Showing posts with label Julon Pinkston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Julon Pinkston. Show all posts

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Robert Boyd: Five Pieces from the Big Show

Robert Boyd

Dean Liscum, Betsy Huete and I all agreed to pick five pieces from the Big Show at Lawndale to write about. I found the choice hard to make. I liked a lot of the pieces this year. My first sweep, I narrowed it down to 28 choices. I made another sweep of the show, spending extra time with the ones I liked, drawing stars on the ones I found the most compelling, 15 in all. And that's where I am as I write these words. The final five will be decided in a Benthamite way by paying close attention to my own pleasure--specifically, the five I find most enjoyable to write about will be my final choices.


Avril Falgout, Black Veil Brides, 2013, paper maché, 75 x 50 x 105 inches

I like discovering new artists at the Big Show. And by "new," I mean artists whose work I've never seen before. I hadn't heard of Avril Falgout before, but I guess that's understandable--the Beaumont artist is only 15 years old.  The Black Veil Brides she depicts in her life-size figure group is a Los Angeles metal band. When I saw this, I immediately thought of "Expectations," the (highly un-metal) song by Belle & Sebastian. It includes the following lyric:
And the head said that you always were a queer one from the start
For careers you say you want to be remembered for your art
Your obsessions get you known throughout the school for being strange
Making life-size models of The Velvet Underground in clay
I recall when I was in art class in high school (I was the "brain" in a class full of "heads") in 1980, a girl named Annette made a brilliant scratchboard portrait of Jerry Garcia.  Depicting your musical idols is something that teenage artists do. But few do it with the level of ambition shown by Falgout. This group has incredible presence in the room--they demand your attention. Falgout was one of the juror's award winners. No one can predict how her life as an artist will unfold, but winning a juror prize at the Big Show when you're 15 is one hell of a start.


Sandra A. Jacobs, Spring Dance, 2013, old photograph, black pencil and black watercolor pencil, 10 x 8 inches

Sandra A. Jacobs is another artist about whom I know nothing. A Google search turns up a Sandra Jacobs who is a teaching artist at the MFAH, but I don't know if Spring Dance is by that Sandra Jacobs. This piece takes a found photograph--it appears to be a professionally made studio photo--and adds two simple drawn elements. This photo of a young girl in a bob hairdo appears to date from the 20s or 30s. One of the black circles partially obscures her face and the other looms in the negative space formed by her sitting body. I don't know why, but I feel a slight sense of dread in this photo with its two obliterating periods. It's as if this girl is being attacked by Suprematism. The obliterating dots are in the process of making her an unperson. The anti-humanist history of the 20th century is weirdly wrapped up in this seemingly simple piece.



Julon Pinkston, Shirtless, Young and Catching Flesh, 2013, acrylic on wood panel, 10 x 7 x 2 inches

I can't be objective about Julon Pinkston's paintings like Shirtless, Young and Catching Flesh. When I saw a show of work in this series at Zoya Tommy Gallery, I was so bowled over that I ended up buying two of them. I'm looking at them right now. I'm totally conflicted to be writing about this, but I like what I like, and I love this painting. Shirtless, Young and Catching Flesh is different from the pieces I bought in the intensity of the color. The blue, green, pink and gray shoot it out from the wall, which compensates for its small size (the size is fine, but in a crowded gallery full of dozens of other works, small pieces can get lost).

Pinkston likes tape and stickers, but instead of just using tape and stickers in his paintings, he actually makes the tape and stickers himself. The strips of blue, green and gray tape in Shirtless, Young and Catching Flesh are actually strips of acrylic paint that Pinkston made on glass. These paintings push the medium of acrylic paint to the limit. He uses in plastic quality (in both sense of the word) of acrylic paint in every way he can think of. The results have a gooey tangibility that I love.



Earl Staley, Bouquet 29, 2013, acrylic collage, 36 x 36 inches

Having an Earl Staley in the Big Show feels like overkill. Here's a little local show, showing mostly work by young emerging artists--and along comes a piece by an artist who was in the American Pavilion of the 1984 Venice Biennale. But what's awesome about Bouquet is that Staley is still daring you to like his work. He combines two despised genres here. Flower paintings, long the domain of watercolor societies, have had little place in contemporary art (although there are exceptions--Andy Warhol, for example). But he goes one further by adding what I take to be a clown face on top. I can't help but think of Bruce Naumann's Clown Torture, and looking at this painting is a kind of torture--it's so aggressive, the colors are so piercing. But it has intensity, humor, and a powerful presence. Ultimately, I fell in love with Bouquet because of its sheer craziness.


