MAGGIE MICHAEL – THERE IS NO RISING OR SETTING SUN

Posted on 2011-09-05

Her new work sees a further evolution in Michael’s oeuvre following the introduction of text-based works in her exhibition All at Once (2008).
In There is No Rising or Setting Sun, text is both obscured and evident: “I incorporate the negative and positive shapes of letters in areas of paintings for an abstract recognition and texture, no pun intended. Sometimes, these areas are not saying anything; however, the letter shapes/negative spaces are familiar and exist not to be decoded, but there.” The work and spirit of Samuel Beckett are predominant, whether in appropriated text such as: “no symbols where none intended” and “The tears of the world are a constant quality …The same is true of the laugh,” or in a text-less painting referencing the curiosity of Beckett’s character Watt (from the novel of the same name), who tries to understand an abstract image. “Like abstract painting,” says the artist, “Beckett’s works are experienced, heard, and understood on instinct, pressingly (depressingly) open; the viewer fills in the spaces.”

Opposite – Danube Series: There is No Rising or Setting Sun (Night), 2011

Exhibition runs through to October 22nd, 2011

G Fine Art
1350 Florida Ave
Washington DC
20002

www.gfineartdc.com

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JANE HAMMOND – LIGHT NOW

Posted on 2011-09-05

For many years, Hammond has incorporated a vernacular of found images throughout her mixed-media work. The result of a process of collecting, imagining, and combining, Hammond’s photo vernacular now consists of over 10,000 snapshots. Since 2005, she has drawn from the images to create photographic works—incisive and imaginative black-and-white compositions that employ classic formal concepts while challenging the notion of the photographic medium as representative of personal and cultural memory.

Hammond expands upon the photography to create what she calls the “dazzle paintings” for both the materials used and the phenomena that ensues. Consisting of hand-painted images derived from vernacular photos, the paintings bear a captivating surface of mica sheets with gold, silver, copper, and palladium metal leaf applied over Plexiglas. The dazzle paintings are both reflective and translucent and respond differently in various light conditions and from different vantage points. As light strikes and penetrates the layered surfaces and elements come forth and disappear as the viewer’s physical relationship to the work changes, the paintings present an immediate, interactive experience for the viewer.

Opposite – Girl Lying Down, 2011

Exhibition runs through to October 22nd, 2011

Galerie Lelong
528 W 26th St
New York
NY
10001

www.galerielelong.com

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KAWS – HOLD THE LINE

Posted on 2011-09-05

In Hold The Line, a large group of tondo paintings feature extreme close-ups of the face of KAWSBob, a recurring subject in the works on canvas. The circular edges of the picture plane resonate with cartoonish facial features: the scaled-up, concisely-painted, hard-edged curves of eyelids, undulating nose, and blocky, rectangular teeth are zoomed and cropped to an extent that offers the face as a kind of color field.

Along with the existential emotive and psychotropic narrative avenues KAWS opens up for his altered versions of iconic animated characters, the artist’s works also provide the viewer with a richly rewarding and expansive formal consideration.

Non-naturalistic color takes on new meaning in the case where there is no living, breathing, original referent for characters born of cell animation (such as SpongeBob SquarePants). Nevertheless, the unconventional palette in KAWS’s paintings–from high impact contrasts to monochromatic use of fluorescents, primaries, and darker tones–simultaneously defamiliarizes the ubiquitous characters while accentuating the reductive geometric play that abounds in their volumes and surfaces. In recent paintings, figures seem buoyed in the zero-gravity aftermath of a cartoon explosion, entangled in a dynamic composition of unmoored planks, bricks, or tentacles of color.

Exhibition runs from September 10th to October 22nd, 2011

Honor Fraser Gallery
2622 S La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles
CA 90034

www.honorfraser.com

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