11.17.2009
Busy Time
Well, it's a busy time of year with NOLA Bookfair and Fringe Fest, art conferences, and Draw-a-thon now just around the corner. What have you been seeing the past few weeks? What has stood out, and what could have been better? Why?
10.19.2009
DEEP. DOWN. DIRTY.
If you haven't already seen it, please check out DEEP. DOWN. DIRTY. at Antenna Gallery, 3161 Burgundy St (New Orleans, LA), through November 8th 2009. Though the show is not quite 100% comprised of winners, it is yet a 100% winning show thanks to the skillful curatorial skills of new Antenna member Robin Atkinson. You will leave with the impression that Antenna has "kicked it up a notch," Emeril style, for the rest of the bourgeoning St. Claude Arts District. Especially titillating are the juicy color explosions of Helen Maurene Cooper's large format inkjet prints of close up scenes of ornately stylized fingernails juxtaposed in and with various goops and baubles. If you missed this month's second-Saturday round of simultaneous St. Claude area openings, it's not too late. Most of these galleries are open on weekend afternoons. This month, there are good offerings a-plenty at most of these galleries, with highlights also at Barrister's Gallery.
If you have seen works at any of the St. Claude area galleries this month, and have critical feedback about what you've seen, please share with us by posting.
If you have seen works at any of the St. Claude area galleries this month, and have critical feedback about what you've seen, please share with us by posting.
10.05.2009
Art for Art's Sake
What do people think of the offerings at last Saturday's Art for Art's Sake?
We found the Julia Street beer fountain performance by Generic Art Solutions, the charcoal and watercolor Katrina Portrait series by David Bates at Arthur Roger Gallery, and the Robert Colescott paintings (such as Summertime, 1995, with secret hidden message), also at Arthur Roger, to be highlights of the night.
G.A.S. once again place themselves within a love triangle between New Orleans street performers, late 60's era performance artists Gilbert and George, and the appropriation of art historical subject matter (such as the hundreds year old boy Manneken Pis of Brussels). The performance was funny, and the choice of liquids seemed appropriate to the increasingly Bourbon Street party vibe of these Julia Street events, where often the crowds seem just as preoccupied with drinking, and subsequently finding places to urinate as with taking in the art. The David Bates portraits are startling in their concise and confrontational presentation. The drawings are pared down caricatures of post Katrina skepticism, drafted deftly, with economy of line and value. The Colescott paintings at Arthur Roger are equally confrontational. Using bold, almost unnerving, clashes of color to provoke the eye, Colescott's canvases almost vibrate. Forms sometimes cartoonish, sometimes surreal, sometimes completely abstracted angle in from every direction to join scenes of violence, sex, or absurdity concerning race and politics in modern society. And like Generic Art Solutions, Colescott puts his own twist on well known art historical works, as in All Roads Lead to Rome after Mona Lisa. These are paintings where I enjoy the painter's hand, his harried stroke, his change of plan. The expressionist painting approach adds electricity to the content, our only complaint is where the artist's hand recedes, as in the use of stamps for some of the text (such as in Who Killed Cock Robin). We appreciate similar aspects in Colescott's work to that of Brad Benischek, so if you admire B.B., you should see this show. Unfortunately, Robert Colescott passed away this Summer, but we are lucky to have fine examples of his life's work available to see here in New Orleans - check it out!