Camille Warmington, Setting Yourself Adrift, 2013, pencil and acrylic on board, 12 x 12 inches

Camille Warmington is another artist with whom I was not familiar when I encountered her two paintings at the Big Show. What appealed to me about Setting Yourself Adrift was the muted palette, which suggests a faded photograph (as does the "1969" on the right margin) and the handling of the paint. I assume this is painted straight from an old photo of folks sitting on the front porch of an old house. The deliberate vagueness of the image reinforces the feeling of distance and memory.

The painting looks like a "paint by numbers" painting--flat colors laid out in a kind of speckled pattern. But the watery brushstrokes are completely visible, which makes it look "deskilled" and amateurish. I realize as I write this that it sounds like an insult or a criticism. To avoid any Bill Davenport-style misunderstanding, I love the quality painting here. It totally undercuts what we expect from this kind of subject matter. Those blotchy flat areas of watery brushstrokes are beautiful and fascinating. Warmington undoes her subject while somehow sinking the viewer into a memory.

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Dean Liscum: Five Pieces from the Big Show

Dean Liscum

My five (ok six)

In a very random order, here are my favorites.


Saralene Tapley, Flourish, 2013, acrylic on watercolor paper

The flourish of this piece by Saralene Tapley is ambiguous (artistic? fanciful? fey?) but the rendering isn't. The nuance, control, and subtle use of color are superb.


Julon Pinkston, Shirtless, Young and Catching Flesh, 2013, acrylic on wood panel, 10 x 7 x 2 inches

Julon Pinkston's work is one of those that I could have made in high school art class. It's got a haphazard, found object feel but sophisticated, balanced composition. Plus, he made it and neither I nor you did.


Chantal M. Wnuk, The Six Pound Weight in the Pit of My Stomach, 2012, charcoal, graphite and colored pencils on paper, 22 x 30 inches

Mix a little Francis Bacon with a little Chaim Soutine and it's guaranteed to stick in my gut.



 
Cintia Rico, Pod (Series Pod), 2012, Stoneware, soap, pigment and nylon fibers, 15 x 11 x 11 inches and 12 x 9 x 9 inches

Freud.

Plain and simple genital envy/lust. 'nuff said.

 
Mari Omori, Fieldwork: 2007-2012, 2013, 1 minute video loop

Mesmerizing. I'm not sure if it is mesmerizing because of the vertiginous stop-action photography, the scope of the work (the world as held by the artist's hand), the individual objects displayed, or the altered or want-to-be-altered state of the viewer. Nevertheless, my doubt is irrelevant. It's simply mesmerizing.


JooYoung Choi, Sacrifice of Putt-Putt, 2013, acrylic and paper on canvas, 75 x 70 inches

There is a part of me that longs for the regal, narrative mural style paintings that span time and place in illustrating a cultural icon's trials, tribulations, and ultimate sacrifice. This painting by Joo Young Choi appeals to that part of me, even though I'm clueless as to who Putt-Putt is other than the inventor of the only type of golf I can play.

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Sunday, July 14, 2013

It was too crowded to look at art at the Big Show opening

Robert Boyd

So I looked at people. Here are a few whose photos are more-or-less in focus.


Daniel Anguilu and Rahul Mitra


Julon Pinkston


Kia Neill


John Adelman explains stuff to Jason Fuller


David McClain and Jane Schmitt


Adela Andea and Joshua Fischer


Cody Ledvina (with Jordan Dupuis) waves hello!


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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Pan Recommends for the week of July 11 to July 16

Robert Boyd

This is the biggest art weekend of the summer. The Big Show at Lawndale is always huge, and galleries take advantage of that hugeosity to host the annual ArtHouston event at many galleries around town. That means lots and lots of openings. Here are a few of the events and openings we'll be checking out.

THURSDAY

 
Mariano Dal Verme, Untitled , 2013, Graphite, paper, 21 1/4 in. x 29 1/8 in. 

Mariano Dal Verme: On Drawing at Sicardi Gallery, 6–8 pm with an artist's talk Saturday at 2 pm. These don't seem to be drawings in the traditional sense--the gallery writes "The resulting sculptural objects are not exactly graphite on paper; instead they consist of paper in graphite, and graphite extending out from paper."

