Hunter College 2020 MFA Thesis Spotlight

    

The amazing ability to forget

Matt Jones,2020, Colored pencil on Stonehenge natural paper, 55.88 x 76.20 cm / 22 x 30 in

   The Hunter College 2020 MFA Thesis Spotlight is an online exhibition hosted by Hauser and Wirth presenting work by nineteen MFA candidates from Hunter College.  The exhibition had originally been planned as a gallery exhibition in the spring, but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The online platform provides an opportunity for these emerging artists to display their work in a manner conducive to social distancing.  

The exhibition is divided into four thematic sections: ‘Gravity Spell’, ‘Interstices’, ‘Thresholds’ and ‘Save the Last Dance’.  ‘Part I: Gravity Spell’ includes work by Matt Jones. Inspired by medieval illuminations, rococo art, and global warming, Jones’ colored pencil drawings and paintings explore themes of intimacy, domesticity and community.  As he explains “The onset of the pandemic necessarily changed my practice…The references in these drawings have become simultaneously more local…and more mythical”.  He references the collective experience of limited mobility and the desire to escape during these uncertain times.  The amazing ability to forget is a colored pencil drawing of a bright environment scattered with tree stumps holding objects like hand sanitizer, a pile of books and two human skulls.  Repeated gestural shapes filling the space resemble an overgrown garden or a field in flames, emanating chaos and suggesting destruction, disaster and loss.  The isolated objects amidst the upset seem to symbolize the isolated experiences of individuals surrounded by turmoil.

The exhibit presents the artists’ work in an easy to navigate manner.  It would be beneficial to understand why each section of the show is labeled with an opening and closing date even though portions are still up past the closing date.  If these dates are informed by an additional gallery exhibit that coincides with the online show, this should be explained more explicitly.

The Risen / Originals (Jo Baer) - PACE NYC

 

The Rod Reversed (Mixing Memory and Desire) (1985)  

The Risen / Originals is an exhibition presented by the PACE Gallery NYC which features the work of American artist Jo Baer. The Risen is a collection of five paintings, originally dating back to 1960-61, before they were subsequently destroyed  and recreated, and serves as a display of Baer’s prolific experimentation in minimalism. In juxtaposition, The Originals is  a collection of Baer’s work dating from 1975 to present day. This leg of the exhibitions shows off the artist’s departure from minimalism and her progression towards a more “image-based aesthetic”.

The Risen remembers the pioneering that Baer achieved as a female artist in the 1960s. At a time when many other artists were experimenting with abstraction and minimalism, Baer was able to stand out amidst her male peers. Her vivid colors and bold shapes remain impactful to this day, as can be seen through the selection on display at PACE. Works like Wink (1960-61/2019) prove Baer’s mastery of form and color; its vibrant orange orange triangles quite literally winking at its onlooker, as the title suggests, amidst a dynamic collection of black and white forms.  

The second collection, Originals, serves as a lovely counterpart to The Risen. This collection gives visitors a chance to travel through Baer’s artistic journey, as she departs from abstract minimalism and delves into image based work, declaring herself to “no longer be an abstract artist”. Throughout Originals Baer explores a middle ground between abstraction and figuration, pulling inspiration from prehistoric art, as well as her homes throughout Europe. In works such as The Rod Reversed (Mixing Memory and Desire) Baer plays with human and animal form while maintaining a surreal and minimal landscapes, sparking curiosity and intrigue.

The Risen / Originals serves as  a commendatory dedication to Baer’s life and body of work, and proves to be a refreshing exhibition.  Visitors become able to physically witness Baer’s evolution as not only an artist, but as a person. The exhibition is an intimate and flattering window into Baer’s life and mind. 

Embrace - Guggenheim Circular

 

“Embrace” is a collection of photographs curated by the Guggenheim Circular serving as a response to the deprivation of intimacy which the coronavirus pandemic, and subsequent lockdown, brought onto many. Exhibited online during June of 2020, a month which hosted not only pride month but a series of protests across the world demanding racial justice, “Embrace” is a series which investigates race, sexuality, and gender. 

The collection includes works such as “Melissa & Lake, Durham, North Carolina” from a series by artist Catherine Opie titled “Domestic (1995-1998)”. Opie’s series featured a collection of portraits taken across the country of lesbian couples or them and their families. In “Melissa & Lake” two women hold each other in a bedroom while staring with intense solemnity into the camera lens. Despite the image itself being quite docile, a sense of melancholy seems to wash across it. This same melancholy is then embedded into the viewers, as it projected through both the women’s sad stares. The intent of Opie’s collection was to put an emphasis on the plight of an underrepresented and misunderstood community. Through seeing the faces of those who find love and intimacy in ways unfamiliar to the majority of the population, one may reconsider their idea of what intimacy and love is. 

