Thinking About Art

Email Response to Ashlee Simpson Post

I received an email from a reader who had concerns about my recent Ashlee Simpson post. With permission, I am posting the anonymous email below for others to comment on. In a few days I will weigh in with my thoughts.

Do you really think that or are you playing with your readers? Your statement that lack of talent shouldn't stop one will, indeed, cause me to remove your site from my favorites. That is the reason that the art world, and our general culture, is in chaos today. Good judgment and a high standard of competence and talent should be the basis of art (as well as other aspects of life). Calling any creation art without any sort of critical analysis or understanding of history, culture, etc. has made the word art meaningless. Best effort does not equal art or accomplishment. Best effort without a satisfactory result is a futile waste of time.

Discuss...

The Bluegrass

I wanted to post a quick head's up that I am off to Kentucky early tomorrow morning where I am going to finish up some pieces that will be in my solo show in May. Given that I'll be otherwise occupied with family and work, posting may be infrequent until Monday. I hear you saying, "Posting as been infrequent anyway!" Well, yeah, I know. But my recent 65 hour weeks at the day job can cause that. Fortunately that project is coming to an end!!

A sneak peak into what will be coming:

- More on my Ashlee Simpson revelation
- Art blogging in DC and just how good it is (with that be sure to read this great review of Molly Springfield)
- Results of the WPA\C Auction

Uh oh...

Who will dare speak out against this now that they're involving cute little middle school kids. Who out there will be so cruel?

I'm kidding... and saying nothing more!

Ashlee Simpson @ Constitution Hall

WAIT!! Before you go and delete your Thinking About Art bookmark, please hear me out. The title of this post may scare you away, and I may lose whatever credibility I have gained, but this post is serious. If you dare, continue reading.

Tonight I attended the Ashlee Simpson concert at Constitution Hall... yes, that Ashlee Simpson. Let me state for the record that I received free tickets in the 7th row and I never pass up a free concert. Fortunately though, this concert was well worth the price of admission and even opened my eyes to something new in the art world. No, I'm not talking the short, hand-made, grungy skirts that 13 year old girls seem to think is all the rage. I'm talking about talent (or lack thereof) and entertainment.

Tonight's spectacle confirmed for me that Ashlee Simpson is not a good singer and she's just barely bad. It's perfectly clear why she needed the help that did her in on SNL. But standing front and center tonight among a mob of several thousand people chanting her name and singing her lyrics, I had a revelation:

Talent is great if you have it, but if you don't, don't let that stop you from doing what you do.

Here I was, a 26 year old man who has never felt older in his life actually having a good time watching mop-haired Simpson rock out. She can't sing and her style and mojo are so incredibly derivative, but she entertained the hell out the audience tonight. And that's what matters, isn't it? Ashlee knows that she'll probably never enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and her career may not last another year, but for one night she was bringing joy and pleasure to a few thousand people.

I have my first solo show coming up in a month and if I entertain 50 people over the course of its two month run, I'll consider myself successful. Do I have the most talent in the world? Probably not. But can I do my best to put on a great show? Absolutely... and by God I will. Because there are those artists out there who will have a place in the art history books for centuries to come and chances are, that's not me. But talent or not, it doesn't matter... as long as I put forth the best I can surely someone will enjoy it. And that, my friend, is success. It's not about appealing to the art elite (critics, gallerists, curators, etc). It's about appealing to your audience, whoever they may be. If the critics like your work, well, that's proverbial icing on the cake.

Ashlee Simpson... girl, you can't sing at all, but thanks for putting on a fun show and making it a night to remember for so many people (me included for very, very different reasons).

On a related note... Damien Hirst has gotten a ton of negative press about his recent show at Gagosian in Chelsea. He's been mocked on several blogs. Well, he may be overpriced and not that talented, but I'll stand before you and say with sincerity that I saw the show and enjoyed it. It didn't move me to a spiritual place, but I liked looking at the paintings. I'll leave the placement of Hirst in the art cannon to you art elite out there. Frankly, I don't care. I enjoyed my 30 minutes in Gagosian that day!

