Art Hag

Kara Walker | Sikkema Jenkins & Lehmann Maupin

Known for her intricate cut paper silhouettes depicting disturbing scenes of violence and racism, Kara Walker's new body of work consists of a series of graphite drawings and hand-printed texts on paper.  Dust Jackets for the Niggerati-and Supporting Dissertations, Drawings submitted ruefully by Dr. Kara E. Walker, on view at Sikkema Jenkins, was inspired by the artist's "search for understanding of the way that power asserts itself in interpersonal and geopolitical spheres," (from the press release). 

Exploring the African American experience of migrating from the south to the north, from the country to the city, Walker uncovered "a cycle of destruction and renewal that is embodied in the move... as well as the destruction of an 'old' Black identity and the emergence of a 'New Negro' identity."  Of course most people experience a transition when they move to a very different and new environment, but the subjects in Walker's work also leave behind a dark, oppressive history marred by slavery and racism.

In collaboration with Sikkema Jenkins, Lehmann Maupin's Lower East Side space is screening three new video works by Walker.  Fall Frum Grace, Miss Pipi's Blue Tale, the title of the exhibit and the show's centerpiece, is a shadow puppet film which follows the heroine Miss Pipi in various scenes of beauty, violence, and sex.  Miss Pipi, a white Southern woman, must be protected by the Mandingo stereotype— or the "presumed hyper-sexuality of black men."  The video Levee casts a long, dreamy, meditative gaze on the landscape in Friars Point, Mississippi at sunset while Bad Blues is a short film showing the artist singing a funny diddy about a black woman having "The Blues."  Walker states that these works were inspired by her trip to the Mississippi Delta where she visited "thinking about the terrors of Jim Crow and slavery, yet the silent indifference of the landscape and the economic stasis, lack of mobility, and the persistence of a racist memory in the area was what stuck."  Walker delivers thoughtful, intelligent, powerful works that tackle troubling themes that many would rather ignore or forget.  Learn more at Sikkemajenkinsco.com, Lehmannmaupin.com and see my 2009 post on Walker here.  Through June 4th.

Louise Beavers, 2010

Nina Simone (top), 2010, Billie Holiday (bottom), 2010

Clockwise from top left:  A Dream Deferred; Kiss; The moral arc of history ideally bends towards justice but just as soon as not curves back around toward barbarism, sadism, and unrestrained chaos, 2010

Eternally Displaced Persons, 2010, The Daily Constitution 1878, 2011

N-word, 2010, Up From Slubbery, 2010

Clockwise from top left:  No Negro, the, 2010, Urban Relocator, 2011, Showroom, 2010

Dissertation 1, 2010

Changing Spots with a Leopard (another Jazz aficionado), 2010

You are a Remarkable Woman, 2010

Fall Frum Grace, Miss Pipi's Blue Tale

Dr. Lakra | The Drawing Center

The Drawing Center currently has on view at 3 Wooster Street Mexican artist Dr. Lakra's first exhibition in New York.  A collaboration with Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art, where Dr. Lakra had a terrific solo show last summer, the Drawing Center exhibit offers a pared down collection of the artist's works on paper hanging on walls covered in site-specific drawings.

Inspired by the imagery he uses in his tattoo work, Dr. Lakra also finds inspiration from anatomy textbooks, vintage pin-up magazines, and comic books.  Sepia-toned images of wild animals, wrestlers, biker dudes, hyper-sexual babes, and Day of the Dead-like skulls and bones adorn the vast white walls.  Visitors are immersed in Dr. Lakra's surreal world - his drawings marking the gallery's pristine surfaces with sinister-ish images of sex and violence like deep, indelible stains or scars.  Learn more at drawingcenter.org and see my post from last year on Dr. Lakra's exhibit at Boston's ICA here.  Read more on the artist at NYT.com.  Through April 24th.

Martin Kippenberger | Skarstedt Gallery

Eggman II, currently on view at the Skarstedt Gallery, reintroduces works by Martin Kippenberger that were originally shown in Der Eiermann und seine Ausleger (The Eggman and his Outriggers), the final exhibition of the aritst's work before his untimely death in 1997 at the age of 44.  Consisting of nine paintings, a series of drawings on hotel stationery, and a sculpture, the works focus on the egg, a theme Kippenberger often revisited throughout his career.