We also found some of Ann Schwab's work at CoLAB Projects and some of Anita Cooke's work (like her 2009 Flow portrait of the Mississippi river in fabric and bobby pins) at Jonathan Ferrara to be strong as well. Schwab's work tends toward the sentimental, but also, due to tight attention to detail and clean craftsmanship, choice of imagery, and process, the work in her newest show, Pure, can be so dreamy. There is a contemplative and quiet nature to just about every image she chooses to work with. And then, sometimes sewing into, sometimes isolating, sometimes even dangling these images (of trees, seed pods, water, hands), she creates spaces where perhaps her own meditation on the images becomes apparent and extends to the viewer. She juxtaposes these images of the natural world with her own human intervention that somehow recreates, rearranges, or pays homage to the natural relationships in the imagery. Work like this sometimes runs the risk of being cloying or cheesy, but Ann Schwab seems to have avoided these pitfalls with smart editing and utterly spotless presentation. Anita Cooke also seems to create meditative spaces in her work. A lot of the pieces in her show (Dimensional Patterning: Sewn Constructions) give us a knee-jerk negative response because of our aversion to, and their affinity for, a heavy craft focus. Some of them are like quilts on steroids, and we find the added wire, splatter paint, grog, and baubles a bit much. However, the sheer volume of work and dedication to process is almost redeeming. The works we find strongest in this show are those that transcend their confines, and even their process, to create an "other" experience. The folds, flaps, and bobbypinned connections of Flow, coupled with the myriad metallic hairlike threads that pop out, bouncing light from the piece, create a new and ethereal environment from a distance. This piece reminds us of how the shadow and undulations of drinking straws in a wall of Tara Donovan's Haze, can become a gateway beyond the gallery. The crimps and undulations in Flow remind us of topography and earth, and a weird wonderful colorful ether contouring an invisible river, and not simply the sheer number of thread and stitches and machine stitching that went into creating it.
An interactive sound piece by Marcus Brown and Nathan Weidenhaft struck a wrong note with us. Although the long strip of vibration sensitive, sound emitting sculpture seemed endlessly entertaining for any number of people at any given time, we didn't really understand the correlation between form and function. The sounds did not seem to collaborate with the movements of the interactors so much, and the movements required to elicit sound did not seem to relate to the form of the piece. This felt like nascent technology not quite ready for the open market. We find many ideas surrounding this piece interesting, but we wish the the presentation of the runway itself, or the demands of the piece on the participant, were more thoughtfully considered and interrelated.
At Studio 527, we found a few interesting works, but, truthfully, we found the whole space to be so haphazardly organized (or not organized), huge, and full, it was hard to make heads or tails of much of it. Studio 527 is the internet of exhibition spaces (tons of content, everywhere, all the time). It definitely gives us art ADHD. Some close-up photographs of makeshift architectural models as cityscapes by Danny Kempton stood out.
None of us made it out to Magazine street or any other "off Julia" openings, so please post about your A.F.A.S. experience on Julia and BEYOND. As always, we hope these comments are somehow helpful, and somehow constructive.
We found the Julia Street beer fountain performance by Generic Art Solutions, the charcoal and watercolor Katrina Portrait series by David Bates at Arthur Roger Gallery, and the Robert Colescott paintings (such as Summertime, 1995, with secret hidden message), also at Arthur Roger, to be highlights of the night.
G.A.S. once again place themselves within a love triangle between New Orleans street performers, late 60's era performance artists Gilbert and George, and the appropriation of art historical subject matter (such as the hundreds year old boy Manneken Pis of Brussels). The performance was funny, and the choice of liquids seemed appropriate to the increasingly Bourbon Street party vibe of these Julia Street events, where often the crowds seem just as preoccupied with drinking, and subsequently finding places to urinate as with taking in the art. The David Bates portraits are startling in their concise and confrontational presentation. The drawings are pared down caricatures of post Katrina skepticism, drafted deftly, with economy of line and value. The Colescott paintings at Arthur Roger are equally confrontational. Using bold, almost unnerving, clashes of color to provoke the eye, Colescott's canvases almost vibrate. Forms sometimes cartoonish, sometimes surreal, sometimes completely abstracted angle in from every direction to join scenes of violence, sex, or absurdity concerning race and politics in modern society. And like Generic Art Solutions, Colescott puts his own twist on well known art historical works, as in All Roads Lead to Rome after Mona Lisa. These are paintings where I enjoy the painter's hand, his harried stroke, his change of plan. The expressionist painting approach adds electricity to the content, our only complaint is where the artist's hand recedes, as in the use of stamps for some of the text (such as in Who Killed Cock Robin). We appreciate similar aspects in Colescott's work to that of Brad Benischek, so if you admire B.B., you should see this show. Unfortunately, Robert Colescott passed away this Summer, but we are lucky to have fine examples of his life's work available to see here in New Orleans - check it out!
