Diane Carr, Thicket, 2009, 30" x 48"
Diane Carr – a painter I particularly admire – is back with another gallery show. December 9 – 11, 2009 at Gallery SATORI, 164 Stanton St, New York, NY.
I thought she had a website but since I can’t find it you can see more of her work at the White Column’s Artist Registry.
Nothing new here but I’m a sucker for nostalgia.
From the press release, “Florian Slotawa has ripped out pieces of his studio’s walls and transferred them to the gallery space. During the duration of the exhibition, the physically displaced architectural pieces are layered against the storefront window, through which the gallery space opens onto the street. The installation changes the usual spatial impression of the gallery and conceptually links both the artist’s workspace and the exhibition space.”
The gall.
From the press release of an upcoming show at the Brooklynite Gallery titled “Go Get Your Shinebox”:
With the global economic downturn and the hardship it has caused blue-collar workers throughout, we find it fitting to explore the world’s simplest way to make a living- SHINING SHOES. We are planning an exhibition around just that— SHOESHINE BOXES.
And how will they “explore” it? By taking replicas of shoeshine boxes, decorating them, and plopping them in a gallery.
It gets worse.
However a “SHOESHINE BOX” should not be taken in the most literal sense of the words. These objects, our inspiration, have all been created out of necessity – a need to earn money, or further, to survive. We push “the need to survive” beyond its literal context, commissioning our favorite established and emerging artists to design their own, “SURVIVAL BOXES”.
This is a classic example of political art done wrong. Here’s the pattern:
1. Take an object associated with a subjugated group of people
2. Reproduce and decorate it
3. Assert a political critique
What’s so frustrating about work like this is that it simply aestheticizes a political symbol without getting to the bottom of the core issues that political symbol represents. A pure visual product alone is silent and – because it’s a work of art – open to multiple interpretations. This is the opposite of assertion. It’s suggestion. And suggestion and open-endedness is what makes art great. But when an artist traffics in political subjects that have real-world affect on subordinated peoples’ lives, simple open-ended “visual inquiry” by priveleged artists producing for a priveleged audience is an offense. It exploits serious social problems for cultural capital gains.
This Shinebox project is even worse because it ignores the issues behind shoeshiners and focuses on the damn box. And then, in an extraordinarily outrageous move, leaves the box behind and sets up a show of “survival boxes” drawing attention to the individual ARTISTS leaving behind the source subjects.
If you want to, you can visit their atrociously designed website and then navigate to the exhibition page. Only to find it broken. Let’s hope it stays that way.
OK, so there’s nothing “new” here with this theme but, still, could be a hoot. From their release:
“The Christopher Henry Gallery invites you to the exhibition The Map as Art , a group show curated by Katharine Harmon and Christopher Henry opening November 5, 6 – 9 PM.. The exhibition presents a diverse group of work in a variety of media, all of which use mapping concepts to explore uncharted territories both formal and intellectual. The show is presented concurrent with the launch of Harmon’s book, The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography Princeton Architectural Press. The exhibition features works by: Doug Beube, Matthew Cusick, Joshua Dorman, Jerry Gretzinger, Ingo Gunther, Jane Hammond, Emma Johnson, Karey Kessler, Joyce Kozloff, Hayato Matsushita, Meridith McNeal, Florent Morellet, Vik Muniz, Aga Ousseinov, Matthew Picton, Karin Schaefer, Dannielle Tegeder, Heidi Whitman, and Jeff Woodbury.”
via Opening reception November 5: Christopher Henry Gallery.
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.