FRIDAY


Irby Pace, Blue and Yellow Make Green

31st Annual HCP Juried Membership Exhibition at the Houston Center for Photography, 6–8 pm with artists talks Friday at 5:30 and Saturday at 11 am. This show features a large selection of photographers: Elisabeth Applbaum (Jerusalem, Israel), Pedro Arieta (New York, NY , Allison Barnes (Savannah, GA), Christopher Borrok (Brooklyn, NY), Shelley Calton (Houston, TX), Joy Christiansen Erb (Youngstown, OH), Caleb Churchill (Houston, TX), Betsy Cochrane (Oyster Bay, NY), Maxi Cohen (New York, NY), Rachel Cox (Albuquerque, NM), Jessica Crute (Houston, TX), Donato Del Giudice (Milan, Italy), Miska Draskoczy (Brooklyn, NY), Camilo Echavarria (Medellín, Colombia), Teri Fullerton (Minneapolis, MN), Preston Gannaway (Oakland, CA), Erik Hagen (Culver City, CA), Christopher Harris (Rockvale, TN), Dave Jordano (Chicago, IL), E2 (Elizabeth Kleinveld & E Paul Julien) (New Orleans, LA & Amsterdam, Netherlands), Phil Jung (Jamaica Plain, MA), Ferit Kuyas (Ziegelbruecke, Switzerland), Alma Leiva (Miami, FL), David Lykes Keenan (Austin, TX), Rachul McClintic (Bossier City, LA), William Miller (Brooklyn, NY), Robin Myers (Jamaica Plain, MA), Irby Pace (Denton, TX), Alejandra Regalado (Long Island City, NY), Robert Stark (Los Angeles, CA), Jamey Stillings (Santa Fe, NM), Jeremy Underwood (Houston, TX), Robert Walters (Omaha, NE) and Kelly Webeck (Houston, TX). This really is the other big show of the weekend. Don't miss it.


Lillian Warren, Wait #50, 2013, acrylic on mylar

Lillian Warren: Alone Together at Anya Tish Gallery, 6–8:30 pm. I'm not sure if any of these pieces are the same as the ones in her solo show at Lawndale from last summer, but either way, this series of paintings is really interesting and worth seeing.

 
Earl Staley, Bouquet 29, 2013, 36 x 36 inches

The Big Show at Lawndale Art Center, 6:30–8:30 pm. This year's guest juror was Duncan Mackenzie, of Bad at Sports fame. The selected artists are Hannah Adams, John Adelman, Alonso Bedolla, Kari Breitigam, Adrian Landon Brooks, Chadwick + Spector, Raina Chamberlain, Perry Chandler, Monica Chhay, JooYoung Choi, K.C. Collins, Felipe Contreras, Terry Crump, Andy Dearwater, Alex Larsen and Alexander DiJulio, Jennifer Ellison, Avril Falgout, Bryan Forrester, Kelli Foster, Caitlin Fredette, Luna Gajdos, Daniela Galindo, Bryan Keith Gardner, Matthew Glover, Nerissa Gomez, David P. Gray, Carrie Green Markello, Casey Arguelles Gregory, Sarah Hamilton, Jorge Imperio, Jenna Jacobs, Sandra A. Jacobs, Jeremy Keas, Bradley Kerl, Galina Kurlat, Marilyn Faulk Lanser, Melinda Laszczynski, Joan Laughlin, Eva Martinez, David McClain, Leo Medrano, Susannah Mira, Kia Neill, Mari Omori, Bernice Peacock, Eric Pearce, Ellen Phillips, Page Piland, Julon Pinkston, Eduardo Portillo, Cinta Rico, Natalie Rodgers, Darcy Rosenberger, Nana Sampong, Kay Sarver, John Slaby, Rosalind Speed, Earl Staley, Adair Stephens, Alexine O. Stevens, Saralene Tapley, Happy Valentine, David H. Waddell, Camille Warmington, Chantal Wnuk, Martin Wnuk and Tera Yoshimura. Whew. Of this group, I'm quite familiar with about 15 of them and there are many whose names I have never heard before. That's what's exciting about The Big Show. Now a word of warning--this is going to be one crowded opening. There will 67 artists (well, 66--I hear that Earl Staley will be in Beaumont for an opening of a solo show at AMSET) with their friends and family, as well as the usual Lawndale crowd. It will be an environment very conducive for partying, but not so much for looking at art. So if you want to actually see the art, I recommend checking it out Saturday.

