In the Archives: Lowell Boyers

Red Boat, White Paint, Still Travelling, 2010

Going through my drafts archives, I found this unposted image of a Lowell Boyer's painting. More of the artist's mixed media works on paper and canvas can be found on his website, all a bit phantasmagorical, beautiful layered, even decorative like a China pattern gone wrong. I believe I saw this at the Von Lintel Gallery's booth at an art fair last year...but much like the figures in these works, the memory is unclear.

Cy Twombly's Sculptures (Cont.), at MoMA

Installation View

Continuing from the small exhibition of Twombly sculptures at the Art Insitute, MoMA has dedicated a small space to showing the late artist's sculptures as well, which (joy!) I saw over the weekend. Perhaps simply in relief to the garishly colorful, incredibly large deKooning exhibition, looking at these seven white constructions felt like an oasis of calm.

Untitled (Jupiter Island), 1992. Wood, plaster, plastic leaves, wire, cloth, sand, and paint.

I'm not sure how clear it is in these photos, but the white stood out beautifully from the blue night outside the window. The roughness of the bottom contrasts with the smooth vertical white shape with its unexpected dip at the top.

Untitled (Funerary Box for a Lime Green Python). 1954. Wood, palm leaf fans, house paint, cloth, and wire.

The delicacy of the fans make this my favorite of these works. It's the earliest sculpture shown, and the fanciful description he gives the title disappears in most of his later works.

Untitled (Lexington), 2005. Plaster, paint, wood, cardboard, metal, paper, cloth, twine, and pencil

Although I say they are white, in his later works Twombly began adding a dash of bright color. Here the very tip is a bright pink. I love the balancing act implied by the varying degrees of narrowness of the different objects.

Untitled (Lexington) from a different angle.

Cy Twombly: Sculpture at the Chicago Museum of Art

I tend to think of Cy Twombly more as a painter than a sculptor, although the artist has created sculptures throughout his career, as can be seen in this intimate exhibition at the Art Institute. Twombly's sculptures tend to be composed of everyday found objects, put on a pedestal, and unified by a coat of white paint. This formalizes the objects as works of art, and gives them a timeless feel that is ethereal even while it is rough and tough. While the spare constructions are evocative of archaic relics, the presentation is absolutely modern. Their names of times and places suggest journal entries, sculptures of memories.

Untitled, Bassano in Teverina, 1989
Wood, plaster, nails, traces of red and blue paint, glue, and white paint

Untitled, New York, 1955
Wood, cloth, nails, and house paint

Untitled, Lexington, 1948
Wood, porcelain and metal knobs, cloth, and house paint

Ryan Wallace's Violet Collage

Mist (Timeline) 3 (2011), Ryan Wallace

Another favorite from Pulse, Ryan Wallace's large violet collage at Morgan Lehman's booth, led me to do some research on the artist this morning.

I thought the painting/mixed media piece was nicely framed by the white Still Lifes on either side at Pulse, and I loved the subtle variations in tone of the work up close. His materials are really nicely integrated, and the end product very finished and smooth. But...

...his artist statement gave me a terrible case of the giggles:

"I am inspired by both the genius and the crackpot, the elegance of the universe and Tron."

Suddenly all I could think of was Charlie Sheen.

Disco color: Chino Amobi's Pregnancy Pact

Star, 2010

 Yes, that is an anime figure on her shoulder (and double yes, these bright colors signify I am no longer planning my funeral.) This mixed media work makes no secret of its pastiche of influence and sources, but one of the things that really impressed me when I saw these works by Chino Amobi was how seamlessly the elements work together.

Sailor's Black Virgin, 2010

Through November 7th at Like the Spice Gallery, this bright show with a bit of a disco feel integrates color and cultural, medium and message in a shock to the system. The artist combines cultural references from anime to his Nigerian roots in these energetic pieces, and somehow it works, which is surprising (maybe) and kind of awesome. I tend toward the understated and simple in my aesthetic, but I can appreciate the bombast and vibrancy displayed here, not least because its so well-done. 

So, enjoy a little disco color to jumpstart your Monday morning.



Milk My Chain, 2010

Serendipitous Ads and artist Tara Giannini

Good advertising brings your attention to things you want to know. One day I looked up at the top of my blog, and saw an 'ad' I immediately liked. It was a detail of the work above. You see, I belong to Culture Pundits, a network of art blogs and artists who display ads related to the arts (and for some reason Tekserve). Serendipity! I can't think of the last time an ad showed me anything of interest, much less introduced me to a new artist.

Idiotically, I did not click on the ad. So I had to do some sleuthing to find artist Tara Giannini's website and more of her intricate, layered panels. I can't decide if they would fit better in a Regency mansion or creepy junkshop. Apparently, the artist had something similar in mind, stating that she tries to find the line between ugliness and beauty.

Based in Brooklyn, Giannini describes her work as exploring "the implications, limitations and individual perceptions of taste, beauty and excess in both art and culture, while simultaneously exploring my interests in overindulgence, visual complexity and ornamentation. It is a romantic and celebratory exploration into personal ideals of the beautiful, and the play that exists between the natural and the artificial."
I love the thickness of the paint and lushness of the materials. While these works don't quite have that creepy air of Victorian dolls, Giannini takes the same neo-Baroque, over the top aesthetic and pushes it until it's on the cusp of breaking down. It's interesting and sensual in an unpleasant way.

This kind of detailed, 3D works is better appreciated in person, especially for grasping scale, but sometimes you just know you like something, right?