28 March 2007

Painting March 2007

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Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque NM Sprueth Magers Projekte, Munich Branch Gallery, Durham, NC Galerie Conrads, Dusseldorf Galleri Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen Winkleman Gallery, New York Monika Sprueth Philomene Magers, Munich Next from re-title.com         sign up!

Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque NM William Betts : View from the Panopticon The Richard Levy Gallery is pleased to present "View from the Panopticon", recent work by William Betts from his surveillance series. His latest paintings address a contemporary world in which surveillance is widely used as both a deterrent and for social control. In the late eighteenth century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham designed the Panopticon, a circular prison with an unseen guard watching from a center tower. The design provided an efficient way to manage a large population through deterrence yet compromised all privacy. Inspired by the writings of Bentham on the Panopticon and Michel Foucault on the subject in his work Discipline & Punish, Betts explores the sociological and philosophical implications of surveillance in contemporary society. Using staged and found surveillance images as the source for his work, Betts adjusts both the quality and content of the image to find the ideal balance recognition and ambiguity allowing the viewer to draw on their own experiences, imagination, and anxieties to provide the interpretation. With few visual clues other than the specifics offered by a time stamp, the work uses a unique perspective and presents isolation, ambiguity, and anonymity as it’s subject to draw the viewer into a vague and questioning environment. Having spent several years working professionally in the software business, Betts draws on a deep understanding of technology to develop new techniques of making paintings that both reinvigorates the traditional craft and allows him to create paintings that could not be made until very recently. For this series of paintings based on video surveillance images, Betts used advanced computer controlled linear motion technology and a proprietary software system of his own design to apply thousands of drips of paint with robot like precision. The individual drips of high gloss acrylic paint catch the light and give each drip its own dimensionality and further mimic video. In addition, Betts developed a color palette based on RGB additive component video to create ‘black and white’ images using only colored paint. A typical painting has between 30,000 and 40,000 individually applied drips of paint. Betts’ work has been featured recently in the Texas Biennial 2007 in Austin, Texas Paint, Part Two: Abstraction at the Arlington Museum of Art, SuperVISION at the Foster Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Eau-Claire, Watch it! When art and TV Meet, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY, Biennial Southwest, a juried exhibition at the Albuquerque Museum where he was awarded best in show by Neal Benezra, Director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. William Betts was born and raised in New York City and currently lives and works in Houston, Texas. Betts graduated in 1991 from Arizona State University where he received his Bachelor's degree in Studio Art cum laude with a minor in philosophy. Image: William Betts Followed, 2007 34,560 drips of acrylic paint on canvas, 40 x 54 inches Courtesy Richard Levy Gallery Gallery website Artist's website Read on... Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque NM

