An artist friend of mine, Amy Crehore, asked me if I still go to art openings (since I haven’t written about as many lately) and I wrote back that I did, but have been so busy and run down lately, that I haven’t really attended as many openings as I used to.
Also, I don’t work as close to Chelsea as I used to, so going over actually takes more effort.
Tonight I had a choice of going back to the Metropolitan, which I probably would have enjoyed more, honestly, than anything I saw, or going to some openings in Chelsea. Amy’s words, ringing in my mind, plus curiousity about Yoko Ono’s opening, I opted to go to the openings instead of the museum. Bad decision (maybe).
First, I went over to see Yoko Ono’s “touch me” at Galerie Lelong W 26 street, 528 which was crowded and empty at the same time - I could have taken video of the event (I didn’t see Yoko anywhere - but maybe I wasn’t looking too hard) but didn’t think it was worth the effort. Her work felt too intellectual and celebrial for me while I was viewing it at the gallery - though it’s much stronger when I look at the photos of her work - like the Highheelshoes, above.
At the opening I found that I could not connect emotionally, except for one thing - the social aspect - that I can relate to.
In fact, in a way, conceptual art - or should I call it “interactive art” where the viewers partake in the creation of the work, as one of her installations at the show did - a big screen with slits in it that people would go behind and stick body parts out while people on the other side took polaroid pictures of the screen - reminded me of User Generated Content.
Ha, Yoko Ono doing User Generated Content in a live “Social Network” …. but maybe, just maybe, Social Art, Conceptual Art, is really the precursor of …… Social Networks and User Generated Content - wouldn’t that be an interesting thesis. I think it would be an interesting book, actually - though I don’t know who would or could write it. Anyway, I digress.
I felt a certain “fakeness” about many in the crowds tonight - like people who want to be artistic, to appear to be that which they’re not (but it’s a value judgement I’m making and I might be wrong or just too harsh).
Next, I went to see Rodney Graham at 303 Gallery W 22 street, 525
I liked some of the paintings though the vocabulary was so minimal that I often have problems with paintings that appear to be largely about the materials being used rather than the message behind them - yet Grahm’s paintings did “sing” and were quite well done.
I guess the wall sized large triptych Self Portrait of Rodney Graham in his living room studio was quite revealing - as you could see all the artists he admires as the books of each one were in the photo (below):
The Gifted Amateur, Nov 10th, 1962, 2007 all content copyright 303 Gallery, New York, 2008
While I don’t care for photographs that much, this illuminated, life sized photo mural told me a lot about the artist - that he smokes a lot, likes Picasso, etc, and how he paints - it’s as if he’s inviting us into his studio - I rather liked the large wall mural photo but I hope he doesn’t over use it - it’s a one time thing - it’s good in conjunction with his painted works, not a replacement for them.
Next, I went over to Cornelius Quabeck “Critical Mess: The Portrait of a Landscape” at Friedrich Petzel Gallery W 22 street, 535 which I liked, and even laughed at one of the paintings that had a crushed can of Diet Coke pasted to the canvas. The mixture of drawing plus vivid colors and pasted objects is masterfully done - if but a little superficial - I liked all the works - but I don’t know if any of this work would stand the test of time, not just in technique but his paintings really seem a little too pretty - still, it was good work.
My friend Sebastian Wenzel (author of www.webanalyticsbook.com), I believe, comes from Dusseldorf and I’m wondering if he’s familar with Cornelius Quabeck - I’ll ask him next time I speak with him. According to Quabeck:
“…After reading Dashiell Hammett in San Francisco, I had the idea to create paintings like a writer creates a protagonist for a story. Before writing the story, he will need to imagine the characters, time and setting.
Every painting in this show started with the drawing of a face. Most of these faces are based on classic Hollywood imagery. I worked from black and white photographs of actresses and actors like the young Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft or Lon Chaney, “the man of a thousand faces”. I wasn’t primarily aiming at visual resemblance. I wanted to create a face of a character just like an actress gives life to a figure in a play or film without being this person.”
I liked the approach of these paintings, and I may borrow something from them in some future works I’ll do (which means it makes sense to go to art openings because I can see more emerging influences than if I just went at a museum and got what influential already decided was good).
Finally, before heading home I dropped by Miki Lee “New Abstraction” at Lyons Wier & Ort Contemporary Art Seventh avenue, 175, at W 20 street, which I did not care for, except for one painting - the work is depends too much on process - too predictable. I think Miki Lee should go after what happened in the painting below:
Miki Lee, Frequent Visitor, 2008Frequent Visitor was the best painting in the show - it had something the others don’t - a way to pull me in and color that worked. By the way, I’ve met the gallery dealer recently at a party, and he’s one of my “Facebook Friends” - but I didn’t notice him around at the opening though maybe I wasn’t really trying to look for him.
Overall, I felt “empty” tonight - with no real connection with most of what I saw or the people I encountered at the openings - so I don’t know if going to see these works tonight was worthwhile, or not - or maybe it was if I got just a little insight out of it.
And to end this post, I’ve been invited to show some of my work in a least one exhibit over the next month or two - problem is the work I’ve done is not framed and needs to be - was deciding if I wanted to invest in framing three of my works, or just forget showing them.
Funny, I put all this energy into creating work but I am the laziest person in the world when it comes to caring for them, framing them, storing them, shipping them and putting on shows - I just don’t care about those things anymore - but I am curious to see what some of my paintings look like if I can get them framed the way I envision and don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to do it.
We’ll see.