"Always recycling imagery, the egg is the banal comedic device in Kippenberger's images," (from the show's press release).  By playfully incorporating an egg into these works, Kippenberger made "indirect references to rebirth, reproduction, and the ideal of the circle."  Whether showing a woman posing proudly with a giant golden egg, an embryonic dinosaur inside an egg, or the artist himself morphing into a bloated, grotesque Eggman, Kippenberger infused humor into his studies of the mundane egg form.  As the artist stated:  "In painting you must look what fallen fruit is left that you can paint.  The egg has missed out there, Warhol already had the banana.  You take a form for yourself it's always about angular, square, this and that format, about the golden mean.  The egg is white and insipd, how can a colorful picture come from that?"  That last bit must have been a rhetorical question.  Learn more at Skarstedt.com.  Through April 16th.

Untitled, 1996

Egg Sock, 1996

Untitled (Showcase with egg sculptures), 1996

Untitled (Showcase with egg sculptures) close-up, 1996

Portrait Paul Schreber,1994

Portrait Paul Schreber close-up, 1994

Eierverliebte (Infatuated Egg), 1996

Dinosaurierei (Dinosaur egg), 1996

Eifrau die man nicht schubladieren kann (Egg woman who defies categorization), 1996

Untitled (Grand Hotel), 1996, n/a

Das gute Eierfeierabenbuch (The Good Egg Leisure Pleasure book), 1993

Tara Donovan | The Pace Gallery

Tara Donovan's new large-scale drawings on view at The Pace Gallery are composed of thousands and thousands of nickel-plated steel pins carefully arranged and pushed into white gatorboard.  The stunning abstract images and circular patterns create an optical effect—"visual field[s] with shifting viewpoints..." that "radiate from different light sources (determined by the density of pins on the surface area)" (from the show's press release).

Born in Flushing, New York in 1969, the Brooklyn-based artist received the MacArthur "Genius" Award in 2008.  Donovan's meticulous Drawings (Pins) vibrantly play with light and shadow.  The amazing works initially appear like charcoal drawings from afar, while closer up the clusters of tiny pinheads practically glitter and sparkle.  Learn more at thepacegallery.com.  Closes March 19th.

Drawing (Pins), 2010

Drawing (Pins), 2010

Drawing (Pins), 2010, close-up

Drawing (Pins), 2010

Drawing (Pins), 2010

Drawing (Pins), 2010, close-up

 

Marcel Dzama | David Zwirner

Marcel Dzama's Behind Every Curtain brings to life the artist's magical world of a balletic and murderous game of chess.  Upon entering David Zwirner's 525 West 19th Street space, visitors are greeted by a series of Dzama's detailed, richly colored drawings and three twirling sculptures—two large-scale chess pieces, a rook and the White Queen, and a life-size, masked, female assassin.  The next room presents a group of pain-stakingly detailed dioramas and a whimsical carousel of charming, retro-looking puppets made from tin and ceramics (Turning into Puppets [Volviendose Marionetas], 2011) flailing their limbs and clanking away as they revolve in a circle.  The final, darkened room shows Dzama's fourteen-minute film, A Game of Chess, filmed in Guadalajara, Mexico. 

The film, inspired by the mechanical movements, puppetry, elaborate costumes, and checkerboard dance floor of Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer's Triadic Ballet (1922), "features characters based on the classic game of chess," (from the show's press release).  Dressed in masks and intricate costumes made from papier-mache, plaster, and fiberglass, the characters dance on a checkered floor in Dzama's treacherous chess game. Dzama's meticulous drawings and dioramas on display represent scenes and segments of the film and include a full storyboard for A Game of Chess.  Influences of the film's location, Guadalajara, such as "local crafts and religious traditions," can be found in the works.  On the opening night and at selected times during the exhibition, a mariachi band played live music based on the film's soundtrack. 

Inspired by dance, Dada, and Marcel Duchamp, the Winnipeg-born, Brooklyn-based Dzama illustrates a vivid world populated by a huge, colorful cast engaged in a carefully orchestrated, stylish battle.  Learn more at Davidzwirner.com and read a Q&A with the artist at artinfo.com.  Through March 19th.

