Endless House: Intersections of Art and Architecture, MoMA

Borrowing its name from Frederick Kiesler’s unrealized project, Endless House: Intersections of Art and Architecture presents drawings, models, videos, and photographs from MoMA’s collection from 1940s until today. Curated by Pedro Gadanho and Phoebe Springstubb, the exhibition creates a dialogue between architects and artists that explore the creative potential of the house as a means to expand the limits of architecture.  

Kiesler’s project is the point of departure of the exhibition; his organic, fluid forms are shown in direct contrast with Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth house, an icon of the rationalism of the International Style. The center of the gallery is filled with models, from the post-modernist Vanna Venturi House by Robert Venturi to the odd shapes of Frank Gehry and contemporary projects by Kazuyo Sejima and Asymptote Architecture – all reflecting a desire to challenge the concept of house through experimentation. However, while most of these projects seem to break with tradition through a formal approach, fragmenting and re-ordering spaces, works from artists Gordon Matta-Clark and Rachel Witheread, among others, remind us of larger themes related to the house: the relationship between public and private space as well as between impermanence and memory. Artists and architects bring different perspectives to the subject, presenting the major role of the house in the evolution of architecture as well as the universal and personal subjects that the idea of home evokes. 

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery: Sarah Sze

The Tanya Bonakdar Gallery exhibits Sarah Sze’s latest installation and sculptural works, as her materials range from paint drips, wood planks to light bulbs, mirrors and rocks. Sze blurs the boundaries between sculpture, painting and installation, transforming the gallery space into a complex landscape.

If you are new to the gallery, it is possible to miss the gallery on the first floor, which is located on the left side of the entrance. The confusion is multiplied when one notices a pile of wooden planks on top of a plastic bag with drips of white paint sliding off is stacked near the glass window, as if the gallery is under some kind of construction. Coca Cola cups, half-filled Poland Spring water bottles are placed “randomly” on top of the ladder along the white and blue paint drips, as if the workers of the gallery had left it after a day of work. After a couple minutes of wandering the space and stumbling in to random objects, one notices that the high ceilings with clamp lights, paint drips on the floor, wooden planks, mirrors and ripped photographic images are not just randomly thrown away in space but precisely placed, offering the viewer to connect the dots, construct meaning and relationship between these objects and themselves.

Josh Smith: "Sculpture"

In Sculpture, Josh Smith’s latest solo show at Luhring Augustine, the artist provides a pared down, clean, and stirring body of work. The gallery’s two main rooms are hung with off-white wooden panels float-mounted in elegant white frames, each of which is marked by a few scrawled gestures that give the impression that what Smith is seeking is a kind of child-like innocence in his application of pigment. The works are all untitled.

But there is more complexity here than would initially seem. While childlike, Smith's compositions are sophisticated, and the surfaces are striking. One piece is simply a shaky black line stretching diagonally across its cracking ground. It is oddly engaging. These paintings possess a hypnotic quality rare in Smith's previous works. Many of his abstractions are reminiscent of figures with long, bent, lollipop lines for bodies. Are these figures at all? Are they the sculpture in the show's title? Turning to the ambiguous press release provides no relief for the curious gallery goer, and one begins to question whether the show's title was nothing more than a confounding way to get you in the door. There is no sculpture here, but there is damn good painting.

2015 Triennial: Surround Audience

The New Museum exhibition 'Surround Audience' presents works by 51 young artists, most born in the 1980s. The building-wide exhibition included various artistic practices, including sound, installation, sculpture, painting and video. This exhibition was interesting to me because art and technology are inextricably linked these days. My favorite works in this exhibition were "The New Psychology" series (2015) by Mexican artist José León Cerrillo. The series was a site-specific structure that transects the space and its walls. In his work, visitors can view the work of other artists' pieces through a negative space of frames. I liked shadows and structures that looks different depending on position.

However, after seeing the other floors, I felt that though exhibition was filled with much work, the exhibition space felt somewhat empty. It was difficult to shake off the ambiguous feeling what message the exhibition was trying to convey. It was a regretful feeling to wonder what the exhibition would have been like if, in the planning stages, more research was done on the artists in order to make conceptually clearer divisions of the pieces.      

Giuseppe Penone: Indistini confini/ Inddistinct Boundaries

Marian Goodman Gallery presents an impressive new show of sculptures by Giuseppe Penone. A member of the Arte Povera group, he continued throughout his career to explore the connections between natural and cultural forms. In the show, “Indistinti confini/ Indistinct Boundaries”, Penone also continued to combine natural objects with manmade materials.

I was impressed by his works' harmony although a huge gap between wood and marble. He carefully carved into a part of wood and covered empty space with marble. I had an experience in carving stone before, so I know how hard it is to carve the detail of wood exquisitely. So his work came as a surprise to me. The color of his work, mostly white blended in with this white cube gallery and it was relax my eyes. His installation view also reminded me of the scene of calm snowy days. 

