‘Penetration’, at Friedrich Petzel & Marianne Boesky

For ‘Flash Art’ magazine

Maurizio Cattelan, 'Untitled' (Elevator), 2001, Mixed Media
Maurizio Cattelan, 'Untitled' (Elevator), 2001, Mixed Media

Two days before ‘Penetration” was due to open, Maurizio Cattelan walked into Friedrich Petzel Gallery, took a look at the installation, and pulled his artwork out of the show. Happily, this was an enthusiastic endorsement; he replaced his planned contribution with a sought after installation of two miniature-scale elevators. While Cattelan dug into the gallery wall, Sarah Sze built an elaborate installation around a hole punctured in the floor between the two neighboring galleries.
Sarah Sze, 'Grow or Die, 2002, Mixed Media
Sarah Sze, 'Grow or Die, 2002, Mixed Media

Grow or Die stretched from the ceiling of Boesky Gallery, through to the front desk of Petzel below, and was curator Mark Fletcher’s starting point for a show that dug deep into various means of architectural, intellectual, and bodily penetration. A silkscreen of a gun by Andy Warhol and Bruce Nauman’s Double Poke in the Eye II in neon tubing warned of violent bodily invasion. History’s most iconic piercing was captured by Mat Collishaw’s Shakin’ Jesus, a projection of a man with pierced side twitching on a cross. A videotaped performance from 1999, in which John Bock squeezed his body through a series of small rooms, eventually popping out into Anton Kern’s gallery space complemented Gregor Schneider’s Haus Ur, a trip through the underbelly of a house constructed within a house. Entangled couples by Sigmar Polke and Jeff Koons appeared alongside a Louise Bourgeouis sculpture of interlocking pink rectangles inset with blue orifices and Douglas Gordon’s video Blue in which a pair of hands engage in suggestive gestures. “Penetration” is an enjoyable probe into a theme with multiple interpretations, and it invites comparisons between artworks that otherwise might never have shared a gallery space.

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Merrily Kerr

Merrily Kerr is an art critic and writer based in New York. For more than 20 years, Merrily has published in international art magazines including Time Out New York, Art on Paper, Flash Art, Art Asia Pacific, Art Review, and Tema Celeste in addition to writing catalogue essays and guest lecturing. Merrily teaches art appreciation at Marymount Manhattan College and has taught for Cooper Union Continuing Education. For more than a decade Merrily has crafted personalized tours of cultural discovery in New York's galleries and museums for individuals and groups, including corporate tours, collectors, artists, advertising agencies, and student groups from Texas Woman's University, Parsons School of Design, Chicago's Moody Institute, Cooper Union Continuing Education, Hunter College Continuing Education and other institutions. Merrily's tours have been featured in The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Sydney Morning Herald and Philadelphia Magazine. Merrily is licensed by New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs as a tour guide and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA USA)