This essay, published in the March 2011 issue of Frieze Magazine, is an edited version of a lecture given at the school of Visual Arts in New York on the 18th of November 2010, as part of a lecture series organized by David Levi Strauss for the MFA Art Criticism and Writing Department. This lecture was recorded and can be viewed here.
by Ambereen Karamat
Eric Fertman, installation view, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, 2010.
In this technologically obsessed world where new art trends are often based on graphically designed images by, or express ideas through combinations of mixed-medium installations like, it is a reprieve to enter the placid world created by Eric Fertman. His show at Susan Inglett Gallery had the serenity of a Japanese garden. Often in his sculptures there are elements of both artificiality and naturalness. The rough bark of a tree is transformed into a smooth, balloonlike form, lightly stained with reds, pinks and yellows.
by Taylor Ruby
Lily van der Stokker, installation view of "Terrible and Ugly," 2010. Courtesy Leo Koenig Inc. New York.
In her recent exhibition at Leo Koenig, Lily van der Stokker created cartoonlike murals and drawings with fluorescent colors, bulbous shapes, and short, catchy texts. With images of flowers, clouds, and assorted handmade furniture (motifs she has mulled over since the early ‘90s), her work is meant to examine the notion of femininity. For van der Stokker, femaleness within contemporary art has been historically trapped behind the nice, the decorative and the pretty.
by Taylor Ruby
Interested in the link that man has produced between nature and technology, Roxy Paine is known for creating robotic-looking stainless steel trees along with faux fields of poppies and wild mushrooms. Often placing his life-size sculptures of plant and biological life in environments they would likely inhabit (Central Park for instance), he asks his viewers to question the assault of mechanized reality on the natural world.
by Sarah Stephenson
Sue Williams, American Enterprise, oil and acrylic on canvas, 52 by 62 inches, 2009. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.
Confronting gender politics and the violation of the female body has been the primary focus for Sue Williams throughout her career. Within the last decade her interest has expanded to subverting the patriarchal power of political systems. This exhibition at 303 Gallery, curated by artist Nate Lowman, traced her varied body of work, from painting to drawings to sculpture, since 1989.
by Jillann Hertel
Lucy Skaer, film still from "Rachel, Peter, Caitlin, John," 2010. Courtesy Location One, New York.
Films, sculptures and artfully wielded hole punchers juxtaposed with familiar and abstract subject matter make up British artist Lucy Skaer’s first solo project in New York: “Rachel, Peter, Caitlin, John.” The exhibition is a sort of visual puzzle, which if you spend some time connecting the pieces will illustrate notions of interruption, reinvention and the alchemy involved in filling in the missing parts of vision. Continue reading…
by Marco Greco
Richard Serra, Tilted Arc, 1981.
Learning Curve
In 1981, Richard Serra installed Tilted Arc, a gently curving 12-foot high, 120-foot long wall of steel into the open space dividing the two buildings that make up the Federal Plaza in New York City. Commissioned by the United States General Services Administration under the national Arts-in-Architecture program, the piece was met with an abundance of disapproval from the workers in the surrounding offices, and as a result was removed on March 15, 1989, nearly a decade after its installation. More than 20 years later, it is interesting to wonder whether Titled Arc altered the course of future public art projects in New York. It might be worthwhile to look at some other instances where art and politics have collided, as well as the most recent examples of public art in New York, to get a sense of Tilted Arc’s impact.
by Charlie Schultz
Nathan Carter, Williamsburg Brooklyn Public Housing Project Concealed Swindon Call and Response, steel, aluminum, acrylic and enamel paint, dimensions variable, 2010. Courtesy Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York.
If you’re in Brooklyn and you see a guy pocketing little bits of street detritus, you might be witnessing Nathan Carter gathering art materials. This is where it all begins for Carter, collecting “Brooklyn Street Treasures” that accumulate on his person under the category of “pocket shrapnel.” Eventually this stuff is worked into sculptures, mobiles, or installations that carry forward the artist’s abiding interest in modes of transmission and reception, most notably via the radio.
by Dan Slyfield
David Shrigley, untitled, ink on paper, 14 5/8 by 10 3/8 inches, 2010. Courtesy Anton Kern, New York.
The strength of David Shrigley’s art—his small ink drawings that narrate with handwritten captions the illustrations happening within them—could almost be mistaken for college dorm room décor: ironic, cutely rebellious, and simplistic.
by Sarah Stephenson
Sarah Sze, The Uncountables (Encyclopedia), 2010. Courtesy Tanya Bonakdar, New York.
In Sarah Sze’s first exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar, towering shelves precariously tilted towards the wall, held upright only by taut wool threads, while recognizable objects from the garage, kitchen or kids’ room had been reconstructed and meticulously placed along or around the shelves. The threads, along with blue masking tape stretching across the floor, led the viewer’s eye from the shelves to various functional features of the gallery, as well as to other items Sze had introduced into the space, such as a series of plaster containers tucked under a bookshelf. These parasitic lines, reminiscent of a multi-layered Julie Mehretu painting, drew the viewer from installation to installation in this exhibition of organized chaos, perpetually on the brink of collapse.
