Roma edizione

I was on vacation with my family in late June and discovered some really exceptional places in Rome to look at Contemporary art.  Yeah, I know, I was on the wrong coast and should have been at the Biennale, but as I said, I was on a family vacation and the kids have been anxious to see the Roman ruins and all the splendor that is in Rome and we decided to forgo all the crowds and craziness in Venice.  I never thought of Rome as having a thriving contemporary art scene, but I think that has changed with the recent addition of two new exhibitions spaces, the MAXXI and MACRO.

I don't think that these museums have a large or even nominal permanent collection per se, but they have a feel that is more in the European tradition of the "Kunsthalle", or a space dedicated solely to exhibiting, not actively acquiring and showing, art to the public.  The closest thing that we have to this in NYC is P.S. 1 in Long Island City.  (And now that is not completely independent anymore since its merger with MOMA a little over a decade ago.)

The MAXXI (which stands for Museo Nazionale Delle Arti del XXI Secolo) is devoted to art, design and architecture.  Walking around the building, inside and out, is an artistic experience in itself.  The building is quintessential Zaha Hadid, who designed the museum.  The light, flow and futuristic design is very conducive to seeing contemporary art.  The twists and turns that the exhibition rooms and halls take is surprising - small nooks opening to expansive spaces, artificial light quickly turning into natural light and spaceship, Escher-like stair cases.  The lobby and furniture as well as the piazza harmoniously meld with the entire structure.  There are a few exhibitions on right now, but the most impressive is a exhibition dedicated to Michelangelo Pistoletto and his works from 1956-1974.

Pistoletto started painting self-portraits in his early career, but his breakthrough came when he started creating "Mirror Paintings"in the early sixties.  These paintings, and there are numerous early examples in this exhibition (and he still creates these types of works today - Luhring Augustine showed some in late 2008), were ground-breaking and part of anti-conventional, radical art movement/group in Italy dubbed Arte Povera.  Arte Povera wasn't a stylistic movement by any means but a reflection of anti-establishment thinking that was going on in Italy and throughout Europe at the time.  Pistoletto's painting and later silk-screen images of contemporary people in their life - waiting for public transport, at a party, shopping, demonstrating, in various states of undress, etc - were on highly reflective surfaces where you can see yourself in the work.  These were unique, innovative and highly conceptual.  Here the artist was breaking down the barrier as the canvas as a "window" and the beholder was not just a bystander but now could be an active participant as he or she saw himself within the work of art.  Some examples are below (these were from the same exhibition in that was at the Philadelphia Museum of Art earlier this year - the MAXXI is not so generous with their installation views).

However, my favorite works in the show are the Venus of the Rags and Mappamondo.  Venus of the Rags is part of a larger body of work (stracci) where Pistoletto used discarded pieces of fabric and clothing to wrap individual bricks to make a wall as well as placing them in strategic piles and integrating other materials such as glass to form sculptural pieces.  Venus of the Rags is a small mountain of clothing that is piled as high as a life size neoclassical Venus sculpture that is faced backwards.  Simply, I love the stark plaster white of the sculpture against the highly-textured, multi-colored fabric.  More importantly, this work epitomizes the zeitgeist at the time - the injection of the common, everyday objects into art (see Rauschenberg's "Combine" pieces and Pop Art in the US at the time).  The traditional Venus is literally turning her back on us, a metaphor for the artist turning his back on traditional art making processes.  I love this work.  Its an abandonment of classical sculptural practices for something new and exciting.

Pistoletto has influenced many artists, but what really comes to mind is Christian Boltanski installation that was shown in the Park Avenue Armory in the Spring of 2010.  Boltanski filled the hall with piles and piles of clothing.  Although I believe that the Boltanski's intended message of the work is different than that Pistoletto's, I really think it couldn't have existed without Pistoletto's ground-breaking rag pieces coming first.

