Catherine Mosley at AIR Gallery
AGENT FROM THE OUTLANDS CATHERINE MOSLEY ———— NEW WORK “Sometimes reality is too complex for oral communication.” Enter the gravelly teachings of the fascist Alpha 60 computer, following the musical dragnet of the films opening frames. I am referring, of course, to Jean- Luc Godard’s kooky 1965 fusion of science fiction, pulp, and surrealism — [...]
Kunstvlaai: Festival of Independents
In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Kunstvlaai: Festival of Independents took place from 23 November through 2 December 2012. Over seventy independent art institutions, art schools and artist-led initiatives from the Netherlands and abroad presented themselves in a building that, until two weeks before the opening, housed a secondary school. The name ‘Kunstvlaai’ needs translating and explaining. [...]
Kim Jones at Pierogi
Allow me a moment’s nostalgia. Perhaps it isn’t so strange how accustomed we all became to the Mudman. It was 1980’s New York; New York then as opposed to New York now. There were still transvestite bikers, and the guy doing the ceramics thing all over the East Village. There was the Duckman wandering lower [...]
House Party by Andrew Ohanesian at Pierogi / The Boiler Space
The House Party, Andrew Ohanesian, Pierogi/The Boiler by Nick Van Zanten The The House Party, Andrew Ohanesian’s “full-scale, participant activated installation” at Pierogi’s The Boiler space in Brooklyn is impressively effective in creating a displacement and a forum for discourse. The effect on the viewer is total, and achieves exactly what the artist aimed [...]
Notes on dOCUMENTA (13)
The orientation of dOCUMENTA (13) is global, it reaches new centers of interest such as Afghanistan, Canada and the Middle East and it includes many emerging artists who are absent on top-100 career lists. Not only artists but also scientists and scholars have contributed to this Documenta – “from activist to zoologist” as artistic director [...]
Mia Westerlund, Sculptures
Although many aspects of Westerlund’s oeuvre employ a minimalist aesthetic—large holistic shapes often serially repeated (more of this later)—in these new pedestal-based forms she seems to allude to an earlier Abstract Expressionist mode. In imminent danger of toppling, they convey an asymmetrical precariousness that recalls Agostini, Roszak, Ferber , rather than Judd or Andre.
Sarah Sze – Infinite Line
I admire Sarah Sze for her sculpture, but it was the promise of seeing how she might translate her art into flatwork that drew me to her show currently up at the Asia Society, Infinite Line. The show presents the two as distinct bodies of work, in two separate galleries on opposite sides of an [...]
Lee Bontecou’s Nostromo
— so foul a sky clears not without a storm (Shakespeare) Preparations: Take a walk in the common space of Olmsted’s horticultural park, central to Manhattan island geography. Linger for a moment at Willowdell Arch to appreciate the stone voussoirs that line the arcade and support the rusticated underpass; and then allow a few additional [...]
Foreign Correspondents
Click on the image to read the review.
BRIAN GAMAN
Brian Gaman once tried to make eyeglass lenses by casting the glass himself. They cracked; he left them unpolished. He kept the bridge and arms off the frame, leaving just two black-rimmed circles. And oh yes, did I mention, he made them nearly two feet high each? They lean casually against the wall. You would [...]
