| The New York Optimist November 2008 |
Salvatore Meo (1914-2004), a master of found object
constructions was considered a pioneer of assemblage. Pavel Zoubok
Gallery presents us with a stunning array of his oeuvre, elevating detritus
from the everyday to the level of high art. The work often brings to
mind the boxes of Joseph Cornell, in the way Meo deftly creates
connections in his discarded and entropic materials, creating an entire
visual language of furniture parts, pieces of plywood, wire, random
pieces of rusted metal and the like, culminating in a private world we are
lucky enough to enter. “To say that his collages and assemblages drew
upon the most humble of materials would be an understatement....Meo
was not concerned with the alchemical transformation of the
commonplace, the search for hidden ‘jewels’, or the Surrealist double-
entendre of the objet-trouve. Rather, his was a poetic exploration of
abandonment, decay and destruction.” And this is what gets me: all too
often, contemporary artists rely on “garbage” as their primary medium
and rely too heavily on its intrinsic properties to carry the work, and all
too often with little success. Meo’s work is an example of how such
material can be incorporated, if not dictating and defining the work
successfully. These beautifully conceived and rendered pieces leave
plenty of room for the imagination to play and frolic, whilst maintaining
the artist’s true vision.
Reconstruction: The Art of Salvatore Meo
Pavel Zoubok Gallery
533 W. 23rd Street
November 13-December 20, 2008
constructions was considered a pioneer of assemblage. Pavel Zoubok
Gallery presents us with a stunning array of his oeuvre, elevating detritus
from the everyday to the level of high art. The work often brings to
mind the boxes of Joseph Cornell, in the way Meo deftly creates
connections in his discarded and entropic materials, creating an entire
visual language of furniture parts, pieces of plywood, wire, random
pieces of rusted metal and the like, culminating in a private world we are
lucky enough to enter. “To say that his collages and assemblages drew
upon the most humble of materials would be an understatement....Meo
was not concerned with the alchemical transformation of the
commonplace, the search for hidden ‘jewels’, or the Surrealist double-
entendre of the objet-trouve. Rather, his was a poetic exploration of
abandonment, decay and destruction.” And this is what gets me: all too
often, contemporary artists rely on “garbage” as their primary medium
and rely too heavily on its intrinsic properties to carry the work, and all
too often with little success. Meo’s work is an example of how such
material can be incorporated, if not dictating and defining the work
successfully. These beautifully conceived and rendered pieces leave
plenty of room for the imagination to play and frolic, whilst maintaining
the artist’s true vision.
Reconstruction: The Art of Salvatore Meo
Pavel Zoubok Gallery
533 W. 23rd Street
November 13-December 20, 2008
| November 13th, 2008 Chelsea Gallery Art Crawl by Stephan Fowlkes |
| Richard Avedon, one of the big names in fashion photography managed to bridge the gap between commercial and fine art photography with his now iconic portraits of celebrities, musicians and politicians, including the likes of Marlyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, the Beatles, Janis Joplin, and Louise Nevelson. This show presents over sixty black & white portraits which went beyond mere documentary: “the concept of ‘performance,’ in both life and art, was one of his central concerns.” He saw the public lives of these cultural icons as “essentially performances” and this was his fascination--to capture not so much their personal identity, but more the perception of them in the public eye. Richard Avedon: Performance PaceWildenstein 545 W. 22nd Street November 14, 2008-January 3, 2009 |
| Michelangelo Pistoletto, one of Arte Povera’s most significant protagonists, presents ten new large works at Lurhing Augustine. Continuing with his signature mirror-paintings, these silkscreen on mirror- polished stainless steel works invite the viewer, literally, into the works, where one comes in direct interaction with his subjects as one is faced with one’s own reflection alongside his Prostitute women. There is an awkward sensation, a sort of voyeuristic quality, as one is forced to effectively share the space with these women. The result is an intimate relationship with the work and with the subjects in the work, and with oneself. Trans border/ Trans limit/ Trans gression Michelangelo Pistoletto at Luhring Augustine 531 W. 24th Street November 15-December 20, 2008 |
| And if you want to get comfortably lost within a world of hard- edged geometry and vivid color, Al Held’s show at Paul Kasmin is a must-see! These massive canvases dwarf the viewers and engulf them in a profound illusory realm. “Al Held (1928-2005) used a formal vocabulary of clearly articulated Euclidean forms to explore the expansive possibilities and philosophical implications of illusionary space, its coordinates charted through the artist’s progressive stages of image making. Held’s complex geometric configurations simulate a three-dimensional frontier of almost limitless depth and capacity.” Al Held: Paintings 1979-1985 Paul Kasmin Gallery 293 Tenth Avenue November 10, 2008-January 10, 2009 And it is always fun to come across a traditional medium which has been taken in a fresh direction. Geoffrey Chadsey’s large drawings at jack Shainman Gallery is such an example. These meticulously drafted, laboriously rendered figurative, large-scale drawings bring a freshness to the medium. “Here Chadsey continues to create portraits of individuals and groups of gay men executed in watercolor pencil on mylar, and based on images culled from the internet....They are emblematic of today’ s culture, treasures culled from hours spent alone in front of a computer.” And though I am not necessarily a huge fan of men with their raging erections in my face, Chadsey’s technique is impressive, and if for nothing else the skill involved here makes the work worth seeing. This is not necessarily the stuff you’d put up in the dining room, but it is a good example of quality, skill and talent returning to the gallery scene. You, and Other Unknowing Subjects Geoffrey Chadsey at Jack Shainman Gallery 513 W. 20th Street November 13-December 20, 2008 |
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