Mappmondo (Globe) envelopes everything that I love about Arte Povera.   I knew about this piece in a long time ago, but got to see it in an amazing Arte Povera exhibition in the Summer of 2002 at MOCA LA.  I was so happy to see it here again - like an old friend.  The work was made from from a ball of discarded newspapers that is in an iron cage.  When this ball was made and I believe covered with wax (and not yet in its cage), Pistoletto rolled it around the streets of Turin where it gathered dust and detritus from the sidewalks and roads and permanent marking and sticking to the surface.  There is a very playful and performative element to the work.  I mean, its a ball that one would want to play with and roll around like a child.  But on the other hand, it seriously and consciously is breaking with all art historical hierarchy of subject, materials and practices.  I also like that the dimension that it was rolled around the streets.  Is that the work of art - the action of rolling the ball?  And what we see is this just the result of this act? Or is this the work of art itself?  I like that you don't really know.

There is this lovely brown patina of grime and age shown on the surface and, at the end of the day, there is something simple and primal about it, at the same time being defiant in terms of the process of art making.  Arte Povera literally means "poor art" and here is art made from everyday trash - but now its sitting here in a museum as a priceless object in its cage - untouchable.  Its hard to resolve this and I like that the work has taken on layers of meaning through time.  As Pistoletto took to the street to make this work, I can see it give birth to works such as Vito Acconci's "Following Piece" as well as many others.

Link to MAXXI

Jumping to the MACRO (Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma), which is a completely different neighborhood but reachable from MAXXI by a short trolley and subway ride, is an entirely different experience.  MACRO is a series of neoclassical buildings that used to be slaughter houses and as you walk around, you can see the stalls that held the animals, the troughs where the blood used to flow and the hooks to hold the meat.  The spaces are pulled together with consistent lighting fixtures, steel beams, glass and bleached wood doors and ceilings.  (There is also a space that looks like an al fresco after hours club where the museum stays open late and attracts a young crowd.  The MAXXI also has a fantastic restaurant next door in repurposed building which shares the piazza and is also a big draw to that area.)

As soon as my husband walked in he said he could smell the blood from the slaughter house.  These buildings have not been used for that purpose for quite a long time and are strikingly clean.  I said he was crazy and there was no way that he could smell it, but he asked the guard about it and the guard said there are a few people that come into the buildings and are overwhelmed by the smell.  I guess he's special - but I already knew that....

Unfortunately, there were many new exhibitions that were opening the week after we were visiting, but the space itself was very interesting.  They were having quite a large exhibition of Italian design, which included household appliances, furniture, lighting, etc, which were displayed in very cool vitrines.  Now I know how I am going to decorate my Italian home when I retire...

In an area devoted to design innovation, the exhibits were interactive and great for the kids.  Also, there was also a whole display of Italian advertisements and movie posters which were fabulous.  It was actually nice to have the opportunity to focus on these instead of a show by a particular artist.  You can see over the decades through the posters how the interest in style and innovative design are not just important to promote items or offer the feeling of novelty in this country but really ingrained in the Italian culture and an essential part of life.  Everything they make, even a poster for Nutella, proves fun and beautiful, thoughtful and striking and the colors are totally unique.

Link to MACRO

Its worth mentioning that Italy is celebrating its 150th anniversary of unification, so there are a lot of events and exhibitions dedicated to this right now.  Focus on Italian history, innovation, design and art are the focus right now - so its a very exciting time to visit if you can.  I didn't have a lot of time to look at individual galleries, but I will say that I popped my head into Gagosian, who has a prime location around the corner from the Spanish Steps.  Not a surprise that the neoclassical facade of the gallery and the contemporary-designed space are very special.

He has devoted the group show "Made in Italy" to the anniversary of unification and this is expressed by works of artists either inspired by or that have worked in Italy.  Heavy-hitters included in the show are  Warhol, Basquiat, Baselitz, Damien Hirst, Giacommetti, Koons,  Andreas Gursky, Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince as well as the all-important, Cy Twombly, who recently died and lived and worked most of his latter life in and around Rome.