SATURDAY


Getting ready for Funkmotor at Peveto

FUNKMOTOR at Peveto, 6–11 p.m. It's summer, so Peveto is getting funky with the aid of UP Art Studio. Features work by 2:12, Daniel Anguilu, Article, Brian Boyter, Burn353, Dual, Empire INS, FURM, Gear, Marco Guerra, JPS, Santiago Paez, Pilot FX, Raiko NIN, Sae MCT, Lee Washington, Wiley Robertson, Jason Seife, Justin West and w3r3on3.

 
Sebastien Bouncy photo

the soothsayer by Benjamin Gardner, A Nice Place to Visit by Ana Villagomez and Miguel Martinez, Grand Canyon by Jonathan Leach & Sebastien Boncy and Sana/Sana by Monica Foote at Box 13, 7 to 9:30 pm. Four new shows/installations open at Box 13 this Saturday. Take the drive down Harrisburg and check it out.

 
Rob Reasoner, Untitled 5.06, 2006, 19 x 19 inches

Chromaticism: New Paintings by Rob Reasoner at McClain Gallery, 2 to 4 pm. I would characterize these paintings as consisting of jolly colors laid down in an anal-retentive manner. Is that fair? Go see for yourself!

WEDNESDAY

 
Graciela Hasper,  Untitled,  2008,  acrylic on canvas,  77.6 x 83.9 inches

Mighty Line with Jillian Conrad, Jeffrey Dell, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Sharon Engelstein, Sévulo Esmeraldo, Manuel Espinosa, León Ferrari, Jessica Halonen, Graciela Hasper, Darcy Huebler, Bethany Johnson, Jonathan Leach, David Medina, Devon Moore, Richard Nix, Robert Ruello, Pablo Siquier, Carl Suddath and Randy Twaddle at Williams Tower Gallery, 6 to 8:30 pm. If all the group shows this weekend weren't enough, hop on over to uptown and check out Mighty Line featuring some heavy hitters!

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Sunday, March 17, 2013

New Acquisitions: Julon Pinkston and Thomas "Tad" Dorgan

Robert Boyd

It's been a while since I did one of these. But bonus time hit and I decided to celebrate by buying some art. It took me a while to find some art I was willing to commit to that I could afford--always the tricky balance, for me. But I saw the new pieces by Julon Pinkston at Zoya Tommy Contemporary and I loved them. In fact, there were many there I loved so I'm already feeling buyers remorse over the  other Pinkston works I wish I had. No matter what I had bought, I would have still felt regret for what I didn't get.

Here's the thing. There are artists and whole art movements that strive to somehow remove their art from the capitalist system, who try to create art that is cannot be made into a "commodity." I get it. But the pleasure of buying and owning art is exquisite, so all you trendy commies can go to hell.


Julon Pinkston, Untitled (Tape Over White Over Red), 2013, acrylic paint on canvas stapled to wood panel, 10 ¾ x 14 ¾ x 2”


Julon Pinkston, Winter Coat, 2012, acrylic paint and plastic BBs on wood panel, 6 ½ x 5 ½ 2”

I had seen Julon Pinkston's work at the Big Show at Lawndale in 2011, and I liked it, but it wasn't anything I felt I wanted to have. Not so with these. On opening night, I literally spent 30 minutes trying to decide which of the many pieces I wanted--there were so many good ones.

Now some readers are possibly thinking, man, listen to this rich asshole talking about his art buying. But while I make a decent living, I am far from being in the 1% (much less the .01% who break the records at Sotheby's and Christie's). The thing is, Julon Pinkston, like many local artists, sells his work at prices that a non-wealthy collector can manage. There is a lot of fantastic art out there that ordinary folks can afford. The Vogel's proved that.

Jen Graves wrote a manifesto for collecting in The Stranger (a Seattle weekly newspaper) a few months ago. There have been lots of artistic manifestos, but Graves' manifesto, "Buy Art!" (subtitled "If You Have Never Bought a Piece of Original Art, You Are Doing Life Wrong"), may be the only manifesto for collectors I have ever seen. She wrote:
The last time you avoided an art gallery out of intimidation or slunk out of one feeling out of your depth? That was the final time. Right here, right now—this is the end of your lifelong career of never once having bought a piece of original art.