We also found some of Ann Schwab's work at CoLAB Projects and some of Anita Cooke's work (like her 2009 Flow portrait of the Mississippi river in fabric and bobby pins) at Jonathan Ferrara to be strong as well. Schwab's work tends toward the sentimental, but also, due to tight attention to detail and clean craftsmanship, choice of imagery, and process, the work in her newest show, Pure, can be so dreamy. There is a contemplative and quiet nature to just about every image she chooses to work with. And then, sometimes sewing into, sometimes isolating, sometimes even dangling these images (of trees, seed pods, water, hands), she creates spaces where perhaps her own meditation on the images becomes apparent and extends to the viewer. She juxtaposes these images of the natural world with her own human intervention that somehow recreates, rearranges, or pays homage to the natural relationships in the imagery. Work like this sometimes runs the risk of being cloying or cheesy, but Ann Schwab seems to have avoided these pitfalls with smart editing and utterly spotless presentation. Anita Cooke also seems to create meditative spaces in her work. A lot of the pieces in her show (Dimensional Patterning: Sewn Constructions) give us a knee-jerk negative response because of our aversion to, and their affinity for, a heavy craft focus. Some of them are like quilts on steroids, and we find the added wire, splatter paint, grog, and baubles a bit much. However, the sheer volume of work and dedication to process is almost redeeming. The works we find strongest in this show are those that transcend their confines, and even their process, to create an "other" experience. The folds, flaps, and bobbypinned connections of Flow, coupled with the myriad metallic hairlike threads that pop out, bouncing light from the piece, create a new and ethereal environment from a distance. This piece reminds us of how the shadow and undulations of drinking straws in a wall of Tara Donovan's Haze, can become a gateway beyond the gallery. The crimps and undulations in Flow remind us of topography and earth, and a weird wonderful colorful ether contouring an invisible river, and not simply the sheer number of thread and stitches and machine stitching that went into creating it.
An interactive sound piece by Marcus Brown and Nathan Weidenhaft struck a wrong note with us. Although the long strip of vibration sensitive, sound emitting sculpture seemed endlessly entertaining for any number of people at any given time, we didn't really understand the correlation between form and function. The sounds did not seem to collaborate with the movements of the interactors so much, and the movements required to elicit sound did not seem to relate to the form of the piece. This felt like nascent technology not quite ready for the open market. We find many ideas surrounding this piece interesting, but we wish the the presentation of the runway itself, or the demands of the piece on the participant, were more thoughtfully considered and interrelated.
At Studio 527, we found a few interesting works, but, truthfully, we found the whole space to be so haphazardly organized (or not organized), huge, and full, it was hard to make heads or tails of much of it. Studio 527 is the internet of exhibition spaces (tons of content, everywhere, all the time). It definitely gives us art ADHD. Some close-up photographs of makeshift architectural models as cityscapes by Danny Kempton stood out.
None of us made it out to Magazine street or any other "off Julia" openings, so please post about your A.F.A.S. experience on Julia and BEYOND. As always, we hope these comments are somehow helpful, and somehow constructive.
9.01.2009
Two Fisted Two-Timing?
We recently read Doug MacCash's review of the Hot Up Here show at the CAC. While we wholeheartedly agree with his assessment that the show was a rehashed mish-mash of the same work we've been seeing at various venues for the past five years (he calls it deja-vu), we found the “two-timing” exhibitions of Dan Tague's newest drawings at Good Children Gallery (Lessons Learned with Fists) and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery (Fist Talk) way more surprising and troubling. It would seem that many of these drawings debuted at Good Children just weeks prior to their commute to Julia St. In fact, they were even removed from the walls of G.C.G. while the show was still underway in order to meet the throngs at White Linen Night. What’s more, the drawings somehow accrued value as they traveled, too, quadrupling in price as they moved the few miles westward one hot Summer day.
