So when I heard they were displaying a Stephanie Toppin painting, I went to check it out. I liked her work in $timulus.
Oneself by Oneself, Stephanie Toppin, 2009
- The piece is huge.
- Evidently, the piece at Diverse Works and this one are part of a single larger piece.
Oneself by Oneself detail, Stephanie Toppin, 2009
- The bigger piece is a "self-portrait" in the form of a timeline.
- It might be better to call it a "memoir".
- But of course, no one would be able to figure out the subject of this large abstract work by looking at it.
Oneself by Oneself detail, Stephanie Toppin, 2009
- Instead, one sees a brightly colored abstraction that rewards close looks.
Oneself by Oneself detail, Stephanie Toppin, 2009
- Her handling of paint and colors remind me of early Melissa Miller.
- I love this work.
Black and White Picket Fence, Emily Sloan, 2009
- Emily Sloan had three pieces that I thought were cool.
- The show was somewhat lacking in identifying labels, so I don't know what they were called.
- One could call them "Picket Fence," "G Cone," and "Castors" I guess.
- Update: I have titles for her pieces, as you can see beneath the photos.
Traveling Bauhaus R, Emily Sloan, 2009
- These sculptural works kind of belong to the category of works that can be described thus:
- No Artistic Talent Was Required to Make Them
- But They Are So Intriguing and Visually Interesting, They Must Be Art
Turf, Emily Sloan, 2009
- This is not meant as an insult.
- After all, Duchamp proved that this approach could be art back in 1913.
- It becomes incumbent on the viewer, aided by contextual clues, to decide what is art.
- Postmodernism contended that this was always true.
- See for example 'La Mort de l'auteur'* by Roland Barthes.
- And in my eyes, Emily Sloan's work is cool.
Stampede, Kia Niell, 2009
- I guess the same could be said about the flying buffaloes of Kia Niell
Stampede, Kia Niell, 2009
- I liked how the shape of the piece changed as you walked up the stairs.
from "Zen and the Indulgence of Environmental Destruction," Anthony Day, 2009
- The notion of building things out of the interesting "negative" shapes of styrofoam packing material is not a bad one.
- But with the weak coloring (stryrofoam is notoriously hard to paint) and scattershot approach, Anthony Day's totems have little impact.
back yard of Box 13
- Remember Kathryn Kelley? I think Box 13's back yard might be her studio.
- All in all. Box 13 is one hell of an art space. I'm embarrassed that I had never heard of it before this weekend.
*That's French.
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