Curator Sima Familant organized Marlborough Chelsea's current group exhibition Grass Grows by Itself with hopes of inspiring visitors with the Zen proverb — "sit quietly, doing nothing, as when spring comes, the grass grows by itself..." The exhibit features 18 emerging and established artists whose work "reflect entropy, contemplation, the passage of time, and self-awareness," (from show's press release) and the relationship between man and nature. Some standouts include Chakaia Booker's Empty Seat (2006), a massive wall sculpture made from deconstructed car tires assembled into a violent explosion of black rubber bursting off the gallery's white wall that "encourages the viewer to reconsider the frenetic pace of modern life." Robert Zungu's Untitled (Hand to Mouth) (2009), another wall sculpture consisting of a cast of a human arm placed alongside "a cast bronze hammer head shark's skull," comments on the "perilous and delicate balance between man and nature." And Jim Hodges' Looking to Tomorrow (2004) showcases serene, fragile, and precious flowers cut from gold leaf.
Works focusing on social progress occuring "on an intimate, local level" include Mark Bradford's vibrant, textural pieces created with materials found on the streets around the artist's Los Angeles neighborhood; Cameron Martin's grand yet gentle mountainscape, Chrystinam (2008); and Molly McIver's eggs set in resin "relegating the object[s] in a state of frozen potential." Grass Grows by Itself also "proposes unexpected visual relationships between intergenerational artists"—juxtaposing 95-year-old Carmen Herrera's bold, geometric abstract paintings with works by young artists like Kianja Strobert's rich, complex mixed media abstracts and Leigh Ruple's vivid canvas Caution Woman Stretching (2010).
With a wide range of works created by a diverse group of artists, Grass Grows by Itself offers two floors of artwork to "sit quietly" before and contemplate. Perhaps the Zen influence of the exhibit might be best experienced by mulling over Daniel Joseph Martinez's The despair of imagination (2010), a 22-foot-tall wall text declaring, "The despair of imagination has exceeded the negativity of our time." Though sandwiched between two gigantic exclamation points, the phrase is like an enigmatic, meditative mantra. Learn more about Grass Grows by Itself at Marlboroughgallery.com. Through September 9th.
Left to right: Jim Hodges, Looking to Tomorrow, 2004; Wade Guyton, U Sculpture (v.8), 2008; Charline Von Heyl, Past Gone Mad, 2009
Wolfgang Laib, Rice Meals, 1988; Daniel Joseph Martinez, The despair of imagination (back wall-partial view), 2010
Kianja Strobert, Untitled x 5, 2010
Mark Bradford, Untitled x 3, 2007
Robert Zungu, Black Stack, 2009 and Untitled (Hand to Mouth), 2009
Molly McIver, Untitled, 2010
Cameron Martin, Chrystinam, 2008
Chakaia Booker, Empty Seat, 2006
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