The Great God Pan Is Dead: Robert McShan

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Invisible Curator: Nearly Monochrome Paintings

By Robert Boyd

I went to the art gallery at HCC Northeast at Northline for the first time this week to see the Robert McShan/Michella Fanini exhibit Rose Colored Glass. It's an awkward space.

It's a glass box, which makes it pretty hard to hang art. But curator Jonathan Lopez explained that it had one big advantage. Because it's a glass box, students (and anyone else) can see the art whenever the building is open--and the building is open until 10 pm most nights. This is a semi-exception to the rule that community college galleries must have the most inconvenient hours possible. It's a nice show--see it if you have a chance.

Robert McShan, not sure what the title is or the media!, 2010 (Photo by Robert Boyd.)

This piece by Robert McShan woke up the invisible curator. It's almost monochromatic, but if you look close you can see more than one color--it appears to have colored powder or sand in the surface. I saw similar pieces this weekend. So that's the theme of this week's Invisible Curator show--almost monochrome paintings. It has a little to do with the gallery talk by Christian Eckart that I wrote about, who spoke at length about monochrome paintings and the sublime.

The other nearly monochrome works I saw were at Labotanica. The exhibit, Painting as Performance, was curated by Ayanna Jolivet McCloud and it is her paintings I want to call attention to.

Ayanna Jolivet McCloud, untitled,acrylic on canvas, 2009. (Photo by Robert Boyd.)

Ayanna Jolivet McCloud, untitled,acrylic on canvas, 2003-2010. (Photo by Robert Boyd.)

These obviously refer Robert Ryman. But perhaps what makes these "performances" are the deliberate damage to the picture plan--the dents and gouges. But if we count that as performance, can't we count the act of putting painting on the surface as an act of performance, too? That was the idea behind "Action Painting."

Ayanna Jolivet McCloud, untitled (Diptych),acrylic on canvas, 2011. (Photo by Robert Boyd.)

This pair more directly references performance by virtue of recalling Yves Klien--an artist deeply involved in the metaphysical qualities of monochrome paintings but also deeply involved in performance--including performative aspects of painting (painting using nude women as "brushes", painting with fire, etc.)

So a small two person imaginary exhibit. Monochromatic work--or nearly monochromatic works--can be thought-provoking and even quite emotional. McCloud and McShan have produced excellent, interesting works.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Three Talented Students at Project Row Houses

Yesterday I went over to Project Row Houses. I had been by before, but they were never open when I went. But there was a show going on called The Big Picture, so I figured that it, at least, would be open. This was a community art project conceived by Jesse Lott. Lott is best known for his mythic, shamanic sculptures made from detritus and wire. But here he put up big sheets of butcher paper, supplied drawing utensils, and allowed anyone who wanted to contribute. I did, naturally, but the results of this collective work were hardly satisfying. There's a reason we have artists do our art--they're better at it than we are.

But that's OK, because there was a lot more going on at Project Row Houses. There were seven student artists who had studio space from July 6 to August 14, then would display their work in some of the row houses from August 15 through September 13. (So you still have about a week to catch this show.) Each artist gets one row house in which to put up his or her installation. They were all pretty interesting--I liked three of them in particular.

Robert McShan (who goes to TSU) showed a combination of paintings and installations. One installation he had was in a closet, and you could only see it by looking through a hole in the door. Obviously one thinks of Étant donnés by Marcel Duchamp, and I personally remembered a show cureated by Larry Reid at the OK Hotel in Seattle, where each piece was in a room in this old hotel and likewise viewable only through a small peephole in the door.

This is what it looks like from the outside:

Robert McShan, Point Taken, Point Given, installation, 2009

And inside:

Robert McShan, Point Taken, Point Given, installation, 2009

Pretty spooky, huh? But actually, it needs to be experienced in time to get the full effect.

Robert McShan, Point Taken, Point Given, installation, 2009

And here's what it looks like when I took a flash photo:

Robert McShan, Point Taken, Point Given, installation, 2009

Jonatan Lopez comes over from Houston Community College. He has a brutal installation called "Vessel States" which is all about bodies--tortured, in bondage, enslaved, eviscerated. This kind of subject matter seems like the kind that might be appealing to a young male artist--sexy, political, hits you like a punch in the face. I look for a little more subtlety in art I like, but the thing here is that Lopez did such a great job. The work just looks stunning.

Jonatan Lopez, Vessel States detail, installation, 2009

My first thought--a device for displaying slaves at auction--a provocative piece in an African-American neighborhood. My second thought was that maybe Jonatan has some interesting hobbies... And it gets more violent from there.

Jonatan Lopez, Vessel States detail, installation, 2009

Jonatan Lopez, Vessel States detail, installation, 2009

Jonatan Lopez, Vessel States detail, installation, 2009

Jonatan Lopez, Vessel States detail, installation, 2009

I couldn't help but think of prisoners tortured to death in Bagram, hostages beheaded on video by religious fanatics, or 18 people massacred by narcotraficantes in a rehab center but also of modern horror movies like Saw. "Vessel States" is powerful.

My favorite piece is "Two Point Four Million" by Jorge Galvan from U.H. The installation consists of the words "THIS LAND WAS MADE" constructed our of blocky three-dimensional letters, each one made from a different material that one might use in building something.