Three “you must see” exhibitions

#1 – Lucio Fontana at Gagosian  This is one of the most illuminating exhibitions I’ve seen in a long while.,  is the Lucio Fontana show at Gagosian.  For years, I’ve just seen one or two Fontanas at a time – and they never did much for me.  But the range of this exhibition – it’s huge – and the opportunity to see so much in context – the paintings are elegant and specific and colors sing.  There are also 8 installations that are remarkable in their own right, and then when you consider that they were done in the 50′s – I never realized Fontana was so prescient.

Lucio Fontana 1963

#2. Brice Marden at Matthew Marks - These are small paintings on marble, and have the most sensitive touch – using paint sparingly emphasize the texture and subtlety of the marble surface.  When I found out that they were painted in Greece, I was unsurprised.  I knew that from just looking at them.

Brice Marden

#3 Carol Syzmanski at Guided by Invoices - In this exhibition, Carol Syzmanski works with language in all kinds of different media – brass, cloth, pastel, neon, glass, – but each piece has a consistent ephemeral elegance.  Words seems to float around the space as if their meaning were just out of reach.  You could read the press release and find out where the words she uses come from, but it’s not at all necessary to get that feeling of fragility and transience.

Carol Syzmanski

Wonderful Art I saw last week

I did a lot of looking last week – all the fairs and several gallery shows and here’s what I liked.  At the Pulse Art Fair Saw a small painting by Kim Dorland from Mike Weiss Gallery.  He treats paint as almost a sculpture medium, this painting of an owl, which is impossible to reproduce,  is great combo of observance and abstraction.  Very sensual.

Kim Dorland

Also I loved Becky’s booth from Gallery Joe.  She specializes in meditative, minimal drawing and work on paper.  I Particularly liked Alex Paik - small scale paper sculptures.|

Alex Paik

And Morgan Lehman Gallery had beautiful paintings by Sharon Louden- Love her paintings.

Sharon Louden

NADA

I loved Ara Peterson constructions from wood at Loyal Gallery from Sweden.

Ara Peterson

And Photi from Callicoon Fine Artshad a couple of small paintings by Sadie Benning who’s always been more of a video artist but has recently, thankfully, turned to making slightly eccentric painting/sculpture.

Sadie Benning

 

Need an event space for your Non-Profit?

Do you need an event space for your favorite charity? We believe in the power of non-profits and love to donate our spaces in Chelsea and Bridgehampton. Last week, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts hosted a cocktail party for GlassRoots, a wonderful organization in Newark that teaches glassmaking skills to local kids. If your favorite non-profit  wants to throw a party for up to 50, give us a call or email. We’re happy to help.

Quilt Show December 2011

What I liked at the Whitney Biennial

The Whitney Biennial was fascinating this year – such a variety of media and agendas, from the outsized to the intimate. There was a lot to interest me, but as always, not much I would want to take home. As I often say about these exhibitions – “A nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there” .

Matt Hoyt

Kai Altoff’s grand installation on the 3rd floor just as you left the elevator made a distinct impression. Paintings are dense, and energetic, and steeped in the tradition of German Modernism. Forrest Bess paintings were the most talked about in the Whitney, and were appropriately dense and enigmatic, but his work rarely reaches me – although many folks, especially artists, are transformed by it. But I loved Matt Hoyt’s beautiful tiny sculptural fragments, and Tom Thayer’s outsider like collages and sculpture. Both for me, held a kind of joy.

Tom Thayer

The Art World and the 1%

The Art World/Art Market depends on the 1%.  It’s an uncomfortable fact, but OWS is forcing progressive artists to deal with the discrepancy between making art that purports to speak truth to power, and making money selling art to that power.  William Powida’s recent show in Chelsea articulates the dilemma with piercingly honest texts and Andrea Fraser (who’s performance,/video work is all about the commodification of art) has a wonderful post on adbusters.  As OWS starts up again this spring, more artists will have to face this dilemma.

She says “The 1% have funded the rise of the art world over the past 10 years” and then goes on to question how artists can justify their participation in the art economy.   “Any claim that we represent a progressive social force while our activities are directly subsidized by, and benefit from, the engines of inequality can only contribute to the justification of that inequality.”   

And contemporary artists tend to have progressive agendas.  So many want their lives ‘work to contribute to the political discourse, to speak truth to power, to spark outcry against inequities.  Unfortunately, if one is really honest about it, the visual arts are the least effective medium for change.  Hans Haake wrote in 1968, “ We must face the fact that art is unsuited as a political tool”. I’ve always said that if an artist really wants to change the world, he should make beautiful art, sell it for lots of money and finance a documentary or a long form investigative article in the New Yorker.  Much more effective use of resources – That is, if in fact, political, social change is the artists’ true agenda.  

The Art Fairs – in the belly of the art market beast

Just finished my last art fair and saw some wonderful things. I’m so approach/avoidance of these things. On the one hand, they are so convenient – a great opportunity to see a lot of marvelous art in a short time. On the other, art fairs are the essence of the art market at work and frankly, I just hate to see things I love so commodified. But the positive. At Barbara Mathes Gallery in the ADAA show, I was introduced to a wonderful Italian ceramist named Fausto Melotti. Totally unaware of him before, and they’re just beautiful.