Lenny Delivers

I promise... this is the last Corcoran Biennial related post I'll make for another 2 years! I wanted to mention Lenny Campello's review of the Biennial that he just posted today. We've waited a while for it and it was definitely worth the wait. Lenny and I shared many of the same opinions although two of his faves (Lehr and Huckenpahler) didn't do much for me. I agree with Lenny though in that I'm sure both artists will have very successful careers. Austin Thomas, on the other hand, well... let's just hope Lenny's right and the Corcoran buys one of her works.

Corcoran Biennial, continued...

I think I've given the Corcoran Biennial more than enough air time. Unfortunately, this is all I have to write about right now. Hopefully I can get out this weekend and see some local shows. Until then, let's look at the remaining five artists:

Dana Schutz

Using flattened distortions of form and gestural brushwork, Dana Schutz depicts fantasized worlds that grow out of a story line she invents. Ultimately her narratives turn epic, deserving the most excessive, exuberant imagery. Set in Gauguinesque jungles, strangely verdant forests, or on Lord of the Flies-style islands, her stories combine black humor and an expansive array of art-historical references in canvases bursting with an aggressive riot of brushstrokes and color.

Schutz is a name we're all probably fairly familiar with. But her work is something I've never been able to get into. Based on what I saw in the show it's clear why her work is hot in the contemporary art market. And what makes it so hot is why I don't care much for it. I've discussed that enough and really don't want to give her work any more writing. She's doing well enough on her own!

Jeff Spaulding

Washington, DC-based Jeff Spaulding transforms the sometimes everyday, sometimes rather remarkable detritus he hunts down around the District into finely tuned, formalist-looking compositions. Through improbable and sometimes shockingly funny juxtapositions, his constructions take on highly charged associations or entirely unexpected meanings. Old clothing, abraded bicycle seats, and rubber hoses and straps are just a few of the castoffs that Spaulding, a Corcoran College of Art + Design professor, has utilized in his psychologically loaded assemblages. When his sculptures incorporate used and altered children’s toys, as do a number of the works featured in Closer to Home, the artist seems to reveal the Freudian flipside of childhood innocence with an expressive edge that is as disturbing as it is witty. In all of his art, Spaulding demonstrates an intuitive knack for discovering and distilling the eloquence inherent in familiar objects, and creating art out of what otherwise might be the refuse of daily life.

Spaulding is a widely respected local artist and I've seen his work quite a bit. He has garnered a fair amount of recognition. I don't think my brainwaves align quite right in viewing his work. The text above talks about transforming the everyday into something more. When I view it though, I just see the everyday. In the picture above, I see a bicycle seat hanging from the wall and nothing more. This may be like what I run into sometimes with my work. Every so often someone comments that all they see in my work is pegboard, and nothing more. They can't make the jump to what I see in my work. In this case I'm unable to make the jump to "formalist-looking compositions." I'm sure it's there and I'm sure it's good, but this show has a lot of assemblage sculptures... eventually it loses its punch.

Kathryn Spence

San Francisco-based Kathryn Spence is among the artists in the exhibition who create art from commonplace items, thread, for example, and paper towels that she hand-embroiders in dazzling detail. Finding new possibilities in mundane domestic products, Spence reframes the everyday as extraordinary and evokes traditions of women’s work, particularly in her labor-intensive adaptation of mass-produced decorative details. Attention to detail also figures into her delicate and refined drawings in which she depicts birds, worn socks, amorphous yet suggestive mounds, and other objects of her scrutinizing gaze. To make Untitled, the assemblage at the center of this gallery, she lovingly sorted, folded, ironed, and stacked over the course of years what many of us would simply call junk—cardboard boxes, rags, mattress tags, hairpins, barrettes, thread, socks, discarded Ken dolls and photographs, old clothing, and the like. Spence redeems the worth of these formerly useless materials through the construction of something regenerative and whole.

OK... more assemblage. In addition to the stitched paper towels, Spence makes sculptures out of stacks of thread and other discarded materials. For me, they come off as overly cute. And cute does nothing for me. I will give credit for the interesting installation of some of the work. For example, one ball of yarn is installed on top of the first wall you see. Some balls are high and others low. But in the end, it just ends up being cute.

Austin Thomas

Austin Thomas creates architectural structures—“perches,” as she calls them—that are meant for people to use and enjoy. Indeed, they are “all about people,” as she has stated, and are “not complete unless they draw people in and onto them.” Thomas’s perches promote contemplation, interaction of all kinds, and offer a new point of view from which to take in one’s surroundings. The artist has contributed two perches for Closer to Home (both are pictured here). One is located in a permanent collection gallery near the end of this exhibition installed with early American paintings and silver. Another is outside the museum, adjacent to its New York Avenue entrance.