In another floor, there were a big shell sculpture and some drawings. In drawings, there were various shapes of tree and while seeing his drawings, I could feel his time and effort about the natural shapes of tree. And a big shell piece with wood pedestal was interested to me. The normal shell is used to me, however as enlarging its size, it came to me in the unfamiliar way. As overall view, I was excited about this work and I can't wait for his next exhibition. 

Much to be Desired: Triennial exhibition Surround Audience- edited

Much to be Desired: Triennial exhibition Surround Audience 

Heavy on the technology and Internet-themed works, Surround Audience presents the work of 51 early career artists including Steegmann Mangrané and his piece, "Phantom". "phantom" uses the technology of the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality gaming gear. "Oculus was looking for an opportunity to unveil its technology in a public way" Steegmann Mangrané stated, and everyone there seemed to love the experience. StAnding in line, you patiently wait your turn, while hearing each person go and gasp at what they see.

For me, I am no stranger to either the technological wonders of video games, nor the Oculus. I have experienced many games using the new technology and was excited to see what a visual artist would do with something like that. When you put on the head gear you are transported to a digital forest; Mangrané chose an endangered forest in Brazil. For those who haven't experienced it, it's basically a digital world you can walk around in. Although everyone around me was thrilled and inspired by the experience, I was disappointed. I was so disappointed that I actually became mad. For me the experience was amateur hour in comparison to what game developers have done with the same equipment and technology. 

Artnet claimed, "it's so cool", was proclaimed by almost every "Ritter" ( a term used for those using the Oculus). But for me, Mangrané didn't make art, me made a demo, and not a very good demo. He used the hype of the technology to hide just how mediocre his piece actually was. As a gamer, I have been exposed to not only the impressive and deep worlds created by game developers but also their simple and brilliant demos. If the Oculus Rift company had wanted to have a public viewing of their new technology and expose it to non-gamers maybe they should have chosen a game developer who understands how to use the technology to its fullest. Steegmann Mangrané only touched on the possibilities of the technology. 

Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks at Brooklyn Museum (Revision)

Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks at Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn Museum presents the Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks which includes numerous of his notebooks which are rarely seen before, and paintings that are related to the notebooks. I was very excited to see Basquiat's work in New York because it was hard to find his works when I was in Korea and even when I traveled in Europe. I might had some high expectations for this show since Basquiat was born in Brooklyn and the show held at the Brooklyn Museum. However, the show is quite small, mostly concentrated on the documents but not the paintings. I understand that the show is supposed to present unseen documents but I think it might be better to have more of the painting or other works that the audience could understand his major art works. 

Most of his notes are poetry fragments, wordplays, sketches and personal observations ranging from those about street life and pop culture. Those works gave me a good chance to know what he was interested in every day life and how he worked spontaneously. Some pages contain his signature motif like skulls and crowns which can also be found in his larger paintings and drawings. However, the gallery space is not large enough to show 160 pages from the notebooks. They use only two galleries which feels quite small. Also I felt that the display which lined up the documents in a one row without enough gap between each pages distracts my interest and it was hard to concentrate, appreciate and read the notes. I think they did not managed the space properly because there is one more space, they used it as an art shop which they also have another one which is even bigger than it on the ground floor. 

The concept of the exhibition was good, but the contents that they presented were not strong enough to attract, despite how many lives visited for the name Basquiat.

Surround Audience: New Museum 2015 Triennial (Revised Version!!!)

              The New Museum holds 2015 Triennial with the title as “Surround Audience”.  The curators of the Triennial, Lauren Cornell and the artist Ryan Trecartin showed 51 artists‘ works in one venue, so it was hard for them to avoid disappointing audiences. In 2015 Triennial, the two curators bring up the significant topics about technology, bodies, genders, ethnicities, and social-regulations. However, this show is too packed, too overflowing, and disorganized to “surround audience.”

            Despite my disappointment, the third floor was the most successful in terms of display. The overall atmosphere was more organized by different four sections, where I could appreciate artworks in enough space. A key issue to the relationship of bodies to technology was strongly emphasized in the third floor.  

  

            What appealed to my eyes was “Not How People Move but What Moves Them”, an installation by Eva Kotatkova. Around yellow walls, she arranged bizarre shaped objects, which seem to physically activate/inactivate people.  She created metal-framed gadgets recalling a steel-barred window or an experimental instrument, in a surrealistic aura. Combined with sculptures, drawings, photo-collages, and performance, the whole installation looked like the symbolic collections of human’s physical and mental constraint related to the institution, disciplines, frames, or even out body themselves. Her work was enough strong to evoke what technology really gives us in this era. Many of the Web 2.0 generation can surf around and conquer any cyber space, but instead may have worse our sight and body postures. In Kotatkova’s work, the conflicting amalgamation between helpful tools and torturing machine made audiences keep in tension.  The viewers may ponder the border of our bodies and technologies, ceaseless human efforts, perverted imaginations, and even the awe of the institution in our society.

            Through Eva Kotatkova’s artworks, the two curator of 2015 Triennial might be able to avoid severe criticism. They made a great harmony between Kotatkova’s work and others’ photographs, videos, and installations in the third floor, by reminding audiences of what surround us. At least, the third floor’s exhibition at the New Museum might be valuable for viewers to look around.