Blog Archives - Mapanare.us Constantly.Consuming.Culture.

Marlene Dumas' "Untitled (The Stand In) Shown By David Zwirner (New York) At Expo Chicago 2013

9/27/2013

Marlene Dumas' Untitled (The Stand In) was one of the pieces show by David Zwirner (New York). Dumas is from South Africa and currently lives and works in The Netherlands. She is another artist who has worked in different media--painting, drawing installations.

How do you create something that seems both personal and anonymous? Something that seems vaguely cheerful and vaguely threatening? I have no idea. This isn't to say that these things are what the artist was trying to evoke but merely not that they are what I thought and felt when I saw this painting. There is something complex here that goes beyond words--and certainly beyond the usual art jargon.

Find out more about the artist HERE.

Leon Golub And Huma Bhabha Shown By Rhona Hoffman Gallery (Chicago)

9/26/2013

Head (1961) by Leon Golub

Another fine Chicago gallery, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, had these works by the late Leon Golub. Everytime I see work by Golub I also thing of the DVD on Kartemquin Films about the artist and his wife (and also artist), Nancy Spero. It is actually two documentaries and is titled Golub/Spero.

These pieces range from oils from the early 60s to acrylic and/or ink on linen from the near the end of the artist's life.

Also shown by the gallery was work by Huma Bhabha. Bhabha is mostly known for her sculpture but the piece below is an ink on C-print piece ( "C-print" is a chromagraphic print--basically an color photograph). Bhabha, a native of Pakistan, is a graduate of both RISD and Columbia.

We Can Disappear You #12 2001 and This Could Be You #17 2002 by Leon Golub

Le Jeune Ephebe 1961 by Leon Golub

Untitled 2011 by Huma Bhabha

James Cohan Gallery (New York) Showed Pieces By Francesco Clemente And Fred Tomaselli At Expo Chicago 2013

9/26/2013

First Of Three 2011 by Francesco Clemente

James Cohan Gallery (New York) showed, among other interesting pieces, work by Francesco Clemente and Fred Tomaselli.

Clemente has worked in just about every type of painting medium imaginable. He lives in both India and New York. Originally from Italy his work has been lauded for over 40 years. He also has an excellent website where you can go and read far more intelligent information than I can provide!

Tomaselli is known for using odd materials with epoxy. Below is a piece, Wow and Flutter, where he used acrylic, leaves and resin. Hmm what kind of leaves ARE those. Well, he is from California.

You may recognize his name from album cover art (I personally recall Magnetic Fields' i, which I listened to quite a bit...."I don't belllieve you..."

Wow And Flutter 1992 by Fred Tomaselli

Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie (Berlin) Showed Carol Rama's "Bricolage"A Piece From 1967 Making Creative Use Of Dolls Eyes

9/26/2013

Carol Rama is an Italian artist who is in her mid-90s as I type this. This piece was shown by Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie (Berlin). Rama is one of those self-taught types who didn't become known in the "art world" until she was in her 60s.

She is also one of those artists whose work--over her long life--varies wildly depending on the period. Rama has gentle watercolors and then, later, works like this piece that might be even a little disturbing (but in a good way). What is it about disembodied eyes that is unnerving). Perhaps that is some personal subconscious trauma.

Carl Hammer Gallery (Chicago) Featured Work By CJ Pyle And Hollis Sigler At Expo Chicago 2013

9/25/2013

photos by Boyd Ogle II

Hammer Gallery (Chicago) featured work by Hollis Sigler and CJ Pyle at Expo Chicago. The Sigler piece to the right, and I confess it was near the end of my second day and I neglected to find out names of the pieces, is an explosion of color. Thank goodness for the internet because via this technological marvel I found it is called The Land Of The Disinherited. It is both somehow primitive and technically amazing at the same time.

Pyle draws in pencil and colored pencil, sometimes on found paper and other objects. These are works you need to spend some time with--they are complicated little drawings.

De La Cruz Projects (Costa Rica) Showed Work By Firelei Baez, Among Other Artists, At Expo Chicago 2013

9/25/2013

photos by Boyd Ogle II

De La Cruz Projects (Costa Rica) showed a number of interesting pieces. The large one to the left is Firelei Baez''s
CPT symmetry (from the Not Even Unalterable Limitations Series). The piece is gouache and graphite on paper. And, as usual is even more beautiful in person.

The price was $10,500 and it had not sold at the moment I walked by. More from De La Cruz's artists below.

Fredericks & Freiser (New York) Showed Work By Blane De St. Croix And Mark Thomas Gibson At Expo Chicago 2013

9/25/2013

Tree Ruins: Haiti/Dominican Republic

(Haitian Charcoal Field

by Blane De St. Croix

Blane De St. Croix, from Boston, is an Associate Professor at Indiana University. He lives in both Bloomington, IN and Brooklyn.

He has been exhibited widely--so widely that listing them here is just not going to happen. You can find out more at his gallery, Fredericks & Freiser (New York).

These are pieces that do not suffer photography. You have to see them to see both how they look from a distance and close up. There is the whole and then there are the details.

Also shown by Fredericks & Freiser is work by Mark Thomas Gibson. His Westward was an interesting, colorful, counterpoint to the pieces by De St. Croix. But it isn't all about the color. Look at the texture in the black part of the piece--visible even in the photograph below. It looks almost haunted and haunted is good.

Tree Ruins close up

Westward by Mark Thomas Gibson

Pace Prints Show Work By Shepard Fairey At Expo Chicago 2013

9/25/2013

photos by Boyd Ogle II

Pace Prints (New York) showed these works by Shepard Fairey. Really lovely.

Aren't you glad that judge let him slide after all the evidence faking and whatnot? He has always done eye catching stuff an it is so hard to get art supplies in a Federal prison.

Keep hope alive!

I kid! I kid (and I genuinely think he is an excellent graphic artist).

Zolla/Lieberman Gallery (Chicago) Showed Work by Vera Klement, Teodor Dumitrescu And Deborah Butterfield

9/25/2013

Night by Vera Klement

Zolla/Lieberman Gallery (Chicago) showed pieces by Vera Klement, Teodor Dumitrescu and Deborah Butterfield at Expo Chicago 2013.

Klement's Night, a striking original work, had a price tag of $7,500 and was sold. Even in this photo you can see how the brick section looks closer than the grey of the painting. This is more pronounced when looking at the actual painting. There is something in the simplicity here that makes it special. Discussing this further might lead to mumbo jumbo about using space and the like.

Dumitrescu's surreal, dreamlike watercolor/gouache, We're Still Searching, made me think of Dali. Of course the style and detail are quite different from Dali but there is something surreal (using the term in its dictionary definition here) about the painting.

Butterfield's horses are always pieces that stop visitors to shows. They are of varying sizes and made from various materials (often wood).

We're Still Searching by Teodor Dumitrescu

Minako Abe Paintings Shown By Base Gallery (Tokyo) At Expo Chicago 2013

9/25/2013

Scene No.40

photos by Boyd Ogle II

Minako Abe's stylized landscapes seem to warp in the frame as you look at them. The images bend, they move and they even confuse viewers. One woman looking from a distance thought the images were digital and doctored.

They are, in fact, oil on canvas.

The pieces were shown by Base Gallery (Tokyo).

Abe is a graduade of Tokyo Zokei University's Painting Department. He has regularly exhibited in his home country and also in Vienna. The large tryptych sold at Expo Chicago.

Scene No. 22

Scene No. 36