I like to think of myself as somewhat openminded to new and different art forms, but in the case of Thomas' work all I could think was "Huh?" We've seen thousands of public art pieces like this, many of which are far more interesting. So what does this work add to contemporary art? Why is it important? Haven't thousands of people already covered the public seating thing? And if you want to draw me into the piece shown above, you should have put a roof on it so that during the spring months I can find refuge from the rain!!

Monique Van Genderen

Los Angeles-based painter Monique van Genderen employs new materials in the service of the age-old challenge—met in past centuries by mural, mosaic, and fresco—of working directly on the wall. Her abstract paintings, made of commercial vinyl adhesive film and enamel, cannot be neatly defined in terms of the traditional vocabulary of painting—canvas, drips, brushstrokes, and the like. Moreover, the extraordinary range of color and effects afforded by vinyl—transparency, matte finishes, computer-generated gradients, featureless plains of even color—suggests an entirely new palette and one very different from that offered by traditional paint. Vinyl may reside at the intersection of commercial signage, art, and architecture, but van Genderen uses it with such painterly finesse that it transcends its functional roots. For her installation in this gallery, the artist has created a site-specific wall mural in combination with paintings on panel and wall works posing as panels. Her easy integration of these various forms provides a rather wry commentary on the practice of painting, even as it expands notions of what painting can be.

These paintings were mildly interesting for their color and composition. But it's work that can be seen in almost any contemporary art gallery today, especially in NYC. It's colorful and shiny, and when you combine those two elements you'll catch some attention. I think it's appealing work and emblematic of the work we've got to look at today. I, for one, will be glad when we can move on to whatever is next.

That sums up my quick hit impressions of the work in the Corcoran Biennial. I encourage you to go look for yourself and if you're game, even publish a review on the show here. But for those of you who haven't seen the show yet, I sincerely refer you to my experienced-based review here. Enjoy!

Corcoran Biennial, continued...

Moving along with the roster of artists in the current Corcoran Biennial, we have the foolowing artists:

Adam Fuss

(example piece, not in show)

Adam Fuss is well known for his resurrection of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century photographic tools and techniques, including pinhole cameras, photograms, and daguerreotypes. For Fuss, these techniques, however complex or arduous they may be, are simply a means to an end—the most direct way of creating the image he has in his head—rather than an end in themselves. The spectral beauty of his unpredictable antiquarian techniques seems to free his images from physicality, imbuing them with an almost spiritual insight. Themes of life, death, and transcendence are woven throughout his work. Fuss’s ever-changing experimental approach calls to mind some of the early modernists— Alexander Rodchenko, László Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray—who are indelibly linked with the processes he retrieves from the past. But the scientific aura of his imagery, with its spirit of documenting the unseeable, also suggests investigative precursors, such as the motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge. The mysterious, even ghostly compositions of water droplets featured in Closer to Home appear completely removed from time, as if they are for all time.

I've begun to really notice a trend in "wall text" writing that the more elaborate and far-reaching the text, the more simple and straightforward the work really is. Fuss' photographs are elegant and beautiful. The installation is fantastic. I love the mood created in the room. Seeing so many of the same - or very similar - images can be a drag, but you have to look at the work as a single installation. When viewed that way I thought Fuss' work was a standout.

James Huckenpahler

James Huckenpahler’s high-tech imagery begins with a very traditional object: the body. Starting with a prototypical photographic portrait, Huckenpahler scans the surface for a compelling detail to focus upon and manipulate. He then begins sifting through a nearly limitless number of possible digital manipulations—color shifts, gradients, shadows, features, lines, textures—which he considers and discards until only a few remain. He alters the base image until it is nearly obliterated, remade into a kind of metallic futuristic landscape. However abstract these images may appear, they remain deeply rooted in the body and retain a faintly biological aura.

Huckenpahler’s prints exist in a realm between representation and abstraction, evoking celestial vistas, topographic imagery, texture maps from video games, or micrographics. Often they have an internal radiance, appearing translucent and dangerously molten. Without a horizon we have no sense of scale; it is equally easy to imagine each encompassing thousands of miles or existing entirely on the head of a pin.