This is the exact sentiment which “Embrace” is intended to instill in its viewers. It braves the question: “What does intimacy look like?” Although a small collection of photographs may not be able to answer that question alone,  “Embrace” serves as a lovely reminder that love is just as diverse as we are. 

Melissa and Lake, Durham, North Carolina (1998)

Nina Katchadourian: Monument to the Unelected

 

New York — Nina Katchadourian, Monument to the Unelected, Sep 18–Dec 12, 2020; Pace Gallery 

          New York City-based Pace Gallery has recently organized an exhibition by the artist Nina Katchadourian titled “Monument to the Unelected.” The artist began the work in 2008 as an ongoing project that features lawn signs created by Katchadourian that represent the names of all the United States’ presidential candidates that have lost elections. The signs mimic actual political lawn signs by using corrugated vinyl. This series is being exhibited before and after the 2020 Presidential election, and was updated accordingly after the winner was declared. The work has also been replicated in three other locations across the United States.

This work was initiated after the loss of John McCain to Barack Obama, when Katchadourian began to look closer at the exhibition of political signage. The artist described the work as being triggered due to the onslaught of lawn signs she noticed in each election that seemed to be a very American phenomenon worthy of closer inspection. Katchadourian plays on the irony of forgetting candidates that were once so prominently featured on lawn signs across the country forever memorializing them in her work. The impermanence of the traveling exhibition also echoes the nature of these forgotten names. Katchadourian also reinvents the idea of “monument,” as monuments are typically erected to feature one prominent figure, whereas this “monument” actually washes away the idea of the “one” to compartmentalize all the names of the as “those forgotten.” By placing these once distinguished names as a part of the same artwork, Katchadourian dooms the figures to forever be a part of the ignored whole. 

 Performance-in-Place: 
From the Personal Collection of Eileen Myles

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

8 to 9pm EST

This event was held on Zoom

Poet and novelist Irene Myers used her home in Marfa, Texas as a small art gallery, and led other artists to visit and discuss various works from their extensive art collection, including Robin Blue，Xylor Jane，etc.  Each artist elaborated on personal memories and connections related to objects and artworks in their home.

Exterior of Myles’ home. Work by Glen Hanson.

This event will explore the artistic potential and reflect the adaptability of the artist, when the artist's behavior is replaced by isolation and action on a global scale. Irene Myers first introduce the unique orange widow outside of her house, which become a remarkable symbolic of her house.  Then, she started her tour inside her house,  she wanted to frame herself as a counter institution by owing art, but borrow art. The first painting is sort of a fugitive piece with a black shape which is kind of an owl by artist Charline. She believes that the placement of the painting would influence the balance of the room.  Eileen explain why she own the pig’s simple paintings by D. Ellen, she consider the pig is the most slaughtered, most intelligent animal.

 It is cross between performance art and art writing, Walk the room over and over again and record your thoughts about different artworks. Repeatedly shuttle between the room and different artworks every day, giving new ideas and feelings

Sam Gilliam: Existed Existing

    

Sam Gilliam, a renowned American Abstract Expressionist, debuted new works artist-led retrospective “Existed Existing” at Pace Gallery in New York City. Among these works are a series of stacked wood and aluminum objects cut into geometric forms and drenched in colorful pigments. Pyramids, concentric circles, and parallelograms represent urban change and new wave African influences he observed in Basel, Switzerland’s diverse community. The pyramids seem to float above the floor like a musical experience. The works celebrate color and diversity in the ever changing city atmosphere. Their materiality is challenged by the color and the shape, transforming humble pieces of wood and metals into sleek and harmonious sculptures. 

The second series of new works included in this exhibition are large-scale paintings that further explore color. In these works, he approaches color in a layered approach. Mixed with sawdust and other filaments from his studio, the paint is built up into thick layers of scrapped, dripped, swiped, and dropped paint. A third series contains monochromatic paintings on washi paper. Similar to the sculptural works, this series also manipulates the material sense of the paper by building up the layers of paint. The paper no longer holds paint, but is smothered in color. 

As Gilliam’s second retrospective in the United States, the exhibition explores the minimal, but joyful aesthetic that is key to his work. The collection brings together older works from previous decades with his current paintings and sculptures to showcase the changing approaches to color and context. 