Left to right:  The Queen (La Reina), 2011; Tripping After Drums, 2010; Polytropos of many turns, 2009

(Though None of Us is Crying) or (Aunque Ninguno de los Tres esta Llorando), 2010

Behind Every Curtain, 2010

The Rook (La Torre), 2011

Turning into Puppets (Volviendose Marionetas), 2011; An age of discord and continual strife (back wall, left), 2011; In the theater of our wedding day (back wall, right), 2011

Turning into Puppets (Volviendose Marionetas), 2011; Inventory of the Queen (back wall, left), 2011; Feeding squirrels to the nuts (back wall, center), 2011; Rebellion lay in her way (back wall, right), 2011

Feeding squirrels to the nuts, 2011

Feeding squirrels to the nuts (close-up), 2011

You're over thrown - You're undone forever, 2011

You're over thrown - You're undone forever (close-up), 2011

A Game of Chess (story board), 2010

A scene from A Game of Chess, 2011

A scene from A Game of Chess, 2011

Martin Kersels | Mitchell-Innes & Nash

Los Angeles artist Martin Kersels creates sculptures, drawings, photos, videos and performance pieces that explore "the relationship of the body to the outside world... and the ways that physicality and psychology are intertwined," (from the press release).  Mitchell-Innes & Nash presents Kersels' Charms, Stacks & Flotsam, featuring hanging sculptures ("Charms"), pedestal sculptures ("Stacks"), and a series of drawings ("Flotsam") that intermingle skeletons, tables, chairs, coat racks, trees, and spiderwebs. 

Dangling from the gallery's ceiling are Kersels' "Charms," composed of found materials including old furniture, bottles, costumes, figurines, and scale models.  The piece Bald Eagle combines unlikely objects like a wool suit, a wooden chair, a lamp, a chain, and a rope to create a hovering Frankenstein-ish figure.  The term "Charm" can be interpreted in multiple ways — as a trinket or memento, a magical spell, or an attractive personality trait.  His "Stack" sculptures are made from a variety of books of different proportions, topics, and formats carefully arranged by color and size into gravity-defying structures or cut and conjoined like puzzle pieces.  The artist plays with words again by contrasting incompatible titles creating humorous juxtapositions.

Based in Sierra Madre, California, Kersels is a co-director of the Program in Art at CalArts.  His Charms, Stacks & Flotsam cleverly amalgamate dark, literary, natural, youthful, and pop elements together into whimsical and indeed, charming works.  Learn more at miandn.com.  Closes March 12th.

Charm (Party Clown), 2010

Charm (USS Constitution), 2011

Charm (Cloud Seeder), 2011, Stack (Nixon) in background, 2010

Charm (Bald Eagle), 2010

Left to right:  Flotsam (Chair Arterial System), 2010; Flotsam (Tables Skeleton), 2010

Stack (The Specialist), 2011

Stack (Four Days), 2010

Stack (My Thoughts), 2010, Flotsam (Tables Rib Jaw Hand) in background, 2010

Stack (Sea of Cortez), 2011

Huma Bhabha | Peter Blum

Over at Peter Blum's Chelsea location is Huma Bhabha's Drawings, a series of "new over-painted and collaged photographs" by the Pakistan-born, Poughkeepsie-based artist.  Bhabha added touches of paint, ink, and collage to large-scale prints of photos she shot of vast landscapes in Karachi, Pakistan and Carrara, Italy. 

In some of the works, the artist added only a subtle arc, handprint, or outline while in others she added looming, shadowy, alien-like figures or gigantic feet (subjects that often show up in her sculptures as well).  Some of the pieces look like nightmarish headshots of mask-like faces while others have funny, incongruous images pasted onto them - like a cute, mischievous dog poking its snout into a fish bowl or a smugly mugging George Clooney in a watch advertisement.  The entire surface of some of her works are covered in deep, saturated colors causing the edges of the photo paper to curl slightly.

By "drawing" on her photographs Bhabha creates new stories for her scenes and adds life, mystery, and humor to her images of dusty landscapes and decaying buildings.  Learn more at Peterblumgallery.com and see my previous post on Bhabha's sculpture exhibit at Salon 94 Bowery here.  Through January 15th.

