the Giacometti’s early surrealist piece “The organic quality. mind,” Frank, who also works figuratively, Palace at 4 a.m.,” in which nonobjective Indeed, this organic quality is present to creates sculptures that adhere to the true forms are so freighted with allusiveness as to some degree in all of Frank’s recent steel meaning of abstraction as a representation take on unexpected meanings. Frank suc- sculptures, counterbalancing their geometric of essences. Her pieces combine formal ceeds admirably in creating a landscape like forms in a unique manner. She invariably integrity with a sense of nonspecific allusive- none that exists anywhere on earth, yet so adds rough elements, such as the jagged ness. evocative that, inexplicably, we feel we have edges on the flowing perforations with In “Wingless,” for example, there is the visited such a place. which she breaks up some of her flat square sense of an elemental human figure in the Frank’s sculptures, in this exhibition at shapes, offsetting their austerity with a tac- evocative vertical form, its rounded top sug- least, were relatively small, generally on the tile touch that hints at the warmth of the gesting a simplified head. Here, too, the scale of maquettes. Yet each is a fully real- human hand. rusted surface of the steel enhances the ized statement with a presence much larger At once complex and possessed of a pro- primitive thrust of the piece, which possesses than its actual size. This is especially true of found simplicity, the steel sculptures of a primal power akin to Precolumbian art. the two pieces entitled “Crisis” and Carmiah Frank add a significant personal A more complex arrangement of inter- “Greenhouse,” both of which have the mon- voice to the tradition with which all of mod- locking circular and rectangular shapes dis- umental feeling of massive public commissions. ern sculpture began. ––Byron Coleman tinguishes another piece entitled “Rusty The former piece is aptly named, with its 32 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Drama and Confrontation in the Photo-Paintings of Karl O. Orud he merger of painting and photography laged objects, newspaper clippings, and Tis a particularly postmodern phenome- other elements are combined with various non. Although Warhol, Rauschenberg, and mixed media mark-making techniques, others employed photographic imagery in including broadly brushed strokes, scrawls, the Pop era, it was the Austrian artist Arnulf and drips. These large canvases incorporate a Rainer who merged the two mediums most lively visual stew of gesture and imagery in a fully in his self-portrait photographs altered manner akin to the early work of with paint. It is this tradition that the Rauschenberg, as well as the funky post- Norwegian artist Karl O. Orud expands modern graffiti-based expressionism of upon with considerable panache in his solo Jean-Michel Basquiat. exhibition of works from his “Sport Series,” Most recently, however, in his “Sport at Agora Gallery, 560 Broadway. Series,” Orud has begun to use large, dra- Orud has racked up impressive credits in matically posed photographs of full-length his native country as both a painter and a figures as the central motif of his paintings. “Sports Series, picture no. 15” photographer, participating in some of These images of attractive young people more pensively with hand on chin; yet Norway’s most important exhibitions, as are repeated in a serial manner reminiscent another male, cloaked in a long black over- well as publishing several books of photog- of Andy Warhol in some works, while in coat, glares fiercely, while a third fellow raphy, painting, and poetry. The degrees to others, images of different male and female appears to skip gingerly across the green- which either photography or painting take models are juxtaposed. Unlike Warhol, how- streaked ground. By contrast, a somewhat center stage in his compositions varies great- ever, Orud also affixes various collage ele- starker composition is created with three ly from work to work. In “Aqueducts and ments and adds stenciled phrases to the live- connected images of the same young man, Polaroids,” for example, the painterly ly semiotic mix. wearing a black cap and a cloak that comes impulse dominates, with trompe l’oeil Clad in the basic black garb of contem- up over his chin, striking a mock-heroic images of fruit and small, scattered photo- porary chic, the models that Orud photo- pose against a salmon-colored ground. graphic elements placed like piquant accents graphs strike poses that suggest stills from Intense and confrontational, the “Sport in a vigorously brushed green field to which underground films or avant garde fashion Series” introduces an exciting element of a swift linear outline of a vase of flowers has ads. In one of the more intricate canvases, a performance art to painting, indicating that also been added. Here, as well as in related young blond woman stands with hands on Karl O. Orud is an innovative artist whose paintings, such as “Drommebildet” and hips, wearing a black dress, staring out defi- progress bears serious watching. “Days of Disasters,” an eclectic array of col- antly at the viewer; a young man regards us ––Dorothy K. Riordan The Uses of History, the Mystery of Invention in Four Soho Solos ithout a firm grounding in art history, vigorous painterly manner with stylized fig- his work, obviously gleaned from surrealism, Wevery artist would be a primitive, an ures , patterns, and other decorative ele- that make him a vital postmodern presence. outsider faced with the task of having to ments creating a pleasing yet strong artistic In one of McKinley’s best paintings, the fig- invent the art of painting from scratch. How statement. ure of a man inhabits a desert-like, moon-lit contemporary artists learn from the past and In the best tradition of artists who create space where a rectangular area replicates his assimilate those lessons into their own per- their own rarefied worlds, Katia Buteau own image. Within that image is yet another sonal styles was made clear recently in the Zucker’s women could perhaps most accu- mirror-image of the same scene, and one work of four painters seen in concurrent rately be described as “paint nymphs,” can only assume that the replication contin- solo shows at Montserrat Gallery, 584 inhabiting an eternal realm of feminine lan- ues ad infinitum. Like Magritte, Dali, and Broadway. guor, grace, and beauty. other masters of surrealism, McKinley makes Katia Buteau Zucker revealed herself to be Italian artist Fabiana Yvonne Lugli the painting work by virtue of his ability to an artist with a freewheeling approach to the Martinez is a painter who seems vitally in create a self-contained private world with its figure and color. While her way of merging touch with the basic forces of nature as a own natural laws. the forms of a voluptuous female figure and direct inspiration, yet at the same time The small, intense, exquisitely condensed a bass fiddle owes something to Picasso, her nature is transformed in her work in a man- abstract paintings of Pilar Marquez can be vibrant color and paint handling are much ner akin to certain paintings by Paul Klee. compared to the work of Georgia O’Keefe more in the spirit of Matisse. Buteau Zucker In Lugli Martinez’s painting “Estate for their sense of organic mystery, as well as has also assimilated elements of the Japanese Tropicale,” for one example, the almost flu- their impressive formal integrity. Marquez is print into her considerable painterly vocabu- orescent colors and organic plant forms something of an anomaly among contempo- lary as seen in “Passion,” in which a pair of project a sense of intense sunlight, reflecting rary artists, a painter of intimate formal lovers were entwined as one. Here, as in the natural world in a composition that is compositions in which simple forms, often other paintings, Buteau also showed quali- essentially abstract. This imaginative circular swirls, and luminous colors create a ties akin to Egon Schiele. Like that artist, approach enables her to create undersea poetic sense of harnessed natural forces. In she combines solid aesthetic virtues with a scenes, as well as works influenced by land- a time when so much new art is sensational sense of ornamentation that sometimes scape, lending to each the unique qualities but superficial, the work of an introspective, verges on the baroque. She employs these of her inner world. consummately serious painter such as Pilar lessons from the masters effectively to create Daniel P. McKinley paints figures in land- Marquez is to be treasured. paintings that bear the stamp of her own scapes and interiors in a bold semi-realistic ––Maurice Taplinger distinctive sensibility, applying pigment in a manner, but it is the metaphysical aspects of SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 33 The Rhapsodic Urban Epiphanies of Charles E. Murphy