Those of us in Washington are pretty familiar with Huckenpahler's high-tech, digital work. Seeing more of it in this show did not change my mind about it... I still can't get on board with it. I think the process is interesting and so is the end product. But seeing it just doesn't do it for me. I just don't get a sense that the compositions work for me and I feel that the work needs the process to be successful. If the process was less interesting I think the work would be too. If someone just drew or painted these images, it wouldn't have the impact I don't think. I'll continue to go see his work and keep my fingers crossed that one day it clicks.

John Lehr

John Lehr’s peculiar and disarming vantage point provides us with a highly considered framework for looking at aspects of the urban landscape that we know all too well and tend to ignore. Lehr’s use of a large-format view camera drives him to select his subjects strategically, and encourages subtle adjustments of angle, exposure, and other variables to reveal the mystery in what would otherwise seem boring or monotonous. In his ongoing series, Sound and Fury, Lehr photographs the large outdoor signs, often illuminated and garish, of fast-food chains, convenience stores, and gas stations. But by shooting them in profile he divests them of their intended meaning and casts them in a new light. Under Lehr’s scrutiny these vernacular icons, perhaps the lowest common indicator of our consumer needs and desires, become conceptual constructions, a minimalist lexicon. In their obliqueness they objectify what we will never know about the most obvious elements of our visual world.

Although Blake Gopnik went bananas over Lehr's photographs, I did not feel the same way at all. These large color photos are, well, colorful. And though it seems that Blake had some sort of revelation about the fact that Lehr photographed the sides of signs (and the article makes it sound like it took Blake hours to finally figure it out), I saw it immediately and wondered what was the big deal. I know I'm hard on photography (though I am very envious of successful photographers) but this work brought to mind another fault I have with photography. I get the feeling that in order to get a solo show of photography all you have to do is take pictures of something that hasn't been captured before. Print them out in bright colors and a large size and boom, you've got a fan in Blake! But how stale can that get? Very! Who cares what the side of a sign looks like?

Iñigo Maglano-Ovalle

The striking titanium-clad Cloud presented in this gallery is the latest in a series of works derived from digital renderings of actual cumulonimbus storm cloud formations. Brimming with ominous portent, the sculpture is as much a symbol of everything powerful that we cannot control—from the forces of nature to the workings of the gray matter of our own minds—as it is of those powers we can control. Cloud suggests some sort of man-made or technologically induced storm as well as the ingenious, rippling titanium facades of celebrated architect Frank O. Gehry. With this work Manglano-Ovalle delivers, as a corollary to Gehry, on technology’s promise of something better. But his sculpture, as threatening as it is spellbindingly beautiful, also critiques that promise as an ideology. Cloud invokes issues pertaining to the continuing advance of technology and architecture in the context of the longstanding tradition of landscape imagery and cloud studies, such as those by painter John Constable and photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Manglano-Ovalle’s original proposed contribution to Closer to Home, a group of three sculptures called Fists, could not be exhibited. Pictured here is a study for those works.

I can't say much about Maglano-Ovalle's work. Like the text says, the intended exhibition couldn't be shown for some reason. I think their is an example of his work hanging in the room with the Huckenpahler's but quite honestly I can't remember what it looked like. The picture I show above does look interesting though. I wish I could have seen it.

Richard Rezac

Richard Rezac’s austere, minimalist inventions may seem so flawless as to be machine made, but they most definitely are not. Deftly crafted from a variety of materials, each sculpture is finished to perfection. The artist hand-shapes the wood elements, cuts his own joinery, molds his own forms for casting in bronze, aluminum, iron, and resin, and hand-brushes numerous layers of oil paint as part of his diverse studio practice. The precise edges, virtually perfect seams, and lustrous surfaces attest to his extraordinary finesse. Yet however fine his sculptures may be, each still manages to radiate a sense of domesticity and warmth. Rezac achieves this effect in part by maintaining the human scale of the work. Moreover, by drawing inspiration from architectural details—Shaker or Japanese motifs, for example—hints of familiar utilitarian forms, such as banisters, finials, and corbels, find their way into the art’s restrained formalism.