Untitled (left), 2010, Clifton (right), 2010

Untitled, 2010

Untitled, 2010

Untitled, 2010

Untitled, 2010

Achilles (left), 2010, Untitled (right), 2010

Untitled, 2010

Untitled, 2010

Untitled, 2010

Untitled, 2010

Raymond Pettibon | David Zwirner

"Hard in the Paint" is a basketball term that describes a player trying to make a shot while positioned inside the painted lines just underneath the net—a difficult spot to score since the player is usually surrounded by members of the opposing team.  In slang, the phrase also describes a "confident, tough, or aggressive" attitude.  Hard in the Paint is also the title for Raymond Pettibon's current exhibit at David Zwirner, featuring new drawings referencing art history, classic literature, sports, politics, and pop culture. Composed with frenetic, almost violent lines and deep, bold colors, Pettibon's works definitely exude a "hard in the paint" swagger.

Born in Tucson, Arizona in 1957 and based in Venice Beach, California, Pettibon's early work was driven by the Los Angeles punk scene in the 70's and 80's along with the album art, comics, concert fliers and 'zines that were created during that time.  Pettibon designed album covers for several bands, perhaps most notably Sonic Youth and Black Flag (whose founding member, Greg Ginn, is Pettibon's brother) and created Black Flag's well-known logo—four thick, black, vertical bars.  With his punk and hardcore connections, it's almost hard to believe that the text Pettibon incorporates into his artwork is culled from the writing of Proust, Faulkner, Flaubert, and the bible. "Fragments from American society have been singled out and distilled to key images" and paired up with text that ranges from a single word to several lines and paragraphs (from show's press release).  Images of baseball players, surfers, flowers, explosions, sports cars, news events, the earth, and even Liberace, are juxtaposed with words that "relate both rhythmically and narratively to the visual content of his drawings, although their relationship may not always be immediately apparent."

Though it might take a while to uncover them, Pettibon's smart, energetic, and richly colored drawings deliver messages and commentary about contemporary culture.  The artist doesn't spoon-feed viewers the meanings of his works, but it's definitely worthwhile studying and (hopefully) discovering them on your own.  Learn more at Davidzwirner.com and at the artist's website Raypettibon.com.  Through December 21st.

*Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore has edited and will release Raymond Pettibon: Front Row Center on his imprint, Ecstatic Peace Library.  The 160-page book focuses on Pettibon's work with bands, music, and the record label SST.  Learn more at ecstaticpeacelibrary.com.

Clockwise from far left:  No Title (She must know...), No Title (I am too...), No Title (Me and my...), No Title (My flame flicker...), No Title (It has in...), No Title (That obliging schoolgirl...), No Title (Almost a perfect...), all 2010

Clockwise from top left: No Title (Ohne title...), No Title (Faster faster please...), No Title (For getting a...), No Title (The church bell...), all 2010

Left to right:  No Title (Driftwood, Wax, and...), No Title (5,000 strokes is...), No Title (A slight ascent...), 2010

No Title (The Invisible Man's...), 2010

Left to right:  No Title (Zebra), 2010, No Title (Manhattan rising advancing...), 2010

Clockwise from top left:  No Title (Hanging day at...), No Title (It may happen...), No Title (Hers seemed to...), No Title (No Primer No Bondo...), No Title (My 5-year plan...), all 2010

No Title (Female on the...), 2010

No Title (A painter hangs...), 2010

No Title (Why? I've no...), 2010

Left to right:  No Title (The news put...), 2010, No Title (Don't ask! Don't...), 2010

Left to right:  No Title (Pacific ocean blue), 2010, No Title (Going, going the...), 2010

Sophie Crumb | DCKT Contemporary

Coinciding with the release of the book Sophie Crumb: Evolution of a Crazy Artist is Crumb's debut solo show at DCKT Contemporary.  The daughter of R. Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb, who both edited her monograph, the 29-year-old artist began drawing as a child.  Some of Crumb's cool, early experiences include her working with her parents on Dirty Laundry Comics, producing her own Belly Button Comix, training at a French circus school, and working as a tattoo artist.  Crumb's artwork tends to focus on her "current experiences" while acknowledging her "eccentric" and interesting past (from show's press release).  Crumb's raw and colorful drawings often depict moments from her life in the south of France where she currently lives with her husband and son, along with memories from her times in Berkeley and New York.  Her works currently on view at DCKT are mostly recent drawings and prints that show the media's influence on Crumb, with the artist's recreations of tabloid covers and magazine pages showing models, actresses, socialites, reality stars, and assorted well-known trainwrecks in an unflattering light.

