culturebloat

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by me, ft. ann hirsch, alyssa monks, jeanette hayes, sara vanderbeek, sara cwynar, lauren seiden, jane lafarge hamill, francesca dimattio, valerie snobeck, and ann greene kelly

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ryan mcginley wallpapered soho's team gallery with nude portraits of friends (fellow artists, innovators, and all-around cool people, generally) with a show that makes you blush at first glance, and then leaves your mouth gaping open. i stopped by the show's opening -- a verifiable zoo of people that made it nearly impossible to even see the photos on the walls -- and again during the week that followed.

mcginley's floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall nudes appear overwhelming at first. but when there are so many unabashed nudes, they become less naked. their nudity is not the focus, but rather the character and personality that lies beneath. and mcginley's 700 portraits come together not as 700 nude portraits, but as 700 photographs of people stripped down, baring all, exposing their vulnerabilities, insecurities, and deepest character. mcginley's photographs reveal something rare, and they're heart-wrenchingly stunning as a result.

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philippe decrauzat's magenta and cyan moiré-patterned canvases at new york's elizabeth dee gallery.

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a week after visiting rachel lee hovnanian's cereal cafe, i stopped by her show at chelsea's leila heller gallery, which has garnered a bit of hype because of her "perfect baby showroom." set up like a hospital nursery, with babies in each bed, the showroom riffs on genetic modification, high expectations, and the overall influence of technology. hovnanian has created babies with particular character traits and predetermined (outrageously ambitious) futures. gallery-goers are encouraged to hold the babies, which feel shockingly real to the touch and have a weight distribution very similar to that of a real child.

between the cereal cafe and "plastic perfect," i've fallen in love with hovnanian's work and worldview. technology influences every part of contemporary life, and instead of fighting it, hovnanian mocks us a little and highlights the general absurdities of what we've now come to see as normal (liiike texting while in bed with a partner, which hovnanian's chelsea show addresses, and which an unsettling number of people find no problem with).

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an artist's to-do list (or rather, "done" list) probably doesn't look like yours. eric wesley's "daily progress status reports" at bortolami gallery features blown up progress report forms that the artist has filled out in some capacity, be it an ink splatter or list of hourly activities. wesley's show serves as a commentary on the artist's work and explorations -- something as seemingly mundane as an ink splatter represents that which the artist accomplished or explored that day. the same goes for scribbles, paint patterns, and written words. through his progress reports, wesley is documenting his own personal artistic growth.

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ed ruscha + (found paintings x reappropriation) = wayne white

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roxy paine's "checkpoint" is a large-scale diorama depicting an airport security check made of maple wood, constructed at a trompe l'oeil angle such that 18 feet look like 80. clinical and surreal, the diorama converts something that we rush through into something peaceful and worth looking at.

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nick cave's fall show spans jack shainman gallery's two spaces; and neither include a soundsuit, of which cave is most famous for. the pieces in the show are made of found objects, especially pieces that carry deep racial undertones. cave turns these pieces into shrines of a particular sort. draped in beads and ceramic birds and lamps, weight-bearing figurines appear to be converted into heavy, deeply saddening objects that memorialize a bygone era in a manner that is somehow, unsettlingly celebratory.

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rachel lee hovnanian hosted a 3-day pop-up in soho with free wifi, phone charging stations, and sugary cereal. there was a private selfie room and lounge piled high with teddy bears.

hovnanian's impetus for the pop-up was the similarity between the rush we get from a bowl of sugar-loaded froot loops and from wifi or a fully charged cellphone. i stopped by, grabbed a bowl of frosted flakes, charged my phone, took a few selfies, and posted the top photo to instagram. and yes, my nostalgia-hued sugar rush made me just as happy as my fully charged phone did. and yes, seeing likes and comments roll in from instagram made it all that much better.

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while his site-specific works are undoubtedly more powerful, robert montgomery's light installations never fail to inspire awe and fantasy through their poetry.

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christopher williams' "production line of happiness" at MOMA. self-aware, highly mechanized stock photos about photography, its history, its technology, and its processes.

