Art show review of Gigi Grinstad’s Noctuary @ Little Pink Monster Gallery August 2014

Art show review of

Gigi Grinstad’s Noctuary & Katie Rose Pipkin’s Six Drawings of Dogs and Rocks

two person show @

Little Pink Monster Gallery, Austin, August 2014

Over time Little Pink Monster Gallery’s (LPMG) art shows have become increasingly better. Their recent two person show with Gigi Grinstad (GG) and Katie Rose Pipkin (KRP) was a highlight of my art year and made me glad that we are seeing more high quality art shows here in Austin. I have contemplated moving back to New York City, but shows like these make me feel better about being stuck here.

Well known around Austin KRP operated a gallery here for some time. Upon graduating from UT she accepted residencies inCalifornia, Oregon, Kansas and Minnesota respectively. Was she in the Texas Biennial last year? Yes. And she graced the cover of the Austin Chronicle somewhat recently. Check out her website to experience a diverse range of artistic mediums including twitter bots. I have no clue what those are.

KRP’s intimate and precise drawings complimented Grinstad’s all encompassing installation well. Binder clipped drawings hung from thumbtacks making for a better presentation than framed and matted works behind glass. I loved being drawn into KRP’s finely crafted and cared for world of trees, rocks and dogs. Real love went into these drawings but also style and sensitivity to the medium. Drawing well takes more talent and skill then is sometimes apparent. All the ingredients necessary to make a complete and satisfying image are on display in KRP’s game.

GG is a somewhat new Austin resident and here she has constructed a world full of color, light and imagination. Chicken wire was sculpted into tree like forms extending from grass covered floor to ceiling enveloped with strips of colored paper. I did say grass on the ground and I mean it; sheets of real grass on the floor of the gallery. The LPMG space is not huge and this helped to enclose you in an imagined world full of the external in the internal crafted through the lens of internal artist’s world. I apologize for that last sentence. GG’s paintings also complimented her installation. There were even some abstract paintings on view from her! Or is that a wasp’s nest? I can’t tell anymore, but there was some very interesting structures and nice use of encaustic and oil in her paintings. I hope there are more two person shows like this in our future. Solo shows can get boring quickly and occasionally lack enough variety. Group shows sometimes can be overwhelming and scattered. This was a show that would have easily played well in Chelsea or Brooklyn.

My only complaint is I would have loved to see more old people there. Being 39 I am coming to an age where surrounding myself with twenty somethings on the weekend is becoming more and more depressing. LPMG, please find me some old people I can hang around with at these things.

http://katierosepipkin.com/windows/

http://www.gigigrinstad.com/#!current-works/cay5

 

Julian Schnabel A View of Dawn in the Tropics: Paintings 1989-1990 Art Show Review

Julian Schnabel  

A View of Dawn in the Tropics: Paintings 1989-1990 Gagosian Gallery May 2014

Schnabel’s career has been quite controversial and varied thus far, but everything he does centers on his work. I love how in interviews he always redirects you back to his paintings. He obviously cares deeply about painting, the history of it and his place in it. I can’t imagine success at Schnabel’s level can be easy as the art world is well known for ruining lives. It is refreshing to look back at a slice of Schanbel’s contribution to the art world of the late eighties to early nineties and see his success in the work too.

Schnabel does what many good painters do; he experiments with his materials and surfaces to conjure new imagery in a way that produces art.

Yes, there is little evidence of the scraping and covering that goes along with an image hard fought for but Schanbel undoubtedly knows his craft and knows when to stop. He has a voice, preferences, and limitations like all artists but works well within that world.

“Little Later” is my favorite piece in the show. It looks like the piece was painted with a tossed pair of jeans thrown repeatedly across the canvas but you only notice this close up. Getting back a fully formed & colorful piece of abstract art is produced. Darks and lights are placed carefully to make a good composition.

I am beginning to understand what it means to have claustrophobia, which Schnabel has. Surfing, painting outside, living in a huge pink castle in the middle of New York City, moving from New York to Brownsville, Texas at age 15 all seem to have an influence on these works.

Modern day painters should consider and reconsider Schnabel’s art. Not enough artists play and mess with their materials and surface the way Schnabel does. Drag a canvas behind your car while driving over a dirt road, then a paved one. Perhaps your next stop to get something to paint on should not involve a 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby.