What does everyone else think about these practices? They seem so commonplace in New Orleans. Is it alright for an artist to "two-time" his/her work in the same city? And what about people who show the same pieces again and again at different galleries in New Orleans? NOLA Constructive believes the work needs to be seen, but we would prefer that after a work is on display at a gallery in New Orleans once, for a month or more, that the artist endeavor to show the work in other cities thereafter, or not at all.
Our rant aside, the drawings themselves (text-on-knuckle tattoo illustrations) are a fun and tightly constructed tongue-in-cheek collection of those briefest of mottos by which we choose to live. Tague's drawings, not unlike much of the works in the nearby CAC Hot Up Here show, hold their own- that isn't our criticism. Our beef isn't so much with the art, but with showing them a second time (especially in such a short time frame, with exhibition overlap, and with the price mark-up), which almost completely invalidates the exhibition at the earlier venue. It's as if the Good Children exhibition was merely a trial run for the "real thing," when, in actuality, Good Children is at least on par if not the better of the two galleries in terms of programming. In addition, we the art consumer grow weary of seeing the work more than once. Isn't there something else? Can't our galleries do better? There are tens of thousands of artists in this country, must we continue to view the same set of works by the same 40 or 50 people again and again? Can New Orleans ever emerge as a credible locale for contemporary art if we remain so insular? It's as if the art world here were one giant rubik's cube, with curators shifting pieces here and there endlessly until the game itself grows tiresome for the audience.
We have, however, underestimated Gina Phillips. Her portrait of Fats Domino in thread and fabric currently in the Hot Up Here show at the CAC made us simply giddy. If you haven't seen the show, you actually probably already have, or at least most of it. With the exception of some of Phillip's work, maybe some new work by painter Rachel Jones, and photographs from Chris Sullivan who we'd never seen at all, Dan Cameron chose work that has already been shown in New Orleans (sometimes several times over) for this group show. Gina Phillip's work and an installation of Brad Benischek drawings (many from his Meat Vs. Dirt show at Antenna Gallery) may be worth the admission price... but if we know New Orleans, and if you are patient, you could probably see these pieces again elsewhere for free. We appreciate a lot of other work in the show too, but we generally appreciated it more the first or second, not as much the third or fourth time around. We are curious now to check out Ms. Phillip's work currently up at Tulane's Carroll Gallery. If you've already seen it, let us know what you thought about it!
As always, we hope this is somehow constructive. If you disagree with us, please let us know.
8.31.2009
New Blog
So here it is.
This blog was forced from the gaping void of any truly critical public response to the plethora of art being made in New Orleans right now. What little art criticism can be found is largely congratulatory, perfunctory, poorly written, out of touch, incomplete, or unhelpful. Even if this weren't true, there still wouldn't be enough of it to go around. Honest art critical feedback sustains artists and catalyzes good work. We at NOLA Constructive hope you will take the time to consider work you have seen, and post your thoughts about it here. Be honest, and be fair. An honest critical assessment may go a long way in providing some necessary outside (and work changing) insight for an artist you support. Julia Street galleries open with a new round of shows next weekend, and St. Claude galleries open the weekend following. Go out, see the work. What is working, and what isn't? What makes you flush with excitement, and what has you running for the door? What about the museums? Are they doing a good job? Here's a place for you to tell the artists what you think of their work, anonymously, and without reproach.
Have fun!
This blog was forced from the gaping void of any truly critical public response to the plethora of art being made in New Orleans right now. What little art criticism can be found is largely congratulatory, perfunctory, poorly written, out of touch, incomplete, or unhelpful. Even if this weren't true, there still wouldn't be enough of it to go around. Honest art critical feedback sustains artists and catalyzes good work. We at NOLA Constructive hope you will take the time to consider work you have seen, and post your thoughts about it here. Be honest, and be fair. An honest critical assessment may go a long way in providing some necessary outside (and work changing) insight for an artist you support. Julia Street galleries open with a new round of shows next weekend, and St. Claude galleries open the weekend following. Go out, see the work. What is working, and what isn't? What makes you flush with excitement, and what has you running for the door? What about the museums? Are they doing a good job? Here's a place for you to tell the artists what you think of their work, anonymously, and without reproach.
Have fun!
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