Tag: wallspace gallery

Scott Olson at Wallspace

From their locally sourced wood frames to their marble-dust surfaces, Ohio-based Scott Olson’s abstract paintings delight in the play of color and shape.  In addition to his current solo show at Wallspace, see more of Olson’s work and that of other artists who dedicate themselves to painting in the Walker Art Center’s ‘Painter, Painter’ exhibition. (At Wallspace through May 4th.)  

Scott Olson, Untitled, oil, wax, marble dust on wood, maple frame, 2013.

Gaylen Gerber at Wallspace Gallery

Gaylen Gerber, Support, oil on Lipico helmet mask, Makonde, Mozambique and Tanzania, 20th century, wood and pigment, 9.5 x 12 x 9 inches. AND Gaylen Gerber, Support, oil paint on Cowrie Shell Basket (Currency Basket), Yoruba, Nigeria, 20th century, vegetable fiber, cowrie shells and leather, 10 x 10 x 11 inches.
Gaylen Gerber, Support, oil on Lipico helmet mask, Makonde, Mozambique and Tanzania, 20th century, wood and pigment, 9.5 x 12 x 9 inches. AND Gaylen Gerber, Support, oil paint on Cowrie Shell Basket (Currency Basket), Yoruba, Nigeria, 20th century, vegetable fiber, cowrie shells and leather, 10 x 10 x 11 inches.

Context is everything when it comes to Gaylen Gerber’s ‘collaborative’ artworks, including this Nigerian cowrie shell currency basket and a Makonde mask from Mozambique/Tanzania from mid-20th century, which the artist has titled ‘Support’ and covered in white oil paint.  Questions of whose work is whose and whether Gerber is defacing, erasing or enhancing the ‘supports’ mingles with thoughts of Picasso, et al’s appropriation of African art, all to provocative effect. (At Chelsea’s Wallspace Gallery through Feb 9th).

Martha Friedman at Wallspace

Martha Friedman, 'Mechanical Disadvantage III,' steel, concrete, silicone rubber, pigment, 2012.
Martha Friedman, ‘Mechanical Disadvantage III,’ steel, concrete, silicone rubber, pigment, 2012.

You use tools to make art, but can you make art out of studio tools?  Martha Friedman gives it her best shot, transforming a rather impersonal object – the wedge – into mysteriously totemic towers punctuated with flaccid, pizza-paddle shapes in day-glo orange silicone rubber. (At Chelsea’s Wallspace Gallery through October 20th).