| Mindy Shapero spins an exquisite narrative web. She creates an alternative, quirky, personal universe, imbued with a dark undertow that at any moment threatens to engulf us. Her objects are both familiar and strange, residing somewhere within the realm of childhood fairytales, waking dreams and nightmares. “The Infinite Truth of Flatterland” presents four vividly colored paintings on paper, and five sculptures—labor-intensive to a fault. Her formal methods—if they can be called that—emerge out of her rich and inspired fantasy life, enriched by her integration of 20th century sources such as Dada and Surrealism (among others) which she transforms into her own personal language. |
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The Infinite Truth of Flatterland – E.K. Clark
Mindy Shapero spins an exquisite narrative web. She creates an alternative, quirky, personal universe, imbued with a dark undertow that at any moment threatens to engulf us. Her objects are both familiar and strange, residing somewhere within the realm of childhood fairytales, waking dreams and nightmares.
“The Infinite Truth of Flatterland” presents four vividly colored paintings on paper, and five sculptures—labor-intensive to a fault. Her formal methods—if they can be called that—emerge out of her rich and inspired fantasy life, enriched by her integration of 20th century sources such as Dada and Surrealism (among others) which she transforms into her own personal language.
Consider, for example, the drawings: visceral, textured heads or magical masks that confront us as totemic presences. The extended title (of the black, yellow, blue, red and silver one) reads: Ghosthead guide that will bring you to the Ghosthead god, you can only visualize the guide when you have entered a Monsterhead, and first have to be serene enough to be able to even see the monsterhead before you can wear one.
To many viewers these impossibly long titles may be off-putting and controlling. After all, simply diving into the work is rewarding enough. These works are riveting. For Mindy Shapero “more is more.” Her five sculptures—constructed of paper mache, mosaics, wood, metal, plastic and paint—elude the annoying narrative by organizing themselves into micro-universes. A huge red head, resembling a boulder, reclines on a sloping rectangular stand, propped up by a small gray wedge for balance. One portion of the head is covered with gold leaf while the stand is decorated with ceramic tile. This unexpected combination of materials and wacky details delight and jolt our perception.
piece, composed of six flat disks stacked and held up by curiously shaped wedges, comically alludes to process art and seems both to totter and spin out of control, while resting in perfect equilibrium. A 40-inch pyramid, covered with multi-colored striations and strange organic protrusions, refers to geological strata and life forces metastasizing before our eyes. Then again, the artist may be poking fun at the notion of geometric perfection, hence the pyramidal form gone awry.
The remaining two sculptures are less successful. One thousand miles of whats that always lead to here, constructed of mdf, acrylic and paper mache deals with drawing in an unusual way. A pile of organic twisted ribbons lie on, and are contrasted to, a sheet painted with straight black and white lines. That works. But the huge black stand that resembles a sarcophagus overwhelms the graceful rhythm of the piece. Finally, the biggest piece in the exhibition, 97” at its largest dimension, stands on three legs holding up a large black ball imbricated with thousands of painted pieces of paper. Dead in the water, the work lacks scale and is unnecessarily fussy. Mindy Shapero walks a precarious line between visionary invention and pretentious kitsch. Time will tell where she goes from here. This was a promising debut.
