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12.17.2008

FAIR WEATHER: Trends and Coincidences-Stacks and Bales

I'm not sure this post reflects a trend so much as it simply reflects what these artists do: amass similar elements into an orderly package. Still, the examples here are all great, and it makes sense to see them together.

Scope: Dereck Melander, Flesh of my Flesh, at Ada Gallery, Richmond, Virginia

The first three stacks are orderly. I love the color gradations in the first tower, and the way it shares its rectilinearity with the all-white stack below it--both are made of clothing or cloth--and the open metal tower below that. Then the universe shifts slightly, and the two bottom stacks seem to be at the mercy of gravity. That "teetering" stack is actually carved wood on a sturdy plinth, so its balance is fairly assured. At the very bottom, the bale is not stacked so much as tightly bound, deconstruction allayed by a few knots and a length of string.

One might aspire to the orderliness of the topmost tower, but life is much more like the bale.



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Rubell Collection, 30 Americans: Leonardo Drew, Untitled #25, in the far gallery
(I'll have another image of this work when I report on the show shortly)



Art Miami: Nathan Slate Joseph, Urbana XIII at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York and elsewhere




Aqua Wynwood: Marie Watt at PDX Contemporary, Portland, Oregon



Art Basel Miami Beach: Shinique Smith, Bale Variant No. 0014, at Yvon Lambert, New York

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2 comments:

Seth said...

There is something so compelling about stacks. Thank you for the visuals.

Anonymous said...

These remind me a lot of Louise Bourgeois' earliest work.