[A]rt has a double economy. One economy is nearly free. The other—where you actually buy—is perceived to be basically impossible to enter unless you're a Rockefeller. Yes, the art that's sold for millions and makes headlines for its auction records, etc., etc., no, you cannot afford that art. But who cares? The world is jammed with 99 percent art. [Jen Graves, "Buy Art!", December 5, 2012, The Stranger]
Her piece spoke very specifically about buying art in Seattle. Devon Britt-Darby picked up the ball and wrote a piece for Houston in Art + Culture. He wrote, in essence, that what is true in Seattle is just as true in Houston: there's plenty of affordable art if you look around for it and are willing to ask for it. Don't assume that everything for sale in a gallery is out of your range.

So if you are looking at these Julon Pinkstons and thinking, I kind of dig those, go over to Zoya Tommy and look at all the ones she has in stock (or check them out on Pinkston's website). You may find that this is art you can afford. And there's a lot more by a lot of different artists available all over Houston.



Thomas "Tad" Dorgan, Indoor Sports, c. 1921

This comic panel by Thomas "Tad" Dorgan is supposedly from 1921. (I guess there will be a trip to the library's newspaper microfilm collections in my future to precisely date it.) Tad was one of the very early newspaper comic strip artists--his first comic strip was in 1902. But his strips didn't appear on the comics page--they were aimed at sports fans and ran on the sports pages. A surprising number of comics strips started out there--the most famous being Mutt & Jeff. Tad never left the sports page. A big boxing fan (indeed, he is in the International Boxing Hall of Fame), he was reportedly a good friend of the great Jack Johnson.

Tad was an excellent cartoonist, but he had a greater affect on the world for being (like Shakespeare) a prolific coiner of idioms, including "dumbbell" (for a stupid person), "for crying out loud," "hard-boiled" (for tough), "drugstore cowboy," and many more.

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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Pan Recommends for the week of February 28 to March 6

Robert Boyd

Here are a few things in the coming week to check out, if you have the time.

THURSDAY

Here's an old one by Jonathan Leach

Jonathan Leach, Time Does Not Exist Here, at Sonja Roesch Gallery at 6m (up through April 17). The maestro of candy-colored hard-edge painting is back with a new show, which is sure to be excellent.


Bert Long piece from his exhibit opening Thursday

Bert L. Long, Jr--An Odyssey at Houston Baptist University Contemporary Art Gallery, 6 pm (runs through April 18). It's tragic that Bert Long didn't get to see this show, which has inadvertently become a memorial exhibit. It's hard to imagine a better way to honor the memory of a Houston art great.

FRIDAY


Julon Pinkston, Baby Honey-Bee, 2012, acrylic and plastic BBs on wood panel, 10 x 6 x 3 ½”

Art+New: 4 New Gallery Artists at Zoya Tommy Contemporary, 6 pm (up through March 16). First she moved her gallery to a new space, and now she's given it her own name. The first show under the name Zoya Tommy Contemporary features work by Scott Everingham, Louis Vega Trevino, John Stuart Berger, Julon Pinkston and the late Laurent Boccara.


Jang Soon, Dong-tak burns Nakyang transferring capital to ZangAn, Digital print, 40" x 28", 2011

Jang Soon: Gone Not Around Any Longer at the The Joanna, 7–10 pm. The Joanna is back with a new show by CORE fellow Jang Soon, known for his intensely colored historical battle scenes.


SATURDAY


Toby Kamps, New York, 2010, Gelatin Silver Print, 8x10" 

Toby Kamps: 99 Cent Dreams at Front Gallery ,4 to 6 pm (up through April 16). Here's my theory of critics versus curators. When a critic shows his artwork, artists are likely to shrug and say, "Don't give up your day job, asshole." But when a curator shows his artwork, artists will say something like, "Great show, sir! Your work is exquisite! I weep with joy in its sublime presence!" We'll see it this theory holds water when we see former CAMH curator/present Menil curator Toby Kamps' new photo exhibit at Front Gallery.