Sprueth Magers Projekte, Munich Analia Saban : Wet Paintings in the Womb Monika Sprueth and Philomene Mager is pleased to be able to present the first solo exhibition of the Los Angeles-based artist Analia Saban in Europe. Being a student of conceptual artist John Baldessari, her method of working is, as she puts it herself, both artistic and scientific. She scrutinises the process of creating a picture, indeed she is looking for that very element which makes it a picture. In order to achieve this she breaks through the visual composition and explores the picture’s physical properties. In her earlier works, for example, she reduced works by Kandinsky, Miro, Matisse or De Kooning to individual strokes or dots, which she cut out, copied and re-arranged. Taking another work, she separated over a hundred canvases - landscapes, still lives and portraits – into individual threads, which she then wound together to form an enormous ball of art, “The Painting Ball”. Although the picture itself initially seems to disappear, this allows the more fundamental aspect, the prerequisite for a picture’s emergence, to come to the fore. Analia Saban’s exhibition at Sprüth Magers Projekte, entitled “Wet Paintings in the Womb”, presents new works from 2006 and 2007. She first paints canvases of various formats in oil before shrink-wrapping them. The paint is generously applied, sometimes boldly with broad brush strokes, predominantly however with separate thick streaks and blotches applied directly from the tube onto a white background. Some of the works have representational motifs, executed in a simple, child-like manner. An eyeball guides the visitors into the exhibition; a clock makes reference to the office situated in the foyer. The thickly applied paint forms a relief-like surface under the shrink-wrap, for instance in “Egg, 2006”; thick, shining hills rise up from under the plastic film. The paint, which is still wet, can be seen under this. The contours of the motifs become soft and tangible. Other works concentrate more on the structural aspect, in the tradition of Mondrian or Malevich. They experiment with the relationship between canvas and paint. The 2006 works “Green Line” or “Black Line” exemplify this; the paint runs seemingly incidentally over the canvas before moving over its edges and spreading out. Analia Saban succeeds in capturing this process of the movement of paint; the organic character of the liquid paint, however, is retained under the plastic packaging. The paint can still move when pressure is applied, which in turn changes the picture. As the artist herself explains, this exhibition incorporates a number of aspects. There is the visualisation of a process – both the process of creating a picture and the process of further developing representational motifs towards the abstract. With reference to the exhibition’s title, she is concerned with the relationship between the organic and the structural. The resulting picture - the wet paint changing its form - is as safe in its cold, hard shrink- wrap packaging as if it were in a womb, where life itself begins to evolve. Analia Saban was born 1980 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She made her bachelor of Fine Arts at Loyola University New Orleans, followed by the master of Fine Arts at University of California, Los Angeles,CA. Image: Analia Saban Vase of Flowers, 2006 Wet oil paint vacuum sealed in Polynylon 71,12 x 55,88 cm Courtesy Galerie Monika Sprüth / Philomene Magers, Köln / München / London Gallery website Read on...Sprueth Magers Projekte, Munich

Branch Gallery, Durham, NC Harrison Haynes : Going Home Is Such a Lonely Ride Harrison Haynes's work explores the notions of time, space, and memory, concerning itself with the banal comfort of the familiar. Adapted from the lyrics to Dory Previn's, 'Lady with the Braid' (1971), the show's title speaks to the ambiguous and contradictory emotions that occur when one is reacquainted with the familiar specter of home. Employing formal conventions that convey strong emotional states-of-being such as use of opaque paint colors and the isolation of figures within the landscape-'Haynes's paintings bring to mind the uneasy balance that family relationships dictate. In many of the works, figures, cars, and objects seem to float alone in a sea of color, caught between sky and earth in an uncertain disharmony. Trees and buildings are covered in kudzu, which seems to take over space with an insidious insistence. Here, landscape becomes active, literally bearing down on the paintings' inhabitants in a metaphor for the pressures associated with homecoming. The works touch on autobiographical themes, drawing from Haynes's own experience returning to his native North Carolina from New York, exploring the anxiety that familiar landscapes can elicit when they move from memory to reality. image: Harrison Haynes Interstate Woods, 2007 acrylic on canvas 40"x60" Courtesy of Branch Gallery, Durham, NC Gallery website Read on...Branch Gallery, Durham, NC