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belated post from johannes vanderbeek's show at zach feuer gallery. i was most struck by vanderbeek's use of material, pictured up close at bottom, which blends clay, resin, and paint. the materials on their own are clinical and cold, but vanderbeek imbues them with an energy and warmth, creating pieces (paintings, wall-mounted sculptures, and freestanding forms) that are borderline whimsical and fantastical. 

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i stopped by salon 94 bowery's "climate vortex sutra" of david benjamin sherry's work in lieu of grabbing lunch today (cue "sex and the city" buying-vogue-instead-of-dinner comparisons). his ultra-crisp photographs are given bright color filters that turn landscapes into surreal, futuristic, mildly unsettling scenes. he takes advantage of shadows and angles to turn something very real into something seemingly artificial, manufactured, stripped down, and geometric.

in the exhibit were also a couple of portraits by sherry, a genre of his which i had never seen before. he treats his subjects equally: people are just as artificial, stripped down, and hyper-real as the earth, as if skin is a landscape in and of itself.

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more than any other state in america, california has become emblematic of consumer culture and materialism, particularly in the eyes of artists (finish fetish, anyone?). drew heitzler's show at marlborough chelsea, "paradies amerika," takes its name from egon kisch's novel of the same title, which criticizes california culture.

i was most drawn to heitzler's use of materials. some works featured glossed-over neoprene (wetsuit material), and others were unsettlingly lacquered, heavily glazed in glossy coats of vibrant reds and blues and deep, deep black. one series of prints compared and contrasted books, putting something like christopher williams' "the production line of happiness" with thomas piketty's "capital," both of which explore capitalism, consumer culture, and materialism through different lenses. the juxtapositions were at times humorous, and the overly watered down paints and smudges injected the series with a particular futility.

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seeking to explore themes of happiness and ephemerality, the photos in paul graham's "does yellow run forever?" are captivating in their stunning simplicity. the images fall into three distinct categories -- rainbows, pawn or jewelry resale shops, and women (all black, if i remember correctly) asleep in simply decorated bedrooms -- with a particular solitude and means of escape as their common thread. graham seeks to reveal what we hunger for in life, be in love, wealth, happiness, or beauty, all of which become a metaphorical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

the exhibition's true value comes in recognizing that that which brings us happiness is also ephemeral. we cannot sleep forever; the beauty and magic of a rainbow ends shortly after a rain; receiving gold often brings joy, but it can very easily be sold, which again might bring happiness for the money one receives. we can find happiness in the most mundane things, but because no source of happiness can last forever, we must jump from sight to feeling to sound to touch, in constant search of whatever is next.

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a series of david hockney drawings, "the arrival of spring," are on display at pace gallery. over months and years, hockney chronicled changes in landscape with black and white drawings, not wholly unlike monet's haystacks or views of notre dame. the artist's ipad drawings were also on display on a massive scale. i had seen the paintings online, but viewing them in person was an entirely different experience, due in part to their size.

something about the feathered strokes, dots, and lines and the way that they cohered into a legible (yet decidedly digital and microsoft paint-esque) rendered them slightly unsettling. the scale of the works likely played into it, but it was very clear that these works were constructed digitally -- they were not painted, airbrushed, enameled, or lacquered. they are, in many ways, a celebration of digital art-making, and there's something exciting and endearing about a 77 year-old artist toying with such new materials.

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disney's "fantasia" was regular viewing for me as a child -- i was wholly enamored with the fantasy of it all, the stunning (90s-era) animation, and the overall highs and lows. dan colen's miracle paintings series, on display now at the gagosian gallery, are all directly inspired by scenes from "fantasia," channeling disney's magic with rich and glossy oil paint.

the paintings themselves were directly inspired by particular scenes (from top to bottom, "also sprach zarathustra," "ride of the valkyries," and "the sorcerer's apprentice") and fully captured the volatile energies and emotions of each.

colen's exploration of internal and external forces in art-making have been central to his development as an artist, and the miracle paintings are no exception. they're atmospheric, sublime, surreal, and larger than life, allowing viewers (and, i can't help but imagine, the artist himself) to get lost in their luxurious, rich color, drawing the eye closer with an inescapable magnetic force.