Sophie Crumb: Evolution of a Crazy Artist the book "explores the development of an artist from her earliest beginnings to the present," with Crumb discussing what it's like having two famed artists for parents and establishing herself in the artworld.  Published by W.W. Norton, the monograph showcases 300 drawings and paintings created by Crumb between the ages of 2 to 28 that have been lovingly archived by her parents over the years.  Learn more at dcktcontemporary.com and at the Crumb's blog Sophiecrumb.blogspot.com.  Through December 30th.

1985, 2010

Vogue Shit, 2010

Sophie Manson, 2010

Untitled (pointing girl), 2007

Untitled (nude with chair), 2006

Sunglasses 1, 2010, Sunglasses 2, 2010

Snooki Gets Booky, 2010

We Will Obey Him, 2010

Mermaid Bride, 2002

Exquisite Corpse Project | Gasser/Grunert

In the 1920's, the Surrealists played the parlor game "cadavre exquise" or "exquisite corpse" in which they passed around a sheet of paper to three or four players who would collaborate on drawing a picture of a body.  The first participant would draw the head and shoulders of the "corpse" and then fold over and hide his portion and pass the paper onto another player who would create the torso.  The upper portions of the work were folded and hidden before being passed onto a final player who would complete the composition by adding the legs and feet.   

Over 200 contemporary artists have participated in a year-long project that revives this collaborative process and "celebrates the themes of chance encounters, surprise and radical juxtaposition" (from show's press release).  Called the Exquisite Corpse Project, the results are on exhibit at Gasser/Grunert for three weeks.  Curated by artist David Salle and managed by Tanja Grunert, proceeds from the sales of the Exquisite Corpse Project will go to the international contemporary dance company Armitage Gone! Dance. 

Measuring 30 x 16 inches, the 135 works were created during drawing parties or were shipped from one artist to another.  The artists did not know whom they were collaborating on their piece with and were not allowed to view the work done by the preceding artist.  Some of the artists who participated include: Salle, Vito Acconci, Ghada Amer, Laurie Anderson, John Baldessari, Ross Bleckner, Olaf Breuning, Louise Bourgeois, Cecily Brown, Francesco Clemente, Chuck Close, George Condo, Tracy Emin, Invader, Chantal Joffee, Alex Katz, Jeff Koons, Josephine Meckseper, Tom Otterness, Tony Oursler, Richard Phillips, Anselm Reyle, Andres Serrano, Dana Schutz, Joel Shapiro, and many more.

It's fun viewing the unique and playful works and seeing how the artists' varying styles work together.  Some of the end results are terrific and make it hard to believe there wasn't any peeking involved.  Check out the Exquisite Corpse Project before the exhibition closes on November 6th.  Learn more at gassergrunert.net and see more of the "corpse" drawings at armitagegonedance.org. 

George Condo (head), Tracy Emin (torso), John Armieder (feet)

Left: Allen Ruppersberg (head), Sam Messer (torso), Alison Fox (feet)  Right: Ellen Berkenblit (head), Alexis Rockman (torso), Tommy White (torso), Cecily Brown (feet)

Alex Katz (head), Haim Steinbach (torso), Marcel Odenbach (torso), Michael Alan (feet)

Chantal Joffe (head), Francesca DiMattio (torso), Matthew Ritchie (torso), Nicolas Byrne (feet)

Left: John Newsom (head), David Salle (torso), Cary Leibowitz (feet)  Right: Ellen Berkenblit (head), Garth Weiser (torso), Mary Heilmann (feet)

Left: Josephine Meckseper (head), Laurie Anderson (torso), Olaf Breuning (torso), Nick Mauss (feet)  Right: Diane Tuft (head), Eric Fischl (torso), Anselm Reyle (feet)