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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The Big Show 2011, part 1--Retina Burn

Lawndale's The Big Show is always difficult to write about. It is, inevitably, a visual cacophony. There are 121 artworks in the show by 73 artists. It is impossible for a show like this to coalesce into unified whole. (That's always one of the complaints about the Whitney Biennial.)  The Big Show is always diffuse--the only thing one can say from year to year is that its diffusion takes a particular form (even if that form is complete randomness). This year, it's not random. The show is spinning on an axis and throwing off bits that are far from the axis, but the axis itself is pretty identifiable. The Big Show 2011 pays a lot of attention to large, colorful painting. So how could this happen given the diversity of work submitted? There is a selection of art to choose from (self-selected by the participating artists) and then a curatorial selection from this group. The curator can pick a certain direction, but she is limited by what pieces have been submitted. Given some of the shows curator Larissa Harris has curated at Queens, I don't see a predilection for paintings or bright colors, although she does seem to like "big." So one has to conclude that this year, Houston's paint-slingers submitted a lot of work.


John Earles, Everything We Know Traced in Lines of Lipstick and Fiber Optics, acrylic on canvas, 2011

John Earles has two large colorful paintings in the show, including the 12-feet-wide Everything We Know Traced in Lines of Lipstick and Fiber Optics. That work has a bit of a James Rosenquist vibe to it.


John Earles, I Laughed Until My Head Fell Off, acrylic on canvas, 2011

And in general, the work is shiny and plastic. I don't mean that in a bad way. The hard-edge style of painting, the fragmented incomprehensible objects, the flat planes of color; these qualities signify signify "modern" now just as much as they did when James Rosenquist pioneered this approach. Perhaps at some point in the future, this look will start to seem old-fashioned or nostalgic. For me, it hasn't gotten there yet.


Julon Pinkston, Kermi, acrylic on canvas panel, 2010

Lone Star College Kingwood instructor Julon Pinkston employs a similar approach. The difference is that his objects are a little more recognizable (they are trashed pieces of plastic) and he leaves parts of his canvases white. The white ground visually pushes both the objects and the flat-colored shapes forward. There is a real punch to these compositions.


Julon Pinkston, Circle Game, acrylic on canvas panel, 2010

Not every large painting has a bunch of bright colors. Heather Bause's My Little Pony (Red) has only three colors, but has as much if not more visual intensity as the previous four paintings.


Heather Bause, My Little Pony (Red), acrylic on canvas, 2011

This image comes from the Stanford Binet intelligence test for children. It was a test originally developed shortly after the turn of the last century, but still in use (after many revisions) today. Variations of the test have been used to determine whether incoming soldiers were officer material. Blowing up this image from an earlier version of the test reminds one of the cultural and class biases it contained. Other images, with their middle-class domestic scenes, seem even more biased. That said, a test like this has to measure intelligence within the context of the dominant culture because those taking the test will exist within that culture to some degree or another. Blowing up this card turns it into a striking, poster-like image. It's generic quality belies its somewhat scary bureaucratic social engineering origins.


Brian Keith Gardner, The Unicorn, mixed media on canvas, 2011

Brian Keith Gardner's The Unicorn takes a more-or-less abstract pattern of colors, then overlays it with black-and-white drawing. The drawing is a comic strip detailing the last bout of a masked wrestler called The Unicorn. The panels of the comic strip are roughly square, and they have little intrusions/extrusions that make them look a bit like jigsaw puzzle pieces. Some of the panels are painted over in white, but even with the blank panels, the story is clear. The Unicorn ends his career fighting a wrestler who is unusually violent--he literally beheads the Unicorn in the ring, to the mindless cheers of the audience.


Brian Keith Gardner, The Unicorn detail, mixed media on canvas, 2011

There are various avenues for crossing comics with contemporary art. In this case Gardner has created an actual comic strip and put it into a painting. But the comic he has created is deliberately crude and stupid. He's neither aiming for the soulless slickness of modern super-hero comics nor for the sophisticated expression of a Chris Ware or Lynda Barry. From within the world of comics, this seems closest to Johnny Ryan, who gleefully employs a kind of adolescent expression. Within the art world, a comparison could be made to Paper Rad.


Hogan Kimbrell, Athlete, oil on canvas, 2011

Amusingly, Hogan Kimbrell's realistic (if somewhat idealized) wrestlers were displayed right next to Gardner's ultraviolent wrestling fantasy. It seems exactly the opposite of Gardner's painting in all other respects, except that a comics connection can be made here--the outlined figures and flat, poster-like colors resemble comics (at least comics before Photoshop was invented). But mostly it seems like a poster--putting the figures against a white ground does that. One can imagine bold typography added--"London Olympics 2012."


