Erik Lindman, “House Wine, House Music” at V&A Gallery

by Merrily KerrReviewsPosted on Comments are Disabled
Erik Lindman, "17 days, 17 long nights...but slow," 2008. Photograph courtesy of V&A Gallery, New York.

Erik Lindman can’t make up his mind to play it straight as an abstract painter or follow a conceptual path. And who can blame him? At age 23, he still has time to mull things over, though three moody canvases in his gallery debut are a cut above the other ephemeral objects on display. Colorful and complex, they’re enough to add him to a growing cadre of young painters reinvigorating abstraction.

A small photo—of a storefront window covered with torn notices and paint smudges—is the show’s Rosetta stone, directing viewers to look for evidence that the paintings were also added to over time. Lindman pays homage to those who came before him (Pat Steir, Jasper Johns), but he’s so intent on leaving traces of the significant labor put into each canvas that they’re in danger of looking overly manipulated.

Lindman’s inspirations are interior and graphic design, and while he’s careful to mask them, at least one add-on to the show tips his hand: A curvy wicker stool sitting before a painting in which the combination of circular motif with green-yellow haze creates a sense of intrigue. In the best piece, an expanse of ugly brown gives way to a triangular, rippled pattern of color, as if a subway poster had been torn away to reveal what was underneath. Rich with association, Lindman’s paintings don’t need their sources to be spelled out. They allow the pleasure of looking to be the final word.

Originally published in Time Out New York, February 26 – March 4, 2009.

Hottest Show: ‘Love Survives’…but does good art?

by Merrily KerrHottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

In recent boom times, some dealers and artists were accused of catering too much to the demands of the market. So will the recession mean more adventurous, less sellable artwork? If Dario Robleto’s solo exhibition at D’Amelio Terras’ booth at this week’s ADAA Art Show is any indication, dealers will just find ways to be even more sales savvy.

Robleto’s meticulously crafted sculptures, constructed from materials like audiotape on which recordings have been made or 19th century ‘hair flowers’ made from the hair of loved ones, represent personal stories to those in the know. In addition to six new pieces at the Art Show, Robleto is offering a “unique commissionable sculpture” titled “Love Survives the Death of Cells,” for which couples will record their heartbeats, which will be transferred to audiotape that will be stretched into hair-like strands and braided together to create a Victorian style keepsake.

Maybe it’s the proximity of the fair and the commission offering to Valentine’s Day, but the ‘sculptures’ sound more like luxury gift item than artwork. I could be a sucker for a romantic gesture, but is this the quality of artwork appropriate for one of the most prestigious art fairs in the country? As portraiture, the pieces won’t represent individuals, as multiples, they signify little, instead promising to come across as tchotchkes by an otherwise uniquely inventive artist.

Hottest Shows: Peter Doig & Marlene Dumas

by Merrily KerrHottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

You don’t have to make it to Chelsea to see New York’s hottest shows this month. Peter Doig’s first New York solo show in a decade takes place on the Upper East Side at Michael Werner Gallery and in the West Village at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise where new canvases feature ping-pong players, human moths and mysterious landscapes.

Also on the painting front, South African artist Marlene Dumas’ figurative paintings in her retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art are dark but arresting. Critics from the LA Times Christopher Knight to the New York Times Roberta Smith point out the prominent pros and cons of the show, and it’s easy to walk through and create your own checklist of art historical references, not an unrewarding task.

On the Horizon: Jeremy Deller at The New Museum

by Merrily KerrOn the HorizonPosted on Comments are Disabled

The New Museum’s first triennial, ‘The Generational: Younger Than Jesus,’ won’t open ‘till April, but its gratuitous title and its exclusion of any artist over age 33 has already created buzz. In the meantime an upcoming new show by British artist Jeremy Deller promises something more daring. In lieu of a traditional exhibition of art objects, Deller’s ‘It Is What It Is: Conversations about Iraq’ will bring veterans, journalists, scholars and Iraqi nationals into the museum space to engage in unscripted discussion. Will museum visitors want to engage? Participating should prove to be as fun as watching others when this show opens on February 11th.

Don’t Miss: On Kawara at David Zwirner

by Merrily KerrDon't MissPosted on Comments are Disabled

For an artwork with such potential to bore its audience silly, On Kawara’s One Million Years at David Zwirner Gallery is surprisingly seductive. To try to better understand this landmark conceptual art project, consisting of several volumes of type-written numbers counting one million years into the past and one million years into the future, I volunteered to take part in a public reading one Saturday afternoon.

Half expecting to emerge from my two-hour stint hoarse and semi-deranged after such a mind-numbing chore, I was relieved to survive relatively intact. I’d thought that my mind would wander to all kinds of interesting places while my lips went on autopilot. No such luck.

Plowing through the centuries at a steady clip (my male counterpart and I covered a millennium in about an hour), I had to stay focused despite the temptation to meet the gazes of staring gallery visitors or gawk at one knoodling couple. To my chagrin, the piece brought out my inner nerd, so preoccupied by speaking up and not making mistakes that I couldn’t begin to get my head around the idea of the numbers representing meaningful dates. Instead, my thrills came from configurations like 48,888AD and the turn of the millennium.

Later in the day, though, I found myself thinking about the progression of ‘our’ numbers – 48,625 A.D. – 49,678 A.D. Something about the repetition was soothing – maybe the idea of time marching inevitably and quickly on, regardless of what may or may not happen all those years in the future. I can’t say my immediate perception of time has been effected, but the idea of a human lifespan passing in a flash while barely a dent was made in the tally of dates is still awe inspiring.

Catch On Kawara’s One Million Years before it closes on February 14th, or watch my exhibition review .