Despina Stokou in ‘Sweet Distemper’ at Derek Eller Gallery

Despina Stokou, 'Conversations on the Dirty Dozen series,' mixed media on wall, 2012.
Despina Stokou, ‘Conversations on the Dirty Dozen series,’ mixed media on wall, 2012.

Berlin-based Greek artist Despina Stokou makes her New York debut with ‘Conversations on the Dirty Dozen,’ an unmissable mixed media wall installation featuring a nude surfer and scrawled text.  The haphazard look of Stokou’s writing channels Cy Twombly’s energetically repeated words and marks and Matt Mullican’s automatism, and looks as if it would involve insane ramblings.  In fact, the words trail off with a piece of tongue-in-cheek art world advice (from an artist who is also a curator) reading “I used to be an artist too, you know.  If you don’t watch out you’re going to end up a curator.” (Stokou is part of ‘Sweet Distemper,’ organized by Isaac Lyles at Derek Eller Gallery through August 16th).