Greg Drasler at the Betty Cunningham Gallery

Even if the exhibition is long gone, I had some pictures from the New York based painter Greg Drasler's exhibition at Betty Cunningham Gallery which I was compelled to post. For some reason, I liked his paintings a lot. They did not look photorealistic, yet they did. They did not look like the sets of a period classic movie set, yet they did. They did not look Art Deco, yet they did. I know I did not make much sense there, but the choice of his subject matter, the execution and the colors just make for some kind of a haunting alternate reality.

The works of Rackstraw Downes

A recent weekend found my wife and I around Chelsea hopscotching the gallery offerings there. What was originally planned to be a short trip to the Brooklyn Museum turned into a Chelsea/Chinatown trek with the hope that we could score a double win: Enjoy the art picks at the galleries and drop in for some heavenly dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai in Chinatown. A sudden change of plans also meant that we did not have a 'preferred gallery' visit-list to go by. We decided to rough it out and ‘randomly’ visit galleries (not a recommended option, but under the circumstances…) and see if we could be entertained. Heading south from 26th street, we stopped off at about 15 galleries and we did notice the usual Chelsea fare – brand name school MFAs with their ‘found’ artworks, artists working on their mid-life crisis', career retrospectives of established artists and the newly effulgent ones with their showy picks. Of course, the usual exhibit showing the next emerging hotshot Chinese artist also featured in one of the galleries that we passed by.

Figuring we would get more of the same, we dropped into yet another brand name gallery - the Betty Cunningham gallery – expecting to be greeted with the usual slickness and the somewhat forced fecundity of the contemporary art gallery scene. Boy!, We were surprised. The gallery was showing the works of Rackstraw Downes – a 70 year old American artist originally from England. My wife or I are not avid followers of ‘realist’ art, but the paintings of Mr. Rackstraw (that sure is a strange name) seem to border on the cusp between the abstract representation of a scene and a faithful rendering of the same on canvas. Not sure which side hangs more heavily. The paintings in this show are more of everyday scenes done plein air and feature scenes that one does not focus too much in the unhealthy speed of our busy city or country lives. The scenes happen to be there, right in front of us, invisible but imposing – the bridge, the skyway, the mesa or the rolling hills. In his hands, they seem to magically become a portal for additional scrutiny that seems to draw and tug a viewer strongly. I normally do not gush too much about art, but these paintings did it for us. He seems to have painted a good number of normal sized pieces and some really abnormal pieces – pieces that are about 15 inches high but stretch almost half the length of the gallery wall space (some were about 150 inches long). These are paintings of landscapes around Presidio, Texas and viewers could almost lose oneself in the panorama presented - a very novel device to present vistas – I must say.
This show is highly recommended and I would urge you to go and visit the gallery (if you are in town).

In his words:
A professional artist’s life is uncertain and miserable and everyday you feel obliged to do something extraordinary and unusual. It has its problems, it really does. The vagaries of fashion whisk you in and whisk you out again, and give you an income and take it away again. I will say this though, that all of us that are painters or poets or whatever spend quite a big chunk of time everyday doing exactly the thing we really want to do. And that can’t be said by lots of people.
- From the gallery catalogue whose price of $ 30 had us balking, but the gallery owner on seeing our excited expressions agreed to let us have it for free!
There is an interesting interview here.

A Stop on the J Line (Alabama Avenue), 2007, oil on canvas, 11" X 18"

'Henry Hudson Bridge Substructure, A.M.', 2006, Oil on canvas, 39" X 32"

'Daphne Cummings' Brooklyn Studio', 2006, oil on canvas, 23" X 32" (my favorite)

'Atlantic Avenue at the entrance to the Van Wyck Expressway', 2007, Oil on canvas, 14" X 55"

'Presidio Horse Racing Association Track, Presidio, TX, 3. Looking South and West: the North Horse Shelter with the end of the track', 2006, Oil on canvas, 15" X 100"

'Presidio Horse Racing Association Track, Presidio, TX, 2. Looking West, North and Northeast: the South and North Horse Shelters' , 2006, Oil on canvas, 15" X 120"

Installation view

Gallery visit - Natalie Frank at Mitchell Innes and Nash

I liked the visual plentitude in Natalie Frank's first solo exhibition at Mitchell Innes and Nash. She lets you be a voyeur into a kind of people whose personalities and identities are not defined completely yet seem familiar to us in her exploration of power, domination, subjugation and class differences inherent in our society. The paintings are large scale, a treat to the eyes and striking in their detail to attention. Some of the paintings had me thinking of the kind of drama set on canvas of the heroes and whores of the Weimar times... 'The Stammerer' (see below) is one of my favorites - features so much psychological tension - the man in the background is actually choking another bare chested woman...

I have some pictures posted here - just my perspective - for a better one, go see the paintings at the gallery.

Note: Natalie Frank was born in Austin, Texas in 1980. She earned an M.F.A. in visual arts at Columbia University's School of the Arts in 2006 and holds a B.A. in studio art from Yale University.