Then at the Modern part of the Armory Show, there was a Deborah Butterfield horse that I must have seen in 1982 when it was last shown. It seemed so familiar. Of all the artists that I wish I’d bought at the time – of all the if onlys – Butterfield is my biggest regret. I’ll never forget the one I saw in the late 70′s made from mud and sticks that I could have had for $400. Yikes. Here is the Butterfield from 1981. It was sold, and I couldn’t stand to ask how much it sold for. The answer would hurt too much.
And I bought a painting on paper by an artist from California named Dan Miller. He works with the Center for Creative Growth in Oakland. It’s an organization that has comprehensive art programs for disabled adults. And of course, I love that the money goes to the art center. here’s an example of his work – not mine, but similar. Mine says over and over “Paper.” I love it.

Wonderful show at Ziehersmith

There are so many galleries I’m interested in on my street.  I always go into Ziehersmith .  Last month they had a terrific show by Allison Schulnik – who made the most beautiful video which you too can see because it’s on You Tube.  See it here.  It’s very strange and touching.   And I think it’s wonderful for an artist to make the work available for anyone to experience – at their convenience, in their space,  sitting down with a glass of wine. Most video art could be this accessible.  Most video art isn’t,  however,  and most video artists don’t seem to like that democratic aspect of the medium.

Ziehersmith’s  current show is equally weird and touching.  It consists of vernacular photographs found around at tag sales and flea markets.  It’s a carefully curated show and the sum creates a mood even stranger than the parts – some of which are very odd to being with.

Ziehersmith Gallery Vernacular Photo

Happy (belated)  New Year to us all.  2012 is going to be a great year (Mayans notwithstanding).  I can just feel it. And for some reason, I’ve decided to take up the blog again.  Perhaps it’s because I just had a huge (old) birthday, but figure it’s time to share accumulated wisdom in the so-called art world.  In any case – here’s goes:

You know, we always try to greet folks who come in the gallery, and someone just came in and said “Oh, this show is just beautiful! – ooops I shouldn’t have said that, sorry.”  I said “that’s OK, I love beautiful”, and anyone who knows my gallery understands that.

Marilla Palmer installation shot

But is beautiful a bad word?  Of course it is – at least around the art world – and it’s been that way ever since I remember – which is 1975.  The art world thinks that art – to be worthwhile – must push boundaries, envelopes, preconceptions, conventions – a lot of things.  It’s got to confuse, be ugly, and require a PHD in semiotics.  Now,  I  like to look at and think about a lot of difficult art.  I just don’t very often love it.  And in the end, you gotta go with love.  And that, for me at least, means it has to be beautiful.  Here’s a shot from my beautiful exhibition opening Thursday

The High Line is New York at its Most. You Gotta Go

The High Line is open and it’s the most interesting  site specific piece of art I’ve seen in a loooong time.  The typical park is a respite from the cacophony of urban life.  It’s designed to create an oasis apart from hustle and bustle – to create a space for quiet contemplation.  The High Line -  however  -  is designed to embrace and reinforce the experience of  New York.  The park was created from an abandoned elevated railroad bed, which at the time it was built in the 30’s, was an engineering marvel meant to take the railroad traffic off 10^th Avenue and get it out of the way of foot and car traffic.  Therefore it’s  a long skinny park  and walking along it is like walking on a wide sidewalk – a normal New York experience.   But this sidewalk has plants –  not elegant cultivated plants, but New York plants  – native, wild looking  species chosen for their hardiness.  And they grow through cracks in the concrete – so you always sense the quintessential New York nature-urban conflict.  Is nature going to tame the city or vice versa?

And of course like any New York sidewalk, there are tons of people strolling, texting, gossiping,  proposing  marriage, sunning, having lunch, etc.  But unlike your typical New York sidewalk, it’s three stories above the ground, so your whole urban experience is skewed and heightened. You can see out to the river,  as well as the  inner workings of the parking lot on 19^th.  Billboards are not waaay in the air, but in your face,  as are the assortment of star architect buildings popping up to take advantage of the park. Taxis and traffic are down there as is the vista of 14^th Street.  But the guys working construction on all the new building are at  eye level and newly visible as is the wash hanging from lines in the few remaining tenement buildings.  The High Line is New York squared and therefore a wonderful thing.

You gotta go

Galleries on Lower East Side

Last week I was lucky enough to join a tour of some of the many new galleries that are sprouting up on the Lower East Side like mushrooms. The art market amazes me. Everyone knows it’s in the tank these days, and yet, for every gallery that closes – it seems as if there is some optimistic, idiotic kid who opens a new one up. Reminds me of me starting out in the midst of the 70’s recession. Several of the new galleries are outposts of established galleries but most are owned by former gallerinas – or gallerinos ?- who used to work for Chelsea dealers and are now out on their own. And they choose to open in the Lower East Side because it is the anti-Chelsea. The neighborhood couldn’t be more different.