Monday, April 12, 2010

The Joannex

Here's another tardy review. I saw this show about a month ago and meant to write about it then. I wanted to mention it now, though, because they have a new 1-night-only show on Saturday called "Are You There God? It's Me, Birdie." Anyway, the last show was a big group show. The Joanna's previous shows were in a small house, but this time they had a large house to show their stuff. They packed it with a pretty incoherent collection of work. Here are some of my favorite things from the show.

When you walked up to the house, you saw this.

Nick Meriwether
Nick Meriweather, Dali's Mustache, mixed media, 2010

Here's a little video I took so you can see the mustache in action.



The mustache was powered by a leaf blower.

Nick Meriwether

This was similar to those spastic attention getting dudes you see in front of stores. I've heard them referred to with the surprisingly poetic term of "air dancers." They're cheesy, and this piece was a witty play on their cheesiness by associating Dali (a master of cheese) with them. It also was an excellent attention getter for the Joannex. I don't really know anything about Mr. Meriwether, but he has a Flickr page here.

Dennis Harper
Dennis Harper, Howdy Pilgrim, mixed media installation, 2010

When you walked in, this piece dominated the room. There are two ideas at work here--the religious putt-putt game, and the giant face made by the eyes and fireplace mouth. I'm not sure how these two ideas are related. The face was funny like an old black-and-white cartoon. The putt-putt combined an icon with a game of skill. The golf-balls were painted gold, which enhances the Byzantine feel of the piece. And luckily for our salvation, it was pretty easy to get the ball into the hole.

The artist is a guy name Dennis Harper, who I wasn't familiar with. I'm not sure if this is the same artist, but if this is his website, and these two articles are about the same Dennis Harper, then he has an interesting history--doing underground comix in the 1970s, but going back to school in the 2000s to get a BFA and MFA--wow. Definitely an artist I'd like to know more about.

Francis Giampietro
Francis Giampietro, not sure what this is called, wood and protein powder, 2010


Francis Giampietro was back with more wood and protein powder. Like he did in Contrapposto, he used protein powder (which guys use to bulk up with) as one of the elements. He likes playing around with heavy wood structures. Was he making a comment on masculinity... and carpentry? Who knows--I just know I liked it. Maybe it unconsciously appealed to the bro in me.

Jeremy Deprez
Jeremy Deprez, another on I don't know the title of, torn stretched canvas

Here's another artist I know nothing about. He has a blog, though. This piece seems pretty dissimilar to the pieces on the blog. An homage to Lucio Fontana, I assume?

Sketch Klubb
Sketch Klubb, this lack of titles is getting old, silkscreen

This appealed to me because a naked tattooed Betty turns me on. Don't ask to understand the mysteries of men's minds. The tattoos are apparently by individual members of Sketch Klubb.

1 comment:

  1. Yard implements, religion and miniature golf, plus Betty was always hotter than Veronica.

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