Rezac's work deserves a closer look and I plan on giving it just that. I think it could be really appealing or it could come off as a nic-nac. Either way I like the idea of pulling together common items with color and assembling a rigid composition. Though this show has a lot of assemblage work, this work seems to register one step higher on the sophistication meter. I'll have to reserve further judgment until I can spend some more time with it.

OK, that wraps up the middle five artists (alphabetically) of the Corcoran Biennial. Tomorrow will be the remaining five. Come on back now, ya hear?!

Corcoran Biennial: A Second Review

So yesterday I reviewed the latest edition of the Corcoran Biennial based on my experience of the show. This time around I'm going to try a more traditional approach. However, I must set the stage.

Close to Home is an exhibit of contemporary art today. The Web site states:

The 48th Corcoran Biennial: Closer to Home is organized on the basis of a preference for work that reflects ideas or raises questions relevant to the biennial series as it has recently evolved. After two Biennials that highlighted a great deal of multi-media, interactive, and, at times, even raucous high-tech art, the organizing curators of Closer to Home decided to let the pendulum swing in the other direction.

This exhibition explores the work of artists who, for a variety of reasons, utilize primarily low-tech and traditional media. This conception was inspired by the belief that a significant amount of important contemporary art examines the flipside of the high-tech coin through earnest individual expression, historically resonant aesthetic dialogue involving, for example, portraiture and landscape, the reinvention or revival of “old-tech” methods, or the poetic use of prosaic materials. While not a guiding theme of the project, domestic issues do figure into some of the featured work, suggesting yet another interpretation of the exhibition’s title.

Advanced technology was never precluded from inclusion, and several of the artists finally selected for the exhibition do use video, digital media, or computers to create or present their work. Nonetheless, all of the work in this exhibition shows evidence of a strong relationship to more traditional modes of artmaking, evoking the familiar beginnings—or home—of visual art practice.

The pendulum definitely swung in the other direction in comparing this show to the 2003 edition. That show was exciting whereas this one is mostly forgettable. This isn't to say that the work in the show is bad, but the overall exhibit doesn't pop the eye. In fact, it reminded me a great deal of the recent group show at the Arlington Arts Center. I felt like the show was an adequate survey of contemporary art, but again, that isn't necessarily a good thing. Outside of my show favorites (Chakaia Booker, Colby Caldwell and Adam Fuss) I didn't feel that any artist's work made an impact. I'm probably being unfair to the show, and I am anxious to read other viewpoints - especially Lenny Campello and Michael O'Sullivan of the Post - but I found the last biennial to be remarkable. Two years later and I can remember in vivid detail several different rooms. Anyway, what I'd like to do is discuss each artist and give a quick thought or two about the work.

Reverend Ethan Acres

The stepson of an itinerant preacher in Alabama, the Reverend Ethan Acres has united ministry, performance, and contemporary art to create a wholly unique and potentially mysterious trinity. His installation for Closer to Home comprises three handmade inflatable sculptures along with felt crows and an effigy of the artist that plays a recording of the sermon he performed on the exhibition’s opening night. Acres sees this grouping as a metaphor for his own heart, with the encompassing rotunda gallery serving as the vessel.

Um, ok... I can make that work in my mind. But honestly, while in the rotunda I felt that I was in a wacky New Orleans carnival gone bad. Unfortunately, I couldn't force myself to think of anything other than inflatable "sculptures," or the house down the street from where I live that with every holiday has a "sculpture" of a Santa Claus or Easter Bunny or whatever in their front yard. It just didn't click for me.

Chakaia Booker

Chakaia Booker’s sculptures are constructed of salvaged rubber, primarily old tires, which she cuts into strips and then wraps and folds into myriad forms. Depending on the age, brand and construction of the tire being used, a given sample may be blue-black, oxidized brown or any shade or hue in between. Moreover, their surfaces display surprising patterns and can vary from a flat- to a high-gloss finish. The worn treads are particularly evocative, and Booker emphasizes their rich textural quality through her deft deployment of repetition.

I'm not sure why the description focuses on such details with Booker's piece because quite honestly I didn't even notice them. For me, the material, composition, physicality and smell of the piece were more than enough to send my mind racing. I didn't care about the color or tread patterns. I only cared that I was looking at a very large wall sculpture made from tires that smelled like tires. It's a piece that produces a unique experience and was a highlight of the show.