Installation view, Sam Gilliam: Existed Existing, Pace Gallery, New York, Nov 6 – Dec 19, 2020 © Sam Gilliam / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pace Gallery Geneva: Ocean Abstractions by Nigel Cooke

    Oceans, an exhibition on view at Pace Gallery’s Geneva location, features recent work—paintings and drawings in tones of blue—by Nigel Cooke. Primarily made of oil and acrylic on linen, these works are meditations of the sea as well as a nod to Homer’s Odyssey. Reflecting on the current pandemic and social-distancing circumstances, the artist describes “thinking again about the ideas of separation from family, inner resourcefulness, and transformation, what we’re going through now, as well as adventure.” Although the exhibition is intended to be seen in person rather than solely online, Pace Gallery provides a compelling online experience nonetheless, which bodes well not only for viewers who aren’t based in Geneva but also sidesteps the art-viewing restrictions created by the pandemic. 
    Oceans represents a drastic stylistic shift in Cooke’s work, as the abstracted blue brush strokes are performative and kinetic, nodding towards the gestural qualities of Abstract Expressionism. Cooke’s mark-making blurs the lines between multiple styles of painting like abstraction and figuration, and genres such as landscape and still life. Painted on the brownish ground of raw canvas, the hues of blue take on a sculptural quality that seems to exist in a purely organic environment. In paintings such as Athena and Telemachus, Cooke incorporates blue and brown washes, which mediate between the natural linen and the vibrant pigments. Although they are oceanic, the paintings feel as if they could extend themselves into various other forms of movement. For this reason the abstraction feels figurative, as if the water’s trajectory could be mistaken for a dancer’s rhythmic movement, resulting in strokes of blue that breathe life. Cooke’s aquatic observations become something other than a body of water, yet they capture the feeling of confronting an ocean—the sensation of standing before something far more significant than oneself.

Nigel Cooke, Athena, 2020, oil and acrylic on linen, 225 cm × 164 cm (88-9/16" × 64-9/16") © Nigel Cooke

Art at a time like this. Ministry of Truth: 1984/2020

 

This public art exhibition presents 20 artists on 20 billboards located in the 5 boroughs of New York City. Ministry of Truth: 1984/2020 is a reference to George Orwell’s dystopian novel in which a Ministry of Truth announces WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH, horrifyingly relevant in 2020. Inspired by this scenario, artists submitted an outpouring of ideas, ranging from bleak outlook on democracy to concerns about divisiveness in political rhetoric today.

The piece of Dread Scott is as powerful as the words of Georfe Orwell’s. He is showing to the word what systematic racism has done to America. Few words “there is a white male running” creates no scenario to understand racism but when we analyze the whole picture the story is different. The amount of phone calls that “citizens” make to the police office because they feel in danger are highly related to discontent in equal rights. If we change one word in Scott’s billboard we would find a police officer coming to the scene to put the runner in handcuffs.

 9-1-1 there is a black male running down the street, is a sentence that represents racism between americans just because two persons look different. We as a society have to be better and artist like Georfe Orwell shouldn't be here showing us how to be better humans.

The Guggenheim Circular：Two shakes, a tick and a jiffy

 

Julieta Aranda

Two shakes, a tick and a jiffy（2009）

Medium：Computer-operated mechanical clock, acrylic, paint, and 24 hours of electrocardiography data

Dimensions：diameter: 47 3/8 inches (120.3 cm); depth: 8 1/16 inches (20.5 cm)

Credit Line：Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director's Council, 2009

The online exhibition “Time” is from the collection of the Guggenheim Museum. The works in the “Time” show all focus on the relationship between time and life. Especially during this pandemic, people are all waiting for the “time” to solve problems. Such as finish the quarantine and back to home, recover from the virus. Artist Julieta Aranda’s work Two shakes, a tick and a jiffy (2009) is in this collection. This work is a computer-operated mechanical clock, however, artist divided this clock in to ten hours with 100 minutes of 100 seconds each. During French Revolution, this system was short-lived appeared. The most interesting part is that the second hand’ move is not even. The move of the second hand connect with the artist’ fluctuating heart rate. When artist is exciting the second hand move faster. When artist is relaxing the 100 second will be long. People first see this work, they may cannot realized the changes on the clock. But when they see it carefully, they will find that this is a clock that record a day for the artist or the person who connect with this clock. The concept of the time become different and complicated. Time for one day is no longer a constant number but it depends on the experience of a person. This is a clock for emotion and a grapher for a person’ day.

"The Sculptor and the Ashtray" from the Noguchi Museum

    The exhibition "The Sculptor and the Ashtray" from February 12,2020 -May 30, 2021, from the Noguchi Museum feature Noguchi's 1944 design of ashtrays. The concept was inspired by an unpublished article around 1944 by Mary Mix. 

Noguchi designed two concepts of the ashtrays, both have different meanings behind it, the first design was intended to make it more art, sculpture feeling, so the tray has a complicated design and process to make. The second one was intended to be cheaply made and manufactured in a factory. 

    The second idea what Noguchi wants was to embrace the power of American’s large manufacturing power to create a large quantity of the ashtray he designed. The ashtray never manufactured and sold, due to the still too complex design and make for the standard of an ashtray on the market, the title makes a point to separate two words sculpture and Ashtray, two totally different words but strangely connected through Noguchi’s idea on making the Ashtray with unique and easy to clean design, what is he thinking at that moment, is what I have the question of. What’s the intention for him to design this complex Ashtray and expect people to buy it or make it? 

  

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