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Mitchell-Innes & Nash, 534 West 26th Street [betwn 10th & 11th Aves], 212.744.7400, http://www.miandn.com
Through July 27
Going forehead to forehead with Susan Inglett is Jay Gorney who curated this crisp and deeply engaging affair. But whereas Inglett’s show is all about deceptively poignant content, this show is a strictly formal affair designed to deceive and challenge the eye. Some crazy smart heavies play light in the joyous a/c: Stockholder, Welling, Oehlen, Moholy-Nagy, Beshty, McKenzie, Lefcourt and Man Ray painting.
The greatest joy of this show is that you get to think of some of the issues Frank Stella has taken up over the years [the best thing about Stella] without having to look at any of his actual artwork [the worst thing about Stella].
MARLÈNE MOCQUET: Recent Paintings
Project Space: SYLVAN LIONNI, Zugzwang
Freight & Volume, 524 West 24th St. [betwn 10th & 11th Aves], 212.989.8700, www.freightandvolume.com
Through August 17, 2007.
Marléne Mocquet, Fingers on the Hand of the Birdmixed media on canvas, 13 x 9", 2007
I was walking around openings one evening alternately being appalled and ignored by the vast number of people at various galleries. I was on my way home when I passed by a gallery whose opening had spilled onto the street. The people out front seemed, well, palatable. There was a slight Williamsburg whiff to them, but there are worse things. I seldom choose to go to an opening based on the people in front of it, but this time I did and dang if I didn’t find a friendly li’l joint with darn cute work.
Marlène Mocquet knocks out small canvases with light wipes, splashes and spills on them to which eyes and other features have been added. Cute but not precious. Funny even.
I like this gallery. The tiny project room also doubles as the storage room with works sticking out the top of a shelf and a curtain panel from Bed, Beth & Beyond draped over the rest. This place is an oasis of amateurism [the good kind] in the heart of the bone chilling slick that Chelsea too often epitomizes [see next review].
Thomas Fletchtner
Marianne Boesky Gallery, 509 West 24th Street [betwn 10th & 11th Aves], 212.680.9889, http://www.marianneboeskygallery.com
Through August 17th, 2007.
This show is perfect: it is so on the nose, so lacking in tooth, and so clearly product as to attain a sort of formal transparency and an existential emptiness of which Barthes would be proud. Consider that the work is contained within the envelope of the Boesky gallery amid the wrapper of the Boesky building and you find yourself experiencing the apotheosis of 2007 culture.
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SUMMER OF LOVE 07
Susan Inglett Gallery, 534 West 22nd Street [betwn 10th & 11th Aves], 212.647.9111, http://www.inglettgallery.com.
Through August 3, 2007.
I’ve been following Susan Inglett around since she was in Soho. Her spaces then and since have always seemed more than a little ambivalent. In Soho you had to be buzzed in, she’s had a few spaces in Chelsea that weren’t always open and often had more work in the office than in the gallery. Currently she continues to challenge the shy by proffering works in her tiny sheltered office, but her current space is at least and at last street level and readily accessible [don’t become too enamored of this space: in October she’s moving to 522 West 24th St]. Regardless of location, Inglett has always shown smart work, but her intelligence has never gone to her head. Her current show is no exception.
Annette Lemieux’s piece is a little too on the nose, but given that it’s summer and we’re all a little slow, we need something to make us realize what’s going on in the other works by Simone Shubuck, Greg Smith, and Christopher Ulivo and Bruce Conner. What we have here is a quietly brilliant discussion of good old fashioned imperialism suddenly made new again by the current administration.
Through August 3, 2007.
I’ve been following Susan Inglett around since she was in Soho. Her spaces then and since have always seemed more than a little ambivalent. In Soho you had to be buzzed in, she’s had a few spaces in Chelsea that weren’t always open and often had more work in the office than in the gallery. Currently she continues to challenge the shy by proffering works in her tiny sheltered office, but her current space is at least and at last street level and readily accessible [don’t become too enamored of this space: in October she’s moving to 522 West 24th St]. Regardless of location, Inglett has always shown smart work, but her intelligence has never gone to her head. Her current show is no exception.