The exhibition seems a little like a chance to exhibit some very expensive, well-known artists  to someone that might have some deep pockets that would be shopping at the luxury stores in the area. In this setting and in this theme of the exhibitions, Warhol's Vesuvius, the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa seem a little schlocky and less inspired than the canvases of someone like Twombly, which seems truly influenced by Italian history, art, architecture and culture on many different levels.   I understand that Warhol was playing into the iconic imagery and speaking to the kind of commodification of these images in contemporary culture, but I think after walking around and enjoying Rome for a while, when you look at these works, they come off almost cynical and not really celebratory as the exhibition claims.

Furthermore,  I was shocked to see the omission of photographs from Gregory Crewdson's recent project that was shown at Gagosian in NYC in the early fall and in Rome in the late winter.  The photographer took black and white photos of the deserted Cinecitta, the movie sets and studios outside of Rome.  Although they were just exhibited a few months prior, I think one of these photographs included in this exhibition would have been exceptional.  On their own and altogether, they looked a bit dry and lifeless (which, I think, is very different than his entire body of work), but its my opinion, that in this context, this group show would have added some life to them and one or two of them would have looked quite stunning and been more interesting.

Link to exhibition

Make sure you take the time to take in the new, MACRO and MAXXI, than just the old when in Rome!

Group Show - Greater L.A.

I don't know if it was just the humidity that was getting to me or the very unpleasant moment of Time-Square crowdedness that had descended upon Soho on a holiday weekend, but by the time I reached the "Greater L.A." group exhibition, my expectations were sky-high.  I was hoping that it had been worth the battle to get to see a spectacular show.  I was disappointed.

I was really excited to see this show which had taken over the 2nd floor of 483 Broadway (at Broome).  This is the first survey I know of in the last ten years in New York that was supposed to represent Contemporary art in Los Angeles.  The survey had both a good mix of established and emerging artists.  The title, "Greater  L.A.", is probably based on the "Greater New York" show that is held at the P.S.1 on a five year basis which basically gives a snapshot or takes the pulse of contemporary art at that moment in and around NYC.

If this is the state of Contemporary art in L.A. - well, then it looks a bit lackluster to me.  However, I think I know enough that's really not the case.  There are very exciting things going on it L.A. and I love that there is completely different set of cultural perspectives, a whole different "American" experience there, and the ideas of individual, isolation, industry, growth, history, art practice and process and Conceptualism is completely separate than our East Coast mind-set.  And I think this was not really successfully presented in this exhibition and I think there was a lack of "craftsmanship" overall.

I read somewhere that the exhibition was planned and executed within a couple of months and it certainly has that feel to it.

But if you know me, you know that I don't like to focus too much on the negative, and there were certainly works that were worth seeing (or worth seeing again).  These were the real highlights for me in the show.....


Alex Prager

I have been drinking the Alex Prager Kool-Aid for a while now and I am not going to stop anytime soon.  She is hot, hot, hot right now - which in my book, is not always a good thing, but she is one of my favorite photographers at the moment and I will continually sing her praises.  These works are from the "Week-end" series of 2009 that I am very familiar with and I think it would have been a huge catastrophe had they not included her work in this show.

Prager is a self-taught photographer whose influences are obvious - you can see the stylings of Hitchcock, Crewdson and Sherman for sure - but the combination of their techniques with her own style, enigmatic narrative, tension of retro with the contemporary against the Los Angeles backdrop makes these works intriguing, sexy and magnetic.  Prager photographs young attractive women, primarily actresses, who are wearing wigs and vintage clothes against a contemporary backdrop. She then manipulates the images.  There is a wonderful cinematic quality to the work with added mystery in terms of what the women are wearing (clothes from the 60s and 70s) juxtaposed to contemporary objects (cars, signs, items).  She also has appropriated and set forth her own visual language that continues through her pictures.  These highly stylized scenarios with high-keyed colors (see other works in this series - link below) are melodramatic, sinister and striking.