Galerie Conrads, Dusseldorf Jelena Tomasevic : Now as we have gone as far as we can Image : Jelena Tomasevic Now as we have gone as far as we can go, 2006 mixed media on steel 120 x 160 cm ©Galerie Conrads Düsseldorf-Berlin Reality under the stuffy cover of “art”.. No trick cheeky enough, no exciting techniques, no effects strong enough .. (JT) Galerie Conrads is thrilled to present the first solo exhibiton of Jelena Tomasevic in Germany. Entitled „Now as we have gone as far as we can go“, the show contains new works on steel exhibited in the exhibition „Life, Art and Confusion“ curated by René Block for October Salon, Belgrade Biennale 2006. Which was reviewed in an article in NY Arts Magazine by Jovana Stokic, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University: "The biggest impression was made by the series of paintings on steel by young Montenegrin artist Jelena Tomasevic, a continuation of her works which represented Serbia and Montenegro at the 51st Venice Biennale. Tomasevic created an installation comprised of eight big formats on which figures and architectural objects hover in a disjointed, post- utopian universe. The figures are not really engaged in any of the actions—they are merely posing as replicas from fashion magazines. Female figures in high heels, dressed in cool urban outfits insinuate ominous actions in which violence is only suggested. They signal the advent of the late capitalist culture of the spectacle—as a represented version of the world, which pushed itself to a dead-end. These representations, often of a domestic feminine space, show how the artist conquers a “heroic dimension” by using “male” material such as steel on such a large scale." Jelena Tomasevic’s paintings of figures, interiors, and architectural models are taken from her personal photographic archive, magazines, and newspapers. The paintings on pure 3 mm steel panels, each approximately 100 x 160 cm, are hung flat on the wall, and the effect is an installation of individual storyboards. Influenced by film directors such as Jean- Luc Goddard and Lars Van Trier, these paintings Tomasevic explain, emphasize the human need for the meaning of life, whatever it may be. So-Yeun Lee : Self portraits So-Yeun Lee , born 1971 in An Song, Corea, is based in Germany since a few years. All her paintings are self-portraits reflecting the self in constantly changing outfits representing different cultural contextes. Only the expression of her face never changes but stays a mask between No-mask and Manga starring at the viewer. We have presented her already very successfully in artfairs like Arco Madrid 2007 and New York in 2006 and are proud to present her first gallery exhibition in Germany. Images : So-Yeun Lee Mit schwarzer Katze, 2007 oil on canvas 120 x 90 cm © Galerie Conrads, Duesseldorf-Berlin Gallery website Read on... Galerie Conrads, Dusseldorf

Galleri Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen MIE MØRKEBERG : HOMEWARD UNBOUND Galleri Tom Christoffersen presents Mie Mørkeberg’s first solo exhibition. HOMEWARD UNBOUND is a psychological space, which is violent and smudged but not necessarily private. In Mørkeberg’s new paintings and works on paper fragments from home and the domestic as setting is used in a presentation of recognizable but at the same time very unfamiliar objects and stories. The works are mostly figural but the narrative is not constructed around a traditional plot. Recognizing a chandelier, a rat, a living room, a kitchen or a landscape where a woman carries a child does not explain the parts of the works where black Indian ink covers faces or blotches of muddy acrylic runs across the canvas. Exactly against this background of blurred narratives the experience of something disquieting is crystal clear. This feeling is intensified by the dense visual expression, which Mørkeberg’s deliberate use and juxtaposition of a variety of painting and drawing techniques guaranties. All though the disquieting works are highly subjective and lingers on the difficult boarder between conscious and unconscious something about them seems well known. Maybe because they on a general level show the uncanny mechanism: To recognize something as strange and disturbing because it unexpectedly takes place at home or in oneself. Sanne Kofod Olsen, MA in Art History has written the text THE EXPANSE ABOVE AND BELOW - NEW WORKS BY MIE MØRKEBERG, which is available both online and in the exhibition catalogue. Mie Mørkeberg (1980) graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Copenhagen) in 2006. Previous exhibitions count Produktion A-huset (2005), Tales >From The Uncertain Galleri Tom Christoffersen (2006) and Fora – Other Tales From The Uncertain Randers Kunstmuseum (2007). Mie Mørkeberg has recently been granted a workshop possibility at the estimated graphical workshop/gallery Edition Copenhagen. Image : Mie Mørkeberg Untitled. 2007 spray, alkyd, oil and acrylic on canvas, 150x160 cm Courtesy of Galleri Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen Gallery website Read on... Galleri Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen

