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12.10.2013

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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4 comments:

Nancy Natale said...

Thanks for gathering these all together, Joanne. Did anything ring true to you or did it all sound trite?

Joanne Mattera said...

Mostly they sounded trite, though as I mentioned, there were a couple of galleries I liked, along with the paintings of Mira Schor and and Darren Almond's "Remember Everything." The latter had personal significancs because I was trying desperately to see everything, photograph and retain it(knee pain impingeing on my ability to do that) but also because in a world with constant streams of too much information, and high-speed access to anything we need or want to know, remembering even a fraction of what we take is a synaptic impossibility.

annell4 said...

thank you for the post, may I say 'enlightening?'

Julian Jackson said...

What? No Ruscha? sharply observed,weirdly dispiriting