he art critic John Russell referred to TNew York City as “one of the supreme subjects of our century,” and certainly this is borne out by the sheer number of painters, poets, novelists, photographers, and filmmakers who have striven over the years to evoke its energy and mystery. With predecessors like Walt Whitman, Henry “Empire State at Dusk”, Oil on Linen 36" x 58" James, and Edward Hopper, the contem- streets, wondering anew at familiar land- another nocturnal scene so picturesque it porary painter Charles E. Murphy is in marks, Murphy’s brush caresses them, might scare off a less intrepid painter. good company. And Murphy does it making their moods, moments, and myriad Murphy, however, turns this vibrant vision proud, capturing the light, weather, and fleeting qualities even more immutable in of rain-slick, light-reflecting gutters and local color of the city with the skill and the time honored medium of oil on linen. glowing office towers into something as sensitivity of a latter day John Constable, in One of the particular pleasures in fluid, fresh, and finally funky as a Charlie his latest solo show of “New York Murphy’s art is his ability to breathe new life Parker saxophone solo. Underlying the Impressions,” at Rochester Big & Tall, into subjects that many others have attempt- painting’s poetically allusive qualities and 67 Wall Street, from September 29 ed before him, sidestepping cliches and tran- unashamed beauty are the abstract virtues through November 3. (There will be a scending banality by virtue of his superior that make all of Murphy’s paintings suc- reception for the artist on Thursday, painterly gifts. Of special interest in this ceed as strong, thoroughly contemporary October 11, from 5 to 7 PM.) regard is the oil on linen entitled “Empire formal statements. That an upscale men’s clothing store can State at Dusk,” where the grandaddy of Indeed, whether seen in an exhilarating also serve as a serious art venue is itself modern skyscrapers is seen silhouetted snow scene such as “Flatiron in Winter,” indicative of what makes the cultural capi- against a vast expanse of early evening stra- or in the meditation on stark contrasts of tal of the world so unique. No one appre- tocumuli, giving way further down to lumi- light and shadow on nondescript buildings ciates this specialness more than Charles E. nous streaks of orange. Beyond the Empire that is “Old Fulton Street,” or in the Murphy, whose newest Manhattan epipha- State Building’s majestic spire, its needle moody confrontation of pregnant clouds nies are some of his most magical to date. piercing the uppermost clouds, a particularly and stagnant water called “East River Like that quintessential New York strident streak of yellow light ignites the Morning,” it is this combination of poetry auteur, Woody Allen, Charles E. Murphy is tops of more distant towers, making them and formal power that makes Charles E. an artist whose love of the city permeates appear as though touched by a torch trailed Murphy one of our most consistently his every picture. Just as gracefully as along the skyline. rewarding urban realists. Woody’s camera waltzes through the city’s Equally rhapsodic is “Night Lights,” ––Andrew Loomis

“Age of Marvels” paintings by Joan Hierholzer

Sept. 16-29, 2001 Reception: Wed., Sept. 19th, 6-8 pm The National Arts Club 15 Gramercy Park South, NYC 10003 Mon-Fri 10-5, Sat-Sun 12-5 (212) 475-3424

34 GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 12

Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, Inc. 105th Annual Exhibition October 4 - 26, 2001 Daily 1 - 5 pm Preview Reception: October 5, 5:30 - 8:30 pm

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National Arts Club 15 Gramercy Park South, NYC

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 GALLERY&STUDIO 35 ANNE BACHELIER New Paintings “Le regard de la conteuse” 2001 Oil on Canvas 8 1/4" x 11" on Canvas 2001 Oil de la conteuse” “Le regard October 12 thru November 4, 2001 CFM Gallery 112 Greene Street, SoHo, New York City 10012 (212) 966-3864 Fax (212) 226-1041 Monday thru Saturday 11am to 6pm Sunday Noon to 6pm [email protected] www.art~smart.com/cfm/

GALLERY&STUDIO SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001