Congrats are in order to blog favorite Lori Nix on her recent full page mention in Wired magazine. Asami Novak gives LN about 200 words and two thirds of a page for her photograph Museum of Art.
What I love about Nix’s work is that is does not try to be too real, just real enough to let people see the story and then dig into the image looking for all the little things that make her work so appealing.
Here in DC, Lori Nix is represented by Randall Scott Gallery.
Leave a CommentI spent some time Saturday on 14th street and came away from two shows that I was excited to see, happy that I spent the time. A few things upfront about both shows, I actually own artworks by both of these artists. (This shocks me to no end – but that is another story) I became aware of both Lori Nix and Khan and Selesnick at various art fairs in Miami last year.
I”ve never really thought about it, but both artists set up environments and narratives, then produce work around those themes.
Lori Nix
Lori Nix’s show is titled “The City”. It shows and illustrates a version of New York that is growing back towards nature. These are not images that are trying to make you believe in the reality of the landscape, just the opposite – LN is only trying to suspend belief for a moment – to give the viewer a feeling that they have seen the location and then tell the story of the artwork. That said, the mis-en-scene is detailed and complete.
Nix’s photographs are similar to telling stories over coffee, there is a simplicity and clarity – with fuzzy details that allows you to linger on her every word.
Kahn and Selesnick
Kahn and Selesnick come from a different place than Nix, K&S; use documentary styles to bring you into a speculative fiction, one which although I’m sure they would hate is probably best termed “Steampunk”. The current body of work titled “Eisbergfrestadt” (or Iceburg Free State) is based on the real incident of 1923 when an iceburg ran aground in the port town of Lubeck.
K&S; use this jumping off point to develop images and relics of the period. One of the stories throughout the images is that the new currency printed for the state become so worthless that it is used as toilet paper and firewood. This reminds me of the stories my father told me about post World War I Germany, the currency was in such a state of inflation – people would practically carry money in wheel barrows to buy bread – this same story is illustrated here. The exhibition consists of photographs, sculptures, paintings, and ephemera. All of it interesting to see just for the approach to detail that these images take.
K&S;’s work in this particular series is laced with irony and satire allowing the viewer to realize that these works reflect not only a real or imagined past, but our present as well.
Extended Play
Kahn and Selesnick have recently received a commission from NASA. Based on Mars, the first of these new images “Mars Glider” is on display as well. In future posts, I promise not to go on too much about NASA and my feelings about how space travel was pulled away from me after being promised in my childhood.
I’m in New York Tuesday – there is just so much to see right now – here is the short list: Richard Prince, Martin Puryear, Jaq Chartier, Johnnie Winona Ross, just to name a few.
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Matthew Collings
Regular readers know of my enjoyment of Matthew Collings dairy in Modern Painters. Here’s a pretty good interview with him on Artnet (amazing how they interview their own writers as an article – but that’s another story) Here’s a quick snippet.
writer: You made your reputation with TV programs and books on modern and contemporary art, but more recently you’ve turned your attention to Matt’s Old Masters, and now you’ve remade Sir Kenneth Clark’s Civilization. It would seem that you really do hate contemporary art these days.
Matthew Collings: I know a lot about art and want to talk about it. But knowing about it isn’t the same as feeling you have to mindlessly support it and say the accepted things about it to show you’re in a creepy club, or that you can intimidate people who don’t know about it. That’s the theme of all my books and programs. The new series is about how we might understand “civilization” today (that is, if we think we’ve still got it). It goes from the Greeks to now, but it’s all from the perspective of now. The book that comes out of the series is more diaristic and confessional; it’s about my tragic parents and so on, what I thought yesterday, etc., as in Blimey. There’s also some stuff about Clark and the whole idea of TV arts programs. But the true focus of both the book and the TV series is the anxieties and uncertainties of art now, taking “art” as a kind of culture or constant, ongoing discussion, not just a collection of individual objects or shows.
Glenn Branca
A couple of days I alerted readers about a GB performance of Symphony No.13: Hallucination City for 100 electric guitars. Well it seems that PGWP saw this performed in LA about a year os so ago.
Johnnie Winona Ross
One of my favorite artists, JWR (above: Sand Bend Draw, 2005) has a new show in New York this week at Steven Haller Gallery. I’ll review this later in the month. But don’t wait for me, exhibition is from October 18 – November 24.
Lori Nix
Randall Scott Gallery is showing Lori Nix (another favorite / below: The Majestic, 2006) along with Dane Picard right here in Washington DC. Exhibition is from October 27 – December 8. I’m missing this opening, however do expect a review.
Let’s start with my catching up with yesterday information about Flow.
Arthur Roger Gallery (New Orleans) is showing Nicole Charbonet (top) whose built and developed paintings are a new interest if mine – I became interested after seeing them in ArtPapers magazine and in person they are as strong as they seemed.
Kenise Barnes (Larchmont NT) is showing Robert Flynn (above) who does these amazing charcoal and graphite images of sod. I know this sounds weak – but it’s just the opposite. These are amazing images and deserve your attention. A recent work is based on trophies and “boy toys” (my phrase) – well worth searching out. I understand he also does some amazing sculpture of items found in Home Depot – it sounds good so I’m waiting for that.
