Month: November 2009

Barbara Kruger

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Sprüth Magers London is delighted to present a survey of early work by acclaimed American
artist Barbara Kruger. Using contrasting layers of text and image, Kruger’s work has for almost three decades probed the nature of a media-saturated society in late capitalism, and the significance of highly evolved cultures of consumerism and mass politics to the experience and making of social identities. In addition to offering acute, indeed often piquant cultural insights,
Kruger’s work also presents a serious conceptual exploration into the relationship between language and image, and their dynamics as collaborators and antagonists in the bearing of meaning. The artist’s unique blend of conceptual sophistication and wry social commentary has made Kruger one of the most respected and admired artists of her generation, and this timely reappraisal of her early practice reveals the ingenuity and precision of her craft.

Sprueth Magers London

Simon Keenleyside

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In his new paintings, the English artist continues to explore the places where he had grown up and where he still lives nowadays: Essex, England.
Simon Keenleyside depicts these places with an astonishing ability to disclose the mystery and ambiguity around them; in his paintings he evokes not only physical places, but also mental states, desires and the anxieties that accompany him during his trips to discover the territory.

Most of the themes of his works are the elements-memories from the past which, scattered on the territory, characterize the landscapes of Essex: the remains of the First and Second World War, water towers and containers abandoned by local factories, partially demolished boundary walls which encircle the town. The presence of the ghosts from the past gives the landscapes a halo of mystery and at the same time it offers moments of sharing of an English collective memory.

In the new paintings, the artist re-interprets “his” landscape thanks to an intense light which sheds from the neighboring coastal suburbs and which is reflected and illuminates all the adjacent landscapes and, thus, creating a strong chromatic tension.
The result is given by the use of the fluorescent paint which characterizes the whole structure of his work.
In the works by Keenleyside, the materiality of the painting is always prominent; the act to add and to remove matter, to fill and to hide what has already been painted, contributes to the creation of a world full of surprises, where the painting goes beyond the matter and becomes landscape itself. The landscape is, thus, turned into a place where familiarity merges with dreamlike visions, and the transcendent beauty of a place – where the ordinary and the magic meet – is revealed.

Simon Keenleyside, 1975, lives and works in Great Britain. After his MA at the Royal College of Art, the artist exhibited his works at many exhibitions in the United Kingdom, in Denmark, in America and in Italy. In 2002, he was awarded the BOC Emerging Artist Award and in 2004 the Lexmark European Art Prize. His works are part of many important collections, like Boc group, Comme de Garcons, Hiscox plc, Mario Testino, Amlyn Collection, Marsh McLennan, RCA Collection, TI Group.

B l i n d a r t e

Sign of the Times

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Sign of the Times
group show featuring Kim Beck, Máximo González, Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, Michael Patterson-Carver and Carrie Schneider



is a group exhibition exploring the current global economic crisis.  This show was initially inspired by Carrie Schneider’s most recent photos “Recession” and “Miss America.”  Acting once again as her own subject, Schneider set out to explore elements of physical comedy and its greater psychological repercussions. But as an American working in a foreign land (Helsinki), during a global meltdown, not-to-mention being bombarded with headlines about Miss California Carrie Prejean, Schneider could not help feeling personally responsible and embraced the topical nature of work. Taking this cue, Sign of Times hopes to convey the multiplicity of thought in regards to our current situation:  from solidarity to parody, from economic to environmental, and of course from the political – both left and right.

14 ARTISTS //

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New Image Art is pleased to announce a new group show entitled “14 Artists.”  Selected through a series of studio visits and correspondences 14 young artists have to come together culminating figurative style in various mediums from painting and drawings to sculpture and collage.