Matthew Buckingham

The inspiration for Matthew Buckingham’s slide installation, One Side of Broadway, is Rudolph De Leeuw’s book of photographs entitled Both Sides of Broadway, published in 1910. De Leeuw’s aim was to document every building on both sides of Broadway, from Bowling Green to Columbus Circle. Desiring to reanimate De Leeuw’s project, Buckingham set out to rephotograph the same eighty-four city blocks but chose to record only the east side of the street. Using the unwieldy excess of content contained in exhaustive typologies like his and De Leeuw’s, he speculates on history’s truths and reflects on overlooked possibilities. In Buckingham’s installation a voice-over quietly conveys historic details. The commentary notes the window from which the first motion picture of New York was taken, remarks on the competition between Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers, as well as the unsolved disappearance of motion-picture camera developer Augustin Le Prince, and draws the viewer’s attention to the architecture of New York’s first movie houses.

I promised I tried to give this piece the attention it deserved. On one pass I think I even stood and watched the video - and listened to the voice-over - for about 30 seconds. But that's all I could muster. I wasn't interested in looking at the slideshow and I could barely hear the reading. I think I would like to read more about the piece, but I don't care to see it or hear it. It could be a very fine piece but it didn't grab me.

Colby Caldwell

For many years Colby Caldwell has used his family’s old home movies as the jumping-off point for creating manipulated still images and videos that express his fascination with storytelling and personal history. He is particularly fascinated with the interstitial moments in these films, when the camera might pan, lose focus, or unintentionally capture random bits of the landscape between setup shots. For Caldwell, these fragmentary images of happenstance and accident reveal more of the past than all of a given film’s intended images combined. The artist’s embrace of the accidental also extends to his series of colorful, gridded abstractions entitled How to Survive Your Own Death. This series is the result of a software malfunction that he has explored repeatedly over several years.

Now, I can watch a Caldwell video for much longer than 30 seconds. Colby's videos have a realness and quirkiness to them that appeal to me. They don't try to be too much. They are videos and that's all. He doesn't try to elevate video to something it is not... and I appreciate that. Add on top of that wonderfully colored and patterned digital prints that are so very different from the videos but actually a product of the videos, and then I'm riveted from multiple angles. That's what makes Caldwell's work the best in the show: there's different work but it's all the same really. I feel that he gets the most out of his medium.

George Condo

George Condo is as well known for his exquisite, painterly portraits as he is for the bizarre cast of archetypal characters that inhabit them. His subjects are classically posed, dramatically lit, and surrounded by conflated fragments from the history of painting, such as bubbles, glass bottles, drapery, vegetables lifted from the still-life table, and vague empty settings to better project the subject of the picture. In the end, however, the entire world and inner life of his subjects derive completely from his imagination.

I'm not sure what Condo adds to this show. His characters (and don't we see a lot of characters nowadays) are unusual and strange, and I'm sure they are painted well, but so what? What makes his work standout from the crowd? This isn't to bash Condo's work, I enjoy it just fine, I'm more interested in why he was chosen. There must have been many, many more artists who could have filled this slot. Or perhaps not...

OK, given that I don't have much to write about this week I'm going to focus on the Corcoran Biennial. I've discussed the first five artists in alphabetical order and on Wednesday and Thursday I'll talk about the remaining 10 artists. I can't stress enough how eager I am to read other people's impressions. If readers have seen the show and want to pen a review I would be glad to publish it (email me). I think this exhibition is important to our arts community and should get as much attention as possible, good or bad.

Corcoran Biennial

As you may have realized by now, though in some ways I could be considered an "art critic" I don't really view myself as such. Instead, I view myself as one who experiences art and writes about those experiences. While I frequently find value and entertainment in reading more traditional art criticism, it often feels impersonal and distant, as if any number of people could have written the piece. Perhaps tomorrow I will write a more traditional review of Closer to Home, but in the meantime, what follows is more of a gut reaction to the show. Take from it what you will...