Miller Block (Boston) is showing Lori Nix who was gotten enough words from me in the last few days. So you know that you should be looking at her work a good bit.
After Flow yesterday, I had even lower hopes for the Bridge show. So I walk in and am handed the second largest and physically intimidating catalog of the last week – its almost the size of “Parabola” that I mentioned on wednesday ok, it’s half that size – but its still big -like an old issue of “Interview”. Again Flow is probably the best of the fairs after ABMB and I was also surprised by the high quality at Bridge as well. I really did think these two shows were just me too art fairs – I was so wrong. Both of these shows have set the bar very high, in fact it might be that these “late bloomers” are the real future of what is going on in Miami for the next few years as far as growing the orbiting events. Neither one is using the whole location, nor are they tied to any single location giving these events the ability to grow and shrink with almost no downside. Don’t get me wrong, AQUA is a great event, however the AQUA Hotel is already full so what’s next? Other than a deeper editing in the gallery selection process, I’m not sure.
So lets get to what I saw… Johnnie Winona Ross (above) is showing a painting and a great set of prints at Elin Eagles-Smith (San Francisco) – since we last spoke about JWR – he has developed a waiting list for his paintings – but a few prints are still available. I’m as thrilled with his work as I was last year.
Trillium Press has some great things going forward, including a book of David Mamet Cartoons.
Front Room Gallery (Brooklyn) is showing works by Emily Roz Who creates large grids of images taken from movies and television. Using Polaroid film she is able to mimic the look and feel of images flickering on screen. She also is able to hold up a mirror depicting formula and genre of the american landscape.
PierreFrancois Ouellette (Quebec) is showing John Latour as a re-staging of his show, “Lost Words”. Latour is one of four who make up this show – his work occupies a space between Joseph Kosouth and edited FBI documents.
Andrew Edlin (NYC) is showing swiss photographer Mario del Curto (below) photographic the work of architect Richard Greaves. These feel like the work of someone photographing the folk art of the American south however most of these were shot in Canada – and it hardly matters. The images are eccentric and familiar, yet have are fascinating in a way thats hard to ignore them.
Back to AQUA
I meant to spend a few moments with Isaac Layman, however when I as there he was pretty busy with some folks so I put off the conversation with him for a later date. That said, lets touch on his work a little so you can see where my excitement is coming from. IL’s work sits in a relationship between the detail and the whole – it shows that the parts are more complicated than the larger whole. These images recall a sort of updated cubism that is all the more fascinating in that he is building images based of many smaller images toward a collective whole. A macro/micro type approach. Isaac Layman is showing at Soil
Platform had a number of nice Jaq Chartier’s paintings. These are always a strong and continue to impress me with the vernacular of the image that is built and referenced throughout all of the works.
Leave a CommentLet’s start with the celeb sightings today – frankly I’m tired and need to do the easy stuff first. Jay Z and Beyonce this was a total fluke. I was leaving through the most inconvenient door – because where I was going was right on the other side. I get my bag checked and the next thing I know – I’m looking at this really beautiful woman – with big eyes and the most perfect skin I’ve ever seen. Pretty amazing, so it took me a few moments to see the bodyguards – and then there was HOV. The amazing thing is that I always assumed that he was like 6’2″ in fact he is more like 5’10”. 5’10” nicely dressed though. It was then I realized who it was – I’m the worst on that stuff (although reading this week, you’d think it was all I do.
Dennis Hopper I attended the “art loves movies” event last night for a special screening of “Easy Rider”.(full disclosure – I had never seen this all the way through before) Hopper mentioned that at the time he was influenced by Allen Darcangelo, Ed Ruscha, and a few other of the california artists at the time. Funny thing you can really see this during the quieter road scenes, which granted act as a transition between scenes, but still the influence is there.
The secret mass transit system I think some people know this, but did you know there is a mass transit system that effectively links all the art fairs together? Here are the basics – every fair has a bus that goes from ABMB to the other events – AQUA, NADA, and ~pulse. So your basically looking at a web of bus trips that emulate from the big show at the convention center. This has probably saved me and a number of folks a ridiculous amount of money in cab fares.
NADA This is a good show. Saw some really interesting stuff here – most of it I had not seem before. Murray Guy is showing Matthew Higgs (above), and other than having a great first name, his work is just great. While reusing book elements, he isolates them and allows the viewer to apply outside thinking to his work. This is not far from the process that William S. Burroughs and Bryon Gysin developed in the seminal book “The Third Mind”. Samson Projects (Boston) is showing the classical nudes of Gabriel Martinez. Galerie Olaf Stuber (Berlin) is showing just a couple of photos by Poison Idea. Galleri Christina Wilson, and White Columns had a few really interesting pieces as well.
Flow Art Fair is probably the best of the smaller fairs. I know this is saying quite a little bit. here’s the deal, the galleries are positioned below ABMB but above the NADA and AQUA fairs – and maybe this is just me but the quality seems higher than all of the rest (with the exception of ABMB). I was real dubious of the show – thinking it was just a me too type of event. A bought a Lori Nix(not the one above) from the Block Gallery in Boston. I was pretty giddy after that and completely ignored doing any kind of legitimate note taking. So sorry about that – I’m going back Saturday and I’ll have some real notes for you then.
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