April PICKS
Christopher Chambers
David Ellis, Granny (Drum Painting Project, Version 5.0), 2005 sign painters enamel on cow, deer, and sheep hide; modified welded pig sculpture by Denny Rollins; NYC subway tokens, coins, and bells; modified Vestax pdx 2000 record players; modified Rane tm 56 dj mixer; brass horn; amplifier; analog vinyl record; speakers; acrylic discs; vacuum motor; hide glue; gourds; rubber tubing and rubberized cloth; brass, copper, and steel; bellows and springs; wood and paint cans
There is little doubt that Christo and his wife are among the all time world’s greatest self promoters, right up there with Harry Houdini. Even a millionaire charlatan like Jeff Koons pales in comparison. But did anyone actually like The Gates? I heard it looked cool from the roof of the Met, but I didn’t make it up there. Well, who cares, anyway? It was kind of fun. By the way, do you know anyone who would be willing to advance me twenty mill for a public art project? I was thinking of painting the Statue of Liberty hot pink, or maybe doing something involving an enormous pile of feces. Some sort of grand gesture. Gold leaf Wall Street? We’ll sell posters to recoup…
So, is Williamsburg really over? That was the word when several galleries decamped this fall and set up shop in Chelsea. Something about a cancelled subway line did a lot of damage, but there’s still plenty going on out there. I, for one, was not acquainted with Jessica Murray Projects, until she hit Manhattan. I had heard the name, but never located the space, to my recollection. Currently she has up a solo exhibition of paintings in her new spot (in Chelsea, mais oui) by Beau Chamberlain. He avails himself to a good helping of currently popular painters’ mannerisms, such as the hallmark smooth surfaces that categorize much recent painting, along with the requisite hard, precise edges and meticulous renderings — in this case of fanciful botanical forms — kind of, technophobic Peter Pan meets animae. In the second room were assorted drawings and stuff by gallery artists, and a large thumping and bumping sculpture by David Ellis (homage á la Tim Hawkinson at the Whitney) comprising old turntables and I can’t remember what else, but it certainly made a frenetic impression.
If you have followed this column for the last several years, then you know that this critic does not care for photorealistic painting. Why then, should your trusted pundit come to endorse the upcoming (April) photo-montage based paintings by Yigal Ozeri at Mike Weiss? BECAUSE he is using the photographic image as REFERENCE. As a tool! He does not attempt to mimic photography. The essential impressionist image by Monet was derived from photography, but it was an IMPRESSION. Ozeri’s figurative images are created at large and in the studio, using the means at hand. He composes the compositions with paint and canvas in mind. It’s not quite Kandinsky’s free associations, but my point is that it’s REAL.
Gabe Kirchheimer’s documentary photographs of the Burning Man arts festival were at the New York’s National Arts Club March 8-26. "Attended by 35,000 participants in 2004, Burning Man, a cutting-edge art-culture event held for a week each summer in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, sponsors hundreds of outdoor art installations, "theme camps" and other artworks on the windswept playa. Dust storms frequently transform the scene into a strange montage of art, bicycles and costumed participants, and Kirchheimer’s images evoke the visions of De Chirico, Dali and the Surrealists."