Winkleman Gallery, New York Christopher Lowry Johnson : Chorus In a devastatingly beautiful new series of paintings, Johnson continues to negotiate a balance between familiar contemporary content and a combination of art historical styles, here via a group of canvases that share the landscape format and a somber tone. Essentially depopulated scenes (such as decorated pines and carved mountain sides) insinuate a human presence in the natural world, a deliberate summoning of the Romantic Movement wherein human longing is irrevocably analogous to the vast potentialities of Nature. As suggested by the title Chorus, these paintings emphasize harmony achieved through the use of repetition, culling from a diverse array of sources ranging from Islamic tile work and Theosophical Society telepaths to Minimalism and fractal geometry. While the works in the exhibition are imbedded in order, their painterly, agitated surfaces impose a tension that reflects how even as the color is cool the underlying themes are much darker. The basis of the series, as in Johnson's last exhibition, is a response to our troubling times. Formations of pine trees adorned with twinkling lights become silent personifications of soldiers. The weighed down branches are an aggregation of weather and the burden of time. The chiseled appearances of the presidents on Mt. Rushmore are disembodied and silly as well as grim reminders of loss. Hints of snow capped mountain ranges, ice, and foamy pools are evocations of real or imagined tragedies like Hurricane Katrina or Moby Dick. Image: Christopher Lowry Johnson Pines No. 5, 2007 Oil on canvas, 66" x 80" Courtesy Winkleman Gallery, New York Gallery website Read on...Winkleman, New York

Monika Sprueth Philomene Magers, Munich Jenny Holzer SECRET Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers are pleased to present recent works by New York Artist Jenny Holzer at their Munich Gallery. In her latest works, Jenny Holzer negotiates the political landscape after 9/11 and traces the debate over covert operations, prisoner abuse, and war tragedies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay through the directives, emails, and testimonies of policy makers, soldiers, and prisoners. In her “Redaction Paintings” Holzer shows sensitive governmental and military documents, released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. Not originally intended for the public, many of these documents were heavily redacted by the United States Government prior to their release. Without subscribing to any particular ideology, Holzer presents text as material in her paintings, evoking a certain curiosity about the actual meaning of the words on the page, which, in their original context, are typically overlooked due to the continuous flow of information we encounter daily. The FORMICA REPORT series consists of 16 works in oil on linen (14 of these paintings are on view). They are enlarged reproductions of the over 600 pages of Annexes to the Formica Report, many of which detail abuse of detainees in Iraq. The Formica Annex was issued in 2004 and released - heavily redacted - by the Pentagon in 2006. In this series, every letter of the original text has been blacked out by censorship. The resulting markings render the page a nearly abstract image. Highly enlarged bodies of text in oil on linen are on view in another room, including the triptychs AT THE MIDTOWN MASSACRE, JAW BROKEN and GLOVES OFF in addition to a single panel titled WISH LIST (all 2006). These works feature pages of reports that provide accounts of war and prisoner abuse from the perspective of military officials, soldiers and prisoners. The final room features a series of silhouettes of United States soldiers who have been accused of military misconduct. The images are redacted in such a way that the portraits appear as impersonal black silhouettes. Also featured in this room is a series of autopsies detailing the circumstances surrounding the death of prisoners while in U.S. custody. For more than twenty-five years, Jenny Holzer, born in 1950 in Ohio, USA, has presented her astringent ideas, arguments, and sorrows in public places and international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale, the Reichstag and the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao. Her medium, whether formulated as a t-shirt, as a plaque, or as an LED sign, is writing, and the public dimension is integral to the delivery of her work. Starting in the late 1970s with the New York City posters, and up to her recent light projections on landscape and architecture and her new series of paintings featuring US Government documents, her practice has rivaled ignorance and violence with humor, kindness, and moral courage. The works on display in “SECRET” follow a thread began by Holzer in 2004, with a piece she created for Wired magazine, and continued at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria with her solo show, TRUTH BEFORE POWER, in which she dealt with the issue of balancing transparency and security within a democratic government. Shortly thereafter, just prior to the United States’ 2004 presidential election, Holzer projected declassified and other government documents onto the Gelman Library at George Washington University. In 2005, she realized a similar document projection on the façade of New York University’s Bobst Liberary at La Guardia Square, which explored the political situation of the U.S. in the Middle East. In Munich, Jenny Holzer’s permanent installation Oskar Maria Graf Memorial, can be seen at the Kaffeehaus in the Literaturhaus. Image: Jenny Holzer Formica Columns 2857 (Yellow White), 2007 Oil on linen 147,3 x 111,8 cm (58 x 44 inches) Edition unique Courtesy Galerie Monika Sprüth / Philomene Magers, Köln / München / London Gallery website Read on...Monika Sprueth Philomene Magers, Munich

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