Sarah Braman and Joel Shapiro
SARAH BRAMAN AND JOEL SHAPIRO A project inspired by dialogue between Rita Ackermann and Andrea Rosen Gallery September 13 - October 18, 2008 Gallery2
Lord knows I’m not a Joel Shapiro fan. I find his post-minimalist sculptures downright offensive. His anthropomorphized geometries appropriate the “look” of minimalism without retaining any of a good minimal sculpture’s finest attributes: aloofness, mystery, and ambiguity. Shapiro’s sculptures are too immediately accessible, too easily read. And all within the visual framework of a movement that at its best made the viewer work.
Despite this I’ll still visit a show in the back of Andrea Rosen Gallery which presents the work of two artists: Mr. Shapiro and Sarah Braman. Braman’s are works I think I can get behind. I’ll withhold any opining until after I’ve seen the show but I’m hoping that when both artists are presented together Shapiro will look even more the hack that he is.