Dennis McNett (Brooklyn, NY) will be exhibiting his striking sculpture of a giant Wolfbat. Offsetting these are evocative images by Paul Wackers (San Francisco, CA), pairing decorative and organic, textile-like patterning to create colorful landscapes. Paintings by Richard Colman (San Francisco, CA) along with collages by Erik Foss (New York, NY) depict edgy erotic subject matter that enchant or shock, to the viewers delight. Drawing on psychedelic counterculture is the vivacious portraiture of Eddie Ruscha (Los Angeles, CA), alongside equally spirited painterly images of popular magazine covers by Kellesimone Waits (Los Angeles, CA).  Lori D (Portland, OR), a regular jane of all trades adds to all of this with folk-like paintings that are often humorous in nature with an animated quality to them. Layers and layers of torn, collaged newspaper under every painting give texture and depth to Jodrin Isip’s (Brooklyn, NY) images of pensive figures.  Juxtaposing the whimsical appeal of Jordin Isip is artist Cleon Peterson (Los Angeles, CA). His hyper-violent paintings reflect the anxiety of our times with clashing figures symbolizing struggle between power and submission in the fluctuating architecture of contemporary society. Recycled artwork by The Date Farmers echoes Mexican-American heritage rooted in California pop culture. Their paintings, collages and three-dimensional sculptures contain elements influenced by graffiti, Mexican street murals, traditional revolutionary posters, sign painting, prison art and tattoos. Keeping the blood flowing through the veins of the streets is the art of Judith Supine (Brooklyn, NY) with his distinct color palette, subject matter, technique, and bold themes; his street installations and collages resonate with a growing audience. Reverberating this is graphic imagery of Skullphone’s (Los Angeles, CA) large painted canvas.  Adding a playful yet charming element to the group is muralist and painter My Mo (Berlin, Germany) with hand-painted monsters on brown paper bags.

New Image Art

Matt Stokes

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ZieherSmith presents the New York debut of these are the days (2009), a film installation by British artist Matt Stokes originally commissioned by Arthouse, Austin, Texas, and the launch of the accompanying catalogue designed by British collective, Abake. Inspired by punk rock subcultures, these are the days is the artist’s first institutional commission in the United States.

In 2007, Arthouse invited Stokes to create a new film project with ZieherSmith acting as co-producer. these are the days is the result of Stokes’ close work with communities connected to Austin’s music scene and his extensive research into anti-establishment musical genres, particularly punk rock. Investigating the dichotomies expressed within earlier and later punk communities, his research ultimately led to the creation of the dual channel film installation, an archival installation exhibition exclusively at Arthouse, and the publication about both.

The first film features footage from a specially organized punk show, staged by Stokes, at the Broken Neck, an alternative venue in Austin and filmed by renowned cinematographers Lee Daniel and P.J. Raval. The second film, created in response at a recording session at Austin’s Sweatbox Studios, depicts a makeshift band’s musical reaction to the event footage. A reversal of roles between audience and performers, the work examines the concepts of inspiration and response. Punk as it was then and as it is now, different yet the same–these are the days.

Matt Stokes’ artistic practice is marked by anthropological enquiry and an interest in happenings or informal movements that bind people together. Taking a variety of forms — from organizing events and assembling archives to making films and creating sculptural installation — Stokes’ works are often collaborative in nature and sometimes take place outside the traditional gallery space. Music subcultures have been central to the development of his most recent projects, which have focused on their ability to shape lifestyle, beliefs and create community. Northern Soul, acid/house and black metal are among the genres of music he has explored, poetically revealing music’s intrinsic ability to create fellowship through devotion or the quasi-religious experience of dance.

these are the days was first presented in 2009 at Arthouse and at 176 / Zabludowicz Collection, a major new contemporary art space located in London. The London show also featured The Gainsborough Packet (2009, co-commissioned by 176 and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art), which will screen in the back room of ZieherSmith. An editioned dubplate featuring music from both these are the days and The Gainsborough Packet is also available. The Abake-designed catalogue will be first released at the opening and includes documentation of both the film piece and of ephemera from the 1970s and 1980s related to the punk, post-punk, and DIY movements in Austin, material that was presented as an ambiguous archive at Arthouse.

Matt Stokes was born in 1973 in Penzance, England and currently lives in Gateshead, England. He is the 2006 recipient of the esteemed Beck’s Futures Prize, awarded by the ICA, London and is currently on the shortlist for the 2009 Northern Art Prize. In 2009, he was also included in solo and group exhibitions at the Baltic Centre of Contemporary Art, Newcastle, and the Lentos Museum, Linz, Austria, among other venues. Special thanks to Arthouse, the Arts Council England, Michael A. Chesser, Johnna and Stephen Jones, and Julie and John Thornton.



ZieherSmith

Sean Kennedy @ Jancar Jones Gallery

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The Jancar Jones Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibit of work by Los Angeles-based artist Sean Kennedy. The exhibit will include a new body of work comprised of 12 x 12 inch tiles, made of uniformly poured latex paint, and wall mounted suede paintings.

Through a reinvestment of paint with illusionism, the tiles (which serve as receptacles for a variety of painted abstract marks) posit non-objective abstraction as something capable of fluctuation between the supposedly respective realms of high art and commercial design.  In this context, the assimilability of certain forms seems to have been prefigured by their lack of representation.  In juxtaposition with the suede paintings, whose surfaces might bear traces of similar patterns, these forms are meant to seem highly disposable.

Jancar Jones Gallery