Natalie Frank, 'Portrait', Oil on canvas, 18" X 16", 2007

Natalie Frank, 'Robert', Oil on canvas, 20" X 18", 2007

Detail of above

Natalie Frank, 'Portrait', Oil on canvas, 56" X 34", 2007

Detail of above

Natalie Frank, 'The Stammerer', Oil on canvas, 56" X 80", 2007

Natalie Frank, 'Ryan and Jeremy', Oil on canvas, 56" X 72", 2007

Visit to Max Protetch and Freight - Volume galleries in Chelsea

Introspection, spirituality and surrealism were the themes covered by two gallery shows that I went to this week in Chelsea.

The concept of spirituality and asking oneself questions about the nature of the individual thus figuring out larger answers about the world was the angle probed by the group show at Max Protetch. The show curated by Aaron Williams and Stuart Krimko does not disappoint. Some of the pieces installed were very reflective and lived up to the deep emotions probed while some were the usual painted doormats that are typical of shows in and around Chelsea these days.

I liked the following (all of the pictures were ripped from the gallery sites as I did not get my camera along).

Saul Chernick CURE ALL 2007 ink on paper 15 x 18 1/4 inches

Saul Chernick IMMACULATION 2007 ink on paper 24 x 19 3/4 inches

Alfred Jensen MAYAN HEAD 1963 oil on wood 19 x 18 x 18 inches

Ed Blackburn Saul and David 2006 colored pencil and ink on paper 22 x 30 inches

At Freight – Volume (a dingy looking room on West 24th - they seem to have some amazing lineup of shows in spite of the 'dingyness') Marlene Mocquet, a recent graduate of the School of Fine Arts in Paris uses a combination of surrealistic imagery, outsider art influences and some doses of primitivism to produce some fantastical images that are compelling. Her painting technique seems slapdash but on closer inspection is very controlled considering that most of the canvases are fairly small (all her canvases have an aged and mottled look and I am sure she has a secret recipe for giving them this faded look) and pretty detailed in a strange way. I liked the following from the show. I wish she had made her paintings a little larger.

Little Red Riding Hood Pees (Le petit chaperon rouge fait pipi) 2007 39 x 63 in mixed media on canvas

The Bird Fingered Hand (La main aux doigts d’oiseaux) 2007 13 x 9.5 in mixed media on canvas

The Hair Caught by the Clouds (Les cheveux attrapés par les nuages) 2007 23.6 x 28.7 in mixed media on canvas

The White Vampire (Le vampire blanc) 2007 9.8 x 9.8 in mixed media on canvas

A gallery visit that made me think

Marina Abramovic; Role Exchange; 1975; published in 1994; 2 black and white photographs with 1 letter press text panel. 3 AP's framed: 29 3/4 x 39 1/2 inches; framed text:10 1/4 x 7 1/4

Themed sims or simulations around a particular theme abound in Second Life at this point in time. They combine elements of art and roleplay. The participant will need to enter an environment where the participant will play the role of the character s(he) dons and then interact with the themed situation in an appropriate manner. I have not been into one, but I hear that they are a lot of fun.

Role playing has been around/functional since time immemorial. I am sure this was a evolutionary trait refined and developed to ensure that the right functional aspects of a personality are utilized efficiently at the right times to ensure our survival as a social species. Sometimes we don the roles unconsciously and sometimes of our own volition. While the former may be part of the everyday life we lead (roles such as mother, father, manager, husband, wife etc), the latter is indulged for the purposes of make-believe by people who would like to indulge and live out in their own private fantasies.

Artists, given their creative nature have experimented a lot with roleplay. Marcel Duchamp explored the possibilities with Rrose Sélavy in 1921. It was with a lot of hopes and expectation that I approached the exhibition at Sean Kelly yesterday to look at some of these artistic explorations (the exhibition winds down on August 03). Fortunately, I was not disappointed in the least. In fact I came away from the show thoroughly stimulated and made it a point to tell the gallery managers on the selection and groupings of the works included in this excellent exhibition.

Themed around a point in time when the performance artist Marina Abramovic (see above) exchanges her artist roles with a prostitute in Amsterdam in the mid 70's, the show does not disappoint. Abramovic strutted her wares at the prostitute’s booth for four hours while the real prostitute went to an opening reception of the real artist. The idea is both revelatory and exploratory.

Most of the pieces in this show are of a similar nature where artists are trying to explore the issues of identity and self through assuming other roles and genders (in some cases fictional identities). Among the greatest hits at this exhibition that I wholeheartedly urge you to attend are pictured below (the pictures have been ripped from the gallery website or from public websites):

The pictures below are but a minor selection from the 27 artists on display there. A fascinating exploration that will leave you thinking a little more deeply into the roles we play (and do not / ought not) over the courses of our everyday lives.

My only wish was they had included some paintings, but I am not complaining.

Douglas Gordon; Staying Out and Going Home; 2005; two Polaroid photographsframed: 8 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches (21.6 x 36.8 cm)

Yinka Shinibare; Dorian Gray; 2001; 11 black and white resin prints, 1 digital lambda print; each print: 30 x 37 1/2 inches, overall: 130 x 175 inches

Andy Warhol; Self Portrait in Drag; 1981; Polaroid photograph

Samuel Fosso; The liberated american woman of the 70's; 1997C-print on Aluminum; Framed 51 X 51 inches

Douglas Gordon; Monster in the Making; 1995; 6 minute color video

Gavin Turk; Bum; 1998; Wax mixed with resin and polyester; 65 X 27 X 27 inches