3 painters I am thinking about

3 painters I am thinking about.

All landscape artists. Each artist’s work results in art that has a unique voice & is full of skill and talent.

Allison’s work has a perfect balance of color and linear perspective and direct decision making showing few scars of any doubt or fear. The verticals and horizontals reference the edges of the canvas the piece lives on. This helps to pull you into her landscape and you can’t really be anywhere else. The forms fit perfectly together across a series of works. I imagine it took decades and decades to be able to paint like this, and the pieces seem to be hard won and fought for. Allison must have stared at and considered landscapes way longer than most of us and the work has paid off in an artistic language system that is unique and consistently high quality.

Lynn’s paintings easily shift from realistic to abstract. She can turn the photo lens on her work in and out at any moment to give you a detailed or abstracted view of a landscape that is satisfying and full of joy. This skill embeds it self in the abstracted and the realistic works and it’s beautiful to see the process inherent in both that relates to direct observation. The color palette is decidedly different from Allison’s; more Midwestern maybe with a certain type of light that comes from direct sunlight where Allison’s landscapes seem to have more of the snow’s light in them. The way birch trees are handled says a lot about Lynn & Allison’s work. Lynn’s edges are softer and bear the scars of a drawing practice; lines define edges as opposed to the lines being the forms themselves as is the case with Allison’s work. Lynn outlines the space more organically while Allison’s directness and economy says a lot with less giving the space a certain power found in handwriting and advertising.

Peter’s work seems to struggle with it self a little more than Lynn & Allison’s work.

His palette is decidedly darker and more urban but extremely and surprisingly color-complex. There is no aerial perspective to my eye here. There are just lots of data up front in the space that seems to fights for air within itself. The lines carve out a space that scares and confines.

The canvases here are way larger than Allison’s or Lynn’s work in the same way life in New York City engulfs and takes over your psyche more than a landscape in the Midwest or Northeast might. You can hide and run through Peter’s paintings. Hofmann’s statement that “the line originates in the meeting of two planes” is sometimes ignored but then given full value.

Peter’s work reminds you that the world is not a safe place and you are going to have to negotiate and compromise your core values somewhat if you want to survive. You may want to push over an old lady over to get on the subway. Pressure and stress may get the best of you for a bit but you’ll see your way out of it eventually and feel like you have done something good. If god created the landscape in Allison’s & Lynn’s work men and women who work their lives away sculpted the landscape Peter is making. Everything natural is covered by something constructed. The world here is a city that is claustrophobic but absolutely necessary.

http://allisongildersleeve.com/

http://lynnuhlmann.com/home.html

http://petermaslow.com/

“Tallymarks” Philip Harrell solo show 

Big Medium, Bolm Location

Austin, Texas

February 2014

I had no reason to follow a straight path through Philip Harrell’s first solo exhibition at Big Medium. I was initially thrown from piece to piece by contrasting and somewhat conflicting forms and shapes. I then had to go back to the first piece and start again and try to make sense of it in order. Each piece had its own integrity and compositional laws.

Harrell's chunks of paint were stacked and cut in ways I had not seen before, like a tactile map of a place that doesn’t really exist. Brushed and cut with god knows how or with what. There was palette knife work also, and the edges of the canvas jutted out at me, enclosing the space in unique ways. Some of the rectangular shapes in the composition looked like they were ¼” thick strips of beautifully colored tape cut and placed with integrity and intention. I love art that gives you no hints about how it was made and has its own sculpted life protruding from the canvas.

There were references to plasticity in the titles, and Hans Hoffman’s influence seemed instant to me. Rectangles of pure color referenced the total rectangle and created layers of subject matter that certainly pushed and pulled in and out and around the space. The works relate to a tradition and a search that all good abstract artists venture into. I don't know what is taught in art school these days, but I am glad UT is teaching whatever they are teaching and producing artists that create work this good. The many small (10x8”) works that in a larger format would perhaps feel overhung, worked here perfectly and gave the entire show a relatable and full life.

Austin has a seriously hard time retaining artists at this skill level but I hope we can see one or two shows more before Philip moves on. Who knows, perhaps Austin will grow to be a great place for artists to have full and lifelong careers. Weirder things have happened.

 painting of IRS tax form 1120S

yelw lndscpe 22" sq

assemblge 4 3x5'