When I walked up to the New York Avenue entrance of the Corcoran I noticed a bench/portico contraption set up that reminded me an awful lot of a Home Depot pre-fabbed object. Once inside I made my way up the stairs and noticed large, blow-up things in bright colors sitting in the rotunda. On the walls were fuzzy birds. Walking into the first gallery I noticed assemblage like balls made out of yarn. They were placed in strange locations. In the center of the room was a larger assemblage by the same artist. On the walls to the left were very sparse drawings of birds. In the small room to the right were glossy non-representational paintings. In an enclave in the first room were more assemblage-like sculptures... very simple in nature. In the next gallery was a video piece installed on the floor. It was a slideshow of another photographer's images with some reading played in the room. The next room had strange paintings of people/characters with elongated necks and no jaws. The next room had shiny metallic-looking images of rippling water encased in plexi. The walls of the room were painted gray and each piece had a strong light shown on it that reflected brightly on the floor. The next area had work of Colby Caldwell. Colby showed videos, photographs and paintings. Also in this big room were brightly colored photographs of the side of signs and some other non-descript scenes. Alongside these photographs are sketches and final, digitally-altered images made by James Huckenpahler. Also hanging in there was an amoebic sculpture hanging from the ceiling. In the first permanent gallery was a sculpture that you can sit on like the one outside by the entrance.

I just realized that I forgot a couple of rooms. I can't remember where these works fell in the order of rooms, but in one was paintings by Dana Schutz. These were crudely rendered paintings that jarred my memory back to what depressed me so much in NYC just days earlier. After Schutz's room were more sculptures similar to the assemblage work elsewhere, just more precisely composed. These were colorful and often delicate. Finally, when I was leaving the museum out of the New York Ave. entrance I noticed a large, wall-mounted assemblage of discarded, cut-up tires.

So yeah, this is my review of the Corcoran biennial based on experience. I'm fairly confident that I didn't neglect to mention anyone's work. I'm pretty sure I described it all in a manner that relates to my experience of it.

Tomorrow I will write a more traditional review of the show and I'll be sure to highlight my favorite artists in the show: Chakaia Booker, Colby Caldwell and Adam Fuss.

Current Gallery Shows in Chelsea

Though Armory and Scope disappointed me a great deal, there were a few highlights in Chelsea I'd like to note. Of course, out of 200 galleries total, and maybe 50 that I visited, you would hope for more than five exhibitions of note. Regardless, here goes...

Logical Conclusions: 40 Years of Rule-Based Art @ Pace Wildenstein

This was hands down my favorite show in Chelsea. Jam packed with minimalistic or very process oriented art, this show was great. The tight installation was a bit much to take in, and some of the work wasn't the greatest quality, but anytime you can see the caliber artists included in this group show, it's a good day. Quite honestly the show felt like a small scale museum exhibition. Seeing this show made my day in Chelsea.

William Betts @ Thomas Werner Gallery

I've talked before about my thoughts on William Betts' work and obviously I am a big fan of his work. Put about 15 works on the walls of a relatively small gallery and it makes for a colorful, awe-inspiring experience. Several pieces had sold and that's great news for Betts. This one is well worth the visit.

Heide Trepanier @ Stux Gallery

Not that my heart skipped a beat when I saw Trepanier's works, but I found many of the paintings to be interesting compositionally. I thought that in many she had a great sense of color as well. The materials and the work in general gets close to the glue and glitter that I think will bring down the art market, but the work is far enough on the other side of the line to get my seal of approval. I thought these works were guilty pleasures... not much depth to it but fun to look at.

Larry Zox @ Stephen Haller Gallery

This is a show of five decades worth of Larry Zox explorations in color and form. Zox is clearly an innovator and genius, and this exhibition is a testament to that. I found his collaged works to be more significant, but honestly I couldn't complain much about any of the included pieces. It's a great retrospective.

Jim Dingilian @ McKenzie Fine Art

Dingilian's permanent maker drawings on old school desktops are fascinating creations. I didn't know which to be more impressed with, the materials, the concept, or the depicted scene. All three of these contributed to make interesting and intricate work. The scenes that Dingilian chooses to depict are common yet eerie. There's a sort of anticipation or edge to the scene. The reason for putting the drawings on desktops is a bit beyond me (I don't see any conceptual notes about that on the McKenzie site) but I'm sure there's something behind that. Collectors obviously agree because all but one piece had sold by last Saturday (at a bargain of $1,500 each).

It's funny looking up at these images and thinking about just how different my selections are from what dominated Armory and especially Scope. Maybe I just have really bad taste... well, I may have bad taste but I don't think that explains the discrepancy.