Fair Well: C'est What?

Previous Miami posts

Is Anybody Happy



 Darren Almond at Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Art Basel Miami Beach

Some years ago I worked at Women’s Wear Daily. The mere sniff of a trite phrase would send the copy desk editors into a frenzy of elbow jabbing as they mocked the writer. “Clichés? Nothing wrong with clichés; after all, everyone uses them,” they'd say, making no effort to suppress their mirth. They’d move in close to the unsuspecting writer to offer this advice: “You have to avoid clichés like the plague.” Then they’d all have another good laugh and cut the bejesus out of the writer's story.

Those editors would have had a field day (sorry, guys) with some of what’s here. Is it the nature of text-based art that cliché often takes precedence over poetry, irony or wit? Two galleries got it just right, I thought: Carroll and Sons, Boston, and Charlie James, Los Angeles, with text based installations that were intentionally deadpan or funny and fresh.

I also responded to Mira Schor’s paintings, emphasis on painting; Jennifer Dalton’s wry foursome; Barbara Gallucci’s witty take on Robert Indiana’s oversold sculpture; and Darren Almond’s elegantly executed exhortation, which I took to heart as I made the rounds.

The sentiments expressed in the images are not necessarily my own.



Mel Bochner at Quint Contemporary, Miami Project

This guy just won't shut up:

Above: At Peter Freeman, New York and Paris, ABMB

Three below: at Two Palms New York; ABMB 

 

Foreground: Bertrand Lavier at Galerie Hans Mayer;

background: Barbara Kruger at Mary Boone Gallery, New York City; ABMB

Robert Indiana at Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York City

Above: Barbara Gallucci
Below: Joe Zane installation; both at Carroll and Sons, Boston; Miami Project

Alejandro Diaz at David Shelton Gallery, Houston; Miami Project

David Buckingham at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans; Miami Project

Tony Lewis at Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago; NADA

Two from Roni Horn

Above: at Dranoff Fine Art, New York City; Ink

Below: at Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, ABMB

Barbara Kruger at Mary Boon Gallery, New York City; ABMB

Above: Eugenio Merino

Below: Artist unidentified, both at Birnam Wood Galleries, New York City and East Hampton; Art Miami

Above and below: Margie Schnibbe at Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles; Aqua Art

Deborah Kass at Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York City; ABMB

Jack Pierson at Richard Gray Gallery; ABMB

 Susan Jamison at Fergeson Gallery, Farmville, Virginia; Aqua Art

Rashin Johnson at James Harris Gallery, Seattle; ABMB

Michael Scoggins at ABMB; photo by Sharon Louden

William Pope. L at ABMB

Detail below

Wayne White at Western Project, Los Angeles; Miami Project

Detail below

Mira Schor at CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, Miami Project

Tracey Emin at Lehman Maupin, New York City; ABMB

Justin Lieberman, Tibetan Pornography, at Galerie Rodolphe Janssen; ABMB

Kay Rosen, LOL, at (I think) Sikkema Jenkins; ABMB

Claire Fontaine at ABMB

Cheng Ran at Galerie Urs Meile; ABMB

 Artist unidentified at Kendall Koppe, Glasgow; NADA

Michelle Andrade at Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles; Aqua Art

Foreground: Jennifer Dalton at Charles James Gallery

Detail below

William Powhida at Charlie James Gallery

Detail below

Cary Leibowitz at Invisible Exports, New York City; NADA

Lawrence Weiner at Christina Guerra Contemporary Art; ABMB

Too good to ignore: Utility sign at ABMB



Artist unidentified Christina Grajales Gallery; Design Miami

John Giorno at White Columns, New York City; NADA 

Joe Wardwell at Prole Drift, Seattle; Aqua Art

Sam Durant at Sadie Coles, London; ABMB

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