In these particular photos, which are the nocturnal scenes of the series, the "bad girl" is played up next to the "forlorn ingenue" in a separate photograph - is this the land of broken dreams?   There is a sense of isolation in an urban environment - something I think that we New Yorkers can relate to.  I love the primordial fire in the last photograph against the manipulated layered parking lots.  What is going on here?  We can keep guessing and making up our own story about it - but we will never know for sure.

I believe her work keeps getting more interesting - especially with her new foray into film.  I can't wait to see what comes next.

Link to more Alex Prager photographs


Melanie Schiff

These are a few examples of photographs that I saw at this exhibition by this artist.  This is the second time that I see them because I also saw them in 2009 at Horton Gallery in Chelsea.   I am not entirely crazy about this photographer's entire body of work, but I absolutely love this series of "contemporary landscapes" that the artist has done.  I love this idea of the lost areas in our cities and the intense graffiti covering these tunnels, ramps and manmade ditches.

The photographs of these "found spaces" are not only photographed quite well, but are layered in meaning.  They can be thought about in terms of a graffiti culture - there is a sort of immortality of one illegally laying his mark or "tag" on the concrete - however this is quickly covered by someone else and there is a sort of tribute to the passage of time.  We can talk in terms of man vs. nature as these manmade areas that we have carved into the land seem to be defunct and abandoned and not even being used anymore.  You can also compare these to the important American landscape photographers and painters that have been capturing our country's beauty over the last two centuries.

I would love to see the photographer explore this series further and see them in a larger scale.

Link to more Melanie Schiff photographs

Karl Haendel

Here are a few examples from graphite drawings from the series "All the Clocks in My House" dated 2010 that were show in this exhibition.  How can you not love these?!  They are more stunning in person for sure.  I believe the artist literally took photographs of the clocks in his house and drew from the photographs.  There is an incredible precision to the drawings that only when you are up close to them can you distinguish them from actual black and white photographs.  I love his use of cropping and perspective here.  More importantly, I enjoy the concept of capturing time or the idea of the passage of time or how we spend time in our personal life.  Would love to see more work by this artist - I believe there is a show planned for his work in the fall of 2011 at Harris Lieberman.

Mark Grotjahn

There are three small, jewel-like colored pencil drawings by established artist, Mark Grotjahn.  As you know, I am not a huge fan of abstract art, but I have always loved all the works by Grotjahn.  Unfortunately, I cannot find the exact images that were in the show, but this is very, very similar to the works that are there.  He is a true colorist and although over the years he has built upon and developed the same visual model and system, its hard not to continue to be intrigued by his work.  I am crazy about the color and the cold, straight-forward formalism.

Currently, there is an exhibition at Anton Kern in Chelsea of new work by Grotjahn.
Link



Also there are also some works by Carter Mull, Jonas Wood and Sterling Ruby that you shouldn't miss if you go.

Its worth stopping by if you are in the neighborhood to see the works that I mentioned above.  I do hope that they continue this exhibition on a regular basis, because its great to break out of our East coast mentality and see a different perspective (just with better execution).

Link to exhibition - wish the site was a little bit better in terms of showing the actual works in the exhibition (be sure to check the days and hours they are open before you go  - not normal gallery hours)

Paintings by Xiaoze Xie

Recently, Chambers Fine Art, a gallery that is based in New York and Beijing whose focus is Chinese artists, had an exhibition by painter, Xiaoze Xie, an artist whose career I have followed for a while and whose work I adore.  Although Xie hasn't strayed very far from his original project for several years - richly colored photorealist paintings of piles of books and newspapers found in archives and libraries - I continue to be intrigued by his talent and technical excellence coupled with the subtle changes in subject matter and palette with each of his exhibitions.  I first saw his paintings after the Gerhard Richter exhibition at MOMA which had a major effect on me and brought me back to a love of figurative, photorealist art.  I have been hooked for a while.

