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Finding ourselves in the Chelsea area this sub-zero Saturday afternoon, we bundled up our mufflers, straightened our long johns and took a quick peek at a few exhibits in Chelsea. Here's what we saw:
JIM DINE "HOT DREAM (52 BOOKS)" @ PACEWILDERSTEIN - A gargantuan installation by one of the grandpa's of Pop. the gallery has been cordoned off into various shaped room which are overrun with drawings, photographs, prints, stenciled walls, audio tapes and sculptures. I was pleased to see the old man incorporate a few new images into his repertoire: Pinocchio and Santa appear in numerous guises and media (I had wished the large dark Santa in one room was chocolate and not clay, but.....). In fact the little wooden boy is ubiquitous. There is a notable large sculpture to your left when u enter that is a butch, manly piece featuring the artist's famed heart hanging from a Di Suvero-like framework of beams with wires and equipment dangling from it. An awful lot of stuff from one of our better known American artists.
NANCY SPERO 'UN COUP DE DENT' @ GALERIE LELONG - This large group of paintings and drawings date from 1954 to 1965 and show this artist in a period leading up to well-known later works. Done in Paris and exhibited there as The Black Paintings, these primal figurative works often deal with lovers and families. They also share a raw savage quality that is similar to that of her now-deceased life partner Leon Golub. Certainly smoother and more 'painterly' than most of his 'Giganticism' and political portraits, they share that power of deep gesture used for figurative purposes. WORTH A LOOK!!
Also seen:
DON BACHARDY: CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD, LAST DRAWINGS @ CHEIM & READ - A gripping and grueling series of portraits of the writer drawn by his life partner. Many of the later portraits, particularly those that focus of the head have the power of a Kollwitz or a Daumier. INTENSE BUT WORTHWHILE.
CHRISTOPHER MINER @ MITCHELL-INNES & NASH - new videos and a photograph from this satirist of proper, pious South. Definitely check out the "Via Delarosa" and "Closing Credits" videos. MADE US CHUCKLE ON A GRIM COLD DAY.
CHRISTOPH GIELEN @ DANIEL COONEY GALLERY: large color photographs of mankind at its finest, highways and housing. Taken around the world, they document a kind of corporate matrix has infiltrated the world; only the sign with Chinese writing is the only clue that the hi-rise we are studying is there and not Las Vegas or Dubai. Curving row of roads and houses taken recently in Texas look remarkably like original pictures from Levittown. If only they were computer-generated!!
"EVERY REVOLUTION IS A ROLL OF THE DICE" @ PAULA COOPER - A group show organized for the gallery by Bob Nickas of twelve artists. I didn't quite get the entire zeitgeist of the show but standouts include Barry X Ball's elongated Buddha head, Huma Bhabha's brancusi-esque sculpture and Carol Bove's peacock carpet. Note to gallery: As I remember the piece, the Louise Lawler by the front desk should have a pink wall or area of wall around it. We know Pratt & Lambert are out of business but its not impossible to match a paint chip!! Tsk tsk tsk!!