Tanya Vaughn, Hurrah!, mixed media, acrylic, stain, pint pen, 2011

U.H. art student Tanya Vaughn's painting is basically a political cartoon. It has an easy irony that simplifies a lot of real world things (as political cartoons tend to do).Vaughn is portraying the celebratory mood following the assassination of Bin Laden as hopelessly naive, as exemplified by the statement "Terrorism is Over Now" and the children celebrating. The fact that the children are depicted in an illustrational style that recalls childrens books from the 1950s reinforces the naivete.

Not all the large, colorful canvases come out of a pop or cartoon esthetic. Ya La 'Ford draws inspiration from African fabric designs in her red and gold abstraction La Genesi Del.


Ya La 'Ford, La Genesi Del, mixed media on weathered canvas


Ya La 'Ford, La Genesi Del (detail), mixed media on weathered canvas

According to the artist, there is another painting on the back of this one, but Lawndale didn't have a way to hang it to show both sides. I suppose it could have been hung from the ceiling. In any case, this side is quite handsome--I like the maze-like pattern and the way the gold floats on top of the red.


David P. Gray, The Question, oil on canvas, 2011

Likewise, David P. Gray presents us with bursts of color in his two paintings, but in a realistic, highly rendered style that really stands out in this show. Not that there isn't some pop influence. The setting of the restaurant (some kind of nostalgia themed place where old-fashioned menus and a scooter on a plinth are meant to signal "the '50s") speak to Pop, and those water glasses and creamer containers in the foreground remind me a little of Wayne Thiebaud. If you look at the artwork he has on his website, it is very different. He does watercolors of Mexican subjects, very much infused with Catholicism, that derive from the period in his childhood when his parents moved the family down to Lake Chapala.

But here, he is depicting an all-American scene--guys hanging out, talking in a fake-nostalgia restaurant. What I like is that their conversation is intense--it slices through the weird, unserious setting. I'm pretty sure that the people depicted here are artists. The one of the left looks like Earl Staley (sans eyepatch) and I think the one next to him is H.J. Bott. One could imagine that they are discussing art. It's interesting to imagine that art would be the subject there in what seems like an uncongenial, artless chain restaurant. Of course, I could be misinterpreting it all-together. Still, I like it--this is a complex composition, and Gray really pulls it off. But also the subject--conversation among friends--is rare and wonderful.


David P. Gray, Harvey Takes Decaf, oil on canvas, 2011

Harvey Takes Decaf has most of the merits of The Question, but it feels more like a snapshot than the former painting, which has (to my eyes) deeper implications about what these are discussing and their relationships to one another.

Some of the works in the show were colorful, large and/or paintings, but not all three. Nonetheless, their presence contributed to the overall look of the show. For example, psychedelic collage artist Patrick Turk had a large work in the show, next to two smaller works. But the smaller works almost blew the larger off the wall.


Patrick Turk, The Scraptacularium Presents Experiments in Mysticism #8, collage on panel, 2011

What keeps this from being merely a well-executed piece of psychedelic art is double figure on the right--a 1930s beauty with a bob hairstyle, gripping in panic the arm of an unseen person. I would guess it was the cover of a pulp magazine, the the source of her terror was something concrete. In Turk's hands, the terror is the sublime or the infinite as evoked by psychedelic drugs.


Bill Fester, Farming in a Different Galaxy, fractal on aluminum, 2011

A fellow contemplator of the psychedelic sublime--this time on a galactic scale--is Bill Fester. As far as I can tell, Fester produces his fractal designs on a computer using a piece of software called UltraFractal. He then somehow prints the images on aluminum. The result is an intensely colored, geometrically complex image.

The thing is, this is just a sampling of the large, colorful painted works in the show. Alexine O. Stevens created a brilliantly colored landscape influenced, perhaps, by Chinese painting.


Alexine O. Stevens, Rain, acrylic, oil and pastel, 2010

Fred Allen is the third of the Rosenquist brigade with these two paintings:


Fred Allen, Smokin', Billboard enamel on recycled billboard vinyl, 2010

Gonzo247 has a huge shaped graffiti piece in the entryway, Introducing Mr. Pickle. Mark Benham's paintings are the definition of retina burn. And there's more. But if you want to see them, you'll have to go to Lawndale (or at the very least, check out Lawndale's Flickr photostream.)

But even if the overwhelming impression is colorful! big! painting!, there is a bunch of work that swims in very different directions. I'll discuss some of those pieces--which include my favorite pieces from the exhibit--in the next installment of this review.


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