In many cases, Xie, who has been granted special access to the archives and stacks of libraries in the US and in China, first photographs his subject which is the piles of books and newspapers without altering their order or moving them.  He then paints directly from his own photographs.  His technique is highly traditional and could be categorized a contemporary still-life - oil on canvas starting with a undercoat of blue or red that drips down the side of the canvas - reminding one of spilled blood.  I do not think this is an accident when you relate these drips to the images before you.

In this particular exhibition, the depiction of Chinese newspapers from Chinese libraries, the photos from newspapers display moments of celebration, but also of suffering and violence.  The papers are in layers and the pictures on the front pages are piled up on top of each other.  You can see the front page images on the folds of the papers and although these images aren't supposed to be seen together in this context, its impossible not to draw correlations between them.  In most cases its difficult to see the text, or if you do not read the language, the characters mean nothing to you, so the viewer must rely on the photos only and draw his own conclusions.  There is a fireworks display from the Olympics that could be read as a moment of nationalistic pride or as a terrible explosion.  The men at the bottom of this painting - are they athletes or laborers?

In painting this subject matter here, imagery from newspapers, I think Xie is speaking volumes about politics and society.  Although the beauty of these paintings is transfixing, there seems there could be a very subversive message going on here. Xie grew up in China, under the Cultural Revolution, and studied art there and in Texas.  He is continues to work in the US on the West Coast, unlike many of his contemporaries that have returned to China after studying abroad.   The idea of what information that has been dispatched as news to the public in Chinese newspapers and the idea of censorship could be at play here.

Also, the idea that events in our lives - here a person suffering from injuries from a devastating earthquake and in another the damage captured juxtaposed to an image of a man in space - How do we as a people deal with the horrible events that happen around the globe while there continues to be a great push forward to the future and new technology?  Do we quickly forget the bad and throw it away like yesterday's news?  Does the bombardment of images in the newspaper and even more so on the internet make us jaded to those that are suffering?  I think his paintings make us ask these important questions, but clearly there is no answer here.

You can also look at his works in terms of the concept that newspapers are a dying medium.  As we have been hearing for years now, that magazines and newspapers are on their way out as we continue to embrace new technologies.  Here papers are filed away haphazardly in layers on shelves thrown on top of one another - not archived in a proper and organized manner to help them withstand the damage of time.  I think this is further evidenced in his painting of books that seem to be falling apart and rotting away on the shelves.  And unlike the newspapers, we cannot see the images or words as if the information is being hidden from us.  When books are treated like this, we ask how important is history to us?

The most overtly political works is a video by Xie (I had never seen him work in this medium before) that was projected on a stack of books like a screen in the front room as well as paintings that correspond to the imagery that is seen in the video.  The paintings, the most abstracted works of the bunch and a departure from his usual compositions, look as if the pages are in flames, particularly in his use of stark contrast of darks to fiery yellows, oranges and red.  The books look like they are being tossed about and this is even more evident in the video (see the double image 4th from the top).  Why are the books being treated this way?  This video is supposed to invoke images of book burnings by the Nazis by the 1930s.  As violent as this is, the books as they levitate and fly through the air look almost graceful as they fall to their death - as they do in the paintings.  The idea of book burnings speaks for itself.

Xie had been the only Chinese artist represented by Charles Cowles before he closed the gallery a few years ago, and this is the first show of Xie's in New York with Chambers.  I think its a different and welcome perspective to see him in the the company of other Chinese artists and I look forward to seeing  his work contextualized with them in group show here in the hopefully in the near future.


*****Oops!!  One thing I forgot to add is that often think about Sarah Charlesworth's Modern History series from the 1970's when I see Xie's works.  Her works were highly conceptual and a completely different style (you can look at the artist's website to see examples), but the point of her series was to show the front page of various newspapers around the globe on one specific day with only the images and the name of the newspaper intact, but devoid of the text.  The works question what these institutions that run the newspapers decide is important for the public to see - what will interest them, get them to buy them and what they deem "newsworthy".  I think you can look at Xie's works in a similar context as what does this newspaper, from this particular region, deem important for the public to see and read.


Link to exhibition