Annette Lemieux’s piece is a little too on the nose, but given that it’s summer and we’re all a little slow, we need something to make us realize what’s going on in the other works by Simone Shubuck, Greg Smith, and Christopher Ulivo and Bruce Conner. What we have here is a quietly brilliant discussion of good old fashioned imperialism suddenly made new again by the current administration.
CONCRETE WORKS
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, 534 West 26th Street [betwn 10th & 11th Aves], 212.744.7400, http://www.miandn.com
Through July 27
Going forehead to forehead with Susan Inglett is Jay Gorney who curated this crisp and deeply engaging affair. But whereas Inglett’s show is all about deceptively poignant content, this show is a strictly formal affair designed to deceive and challenge the eye. Some crazy smart heavies play light in the joyous a/c: Stockholder, Welling, Oehlen, Moholy-Nagy, Beshty, McKenzie, Lefcourt and Man Ray painting.
The greatest joy of this show is that you get to think of some of the issues Frank Stella has taken up over the years [the best thing about Stella] without having to look at any of his actual artwork [the worst thing about Stella].
MARLÈNE MOCQUET: Recent Paintings
Project Space: SYLVAN LIONNI, Zugzwang
Freight & Volume, 524 West 24th St. [betwn 10th & 11th Aves], 212.989.8700, www.freightandvolume.com
Through August 17, 2007.
Marléne Mocquet, Fingers on the Hand of the Birdmixed media on canvas, 13 x 9", 2007
I was walking around openings one evening alternately being appalled and ignored by the vast number of people at various galleries. I was on my way home when I passed by a gallery whose opening had spilled onto the street. The people out front seemed, well, palatable. There was a slight Williamsburg whiff to them, but there are worse things. I seldom choose to go to an opening based on the people in front of it, but this time I did and dang if I didn’t find a friendly li’l joint with darn cute work.Marlène Mocquet knocks out small canvases with light wipes, splashes and spills on them to which eyes and other features have been added. Cute but not precious. Funny even.
I like this gallery. The tiny project room also doubles as the storage room with works sticking out the top of a shelf and a curtain panel from Bed, Beth & Beyond draped over the rest. This place is an oasis of amateurism [the good kind] in the heart of the bone chilling slick that Chelsea too often epitomizes [see next review].
Thomas Fletchtner
Marianne Boesky Gallery, 509 West 24th Street [betwn 10th & 11th Aves], 212.680.9889, http://www.marianneboeskygallery.com
Through August 17th, 2007.
This show is perfect: it is so on the nose, so lacking in tooth, and so clearly product as to attain a sort of formal transparency and an existential emptiness of which Barthes would be proud. Consider that the work is contained within the envelope of the Boesky gallery amid the wrapper of the Boesky building and you find yourself experiencing the apotheosis of 2007 culture.
Michael Somoroff: Illumination
BravinLee programs Off Site, 508 West 26 Street (ground floor), 212.462.4404, www.bravinlee.com.
Through August 10, 2007
The light is nice and all but I have questions:
Why must all video installation compendiums be accompanied by minimalist music recorded on cheap equipment? [Whereas it is true that you can recite all of Emily Dickinson’s poems to Yellow Rose of Texas, it’s also true that you can recite “I am repeating myself” to all of Philip Glass’s music] Where is it written that God’s music has to sound like a repetitive Doppler drone? Who’s to say that God wouldn’t occasionally emit a little ragtime or perhaps a nice polka?
Ellen Gronemeyer
Michael Hakimi
Andrew Kreps Gallery, 525 West 22nd St, 212.741.8849, http://www.andrewkreps.com/
Through July 20, 2007
I hereby challenge Kreps to put together an exhibition in which nothing leans against a wall or lies on the floor.
artholes
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