Looking Quickly But Deeply

Yesterday was a treat for me when I emerged from working so hard in the studio to make a road trip with my friend Greg Wright for a couple of art visits. It's always worthwhile to come up for air and get enthused by looking at some great work.

Martin Kline, Romantic Nature
Our first stop was the Martin Kline Retrospective at the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Connecticut. I have seem images of Kline's work in Joanne Mattera's The Art of Encaustic Painting, but this was the first time I saw his work in person. Unfortunately, photography was not permitted so the images here are taken from Kline's website. However, it's impossible to appreciate the beauty and skill of his work unless you see it in person.

Martin Kline, Intimate Universe Revisited, 2010,  48" x 48" x 4", encaustic on panel

Kline's show, Romantic Nature, includes about 75 works, mostly paintings in encaustic. Many of the pieces are absolutely spectacular. There is one tall vertical piece at the entrance to the show painted in a metallic silver or aluminum that appears to be a waterfall of threads falling from the top of the painting and cascading down its length. Greg and I were absolutely in love with it. For artists who paint in encaustic, this show is a must see because we can appreciate the technical skill involved but also how Kline is able to employ that skill in creating truly beautiful works that speak to his fascination with the natural world.

Martin Kline, Eros, 2010, 48" x 48" x 4", encaustic on panel

We enjoyed seeing how Kline is not hung up on making precious works but lets drops and spots of paint stay where they landed surrounding the works and on the edges of panels. Greg and I were unsure that we could let such "blemishes" remain, but they do serve to let viewers into the process of painting -- a messy and often uncontrollable business no matter how much skill you have.

Also really great were Kline's sculptures cast from wax paintings. Even more than the cast parts, I loved the bases and supports that Kline left apparently just as they came from the casting process, with no smoothing of rough edges or manipulating into "art." This rawness contrasted with the skillful building up of was forms was very effective and I thought gave the works an African appearance -- and you know how much that appeals to me!

The museum was selling Kline's book Romantic Nature in the gift shop for $50 or in a special slipcase for $100. It's also available on Amazon for less. If you can't go to the show, you should at least get the book. We were also very pleased to see Joanne Mattera's book prominently displayed right next to Kline's.

The Missing Link
No, of course I'm not saying that Binnie is part of homo sapiens' evolutionary history; I'm just indicating that Greg and I had to link up with Binnie Birstein, our arting pal, before making the trek into New York City. Binnie has just moved to Old Greenwich, CT so that was our next stop, and then the three of us entrained.

A Pop-In to Chelsea
Our ultimate destination was the opening of "Lush Geometry" at DM Contemporary at 29th and Park Avenue, but we detoured first to Chelsea for a quick look at a couple of shows.

Studio shot of Lloyd Martin's Mettere paintings

Lloyd Martin at Stephen Haller Gallery
After trudging all those long Chelsea blocks over to 26th Street, we made it to Stephen Haller's to see Lloyd's show, Mettere (Italian for "put" or "place." Although none of us have ever met him, we felt we knew him somewhat because of his interview on Lynette Haggard's blog. (And by the way, Lynette was supposed to be the fourth member of our little art gang, but could'nt get off work.)

We enjoyed seeing Lloyd's work in person. These pieces seem to be much less about horizontal movement and more about smaller rectangular areas brought into the flow and appearing to move forward or backward in space.

Lloyd Martin, Large Mete, 2010, 84" x 42", oil & mixed media on canvas

Here are two pieces I liked particularly - Large Mete, above - and Shim Series (5) below.

Lloyd Martin, Shim Series (5), 24" x  24", oil & mixed media on canvas

To Be Continued
Uh-oh. I thought this would be a quick post with just a few mentions but instead it's turned into a book. I have to go watch one of my guilty pleasures (America's Next Top Model - which Bonnie is telling me I shouldn't admit to, but what the hey), so I'll continue to post some art highlights tomorrow.

The Latest NY Art Trip: Chelsea Galleries

This feels so long ago that I can barely remember - but it was only a bit over a week ago. In between have been long sessions of oil painting, work, writing and lots of heat - you know,  the usual. My intention for this post was to finish up Friday since I only posted the morning session the other day. However, I have just finished looking through, adjusting and resizing the photos I took - and now I have carpel tunnel in my right hand because there were so many just from the galleries. So I'm going to include what I can in this post and save some for next time. Here goes...

Mark Wagner at Pavel Zouboc Gallery

Pavel Zouboc on W. 23rd Street was the first stop on the tour after lunch. This gallery specializes in collage and is currently showing "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death" by Mark Wagner (through August 12th). This show was nothing short of totally AMAZING (even though I hate that overused word). Mark Wagner must have no life because it is all spent making this work. I took a lot of closeups, but the work has so many tiny details that I don't know if you can see them. (Be sure to click on these images because they will enlarge.)

Greg beside the huge, 14-panel  "Liberty" with a part of the
viewing platform in the right foreground

Wagner calls this work "currency collage" because it is all made from actual one dollar bills. The biggest piece in the show, "Liberty," is 16 feet x 4 feet and is composed of 14 panels that I figure must about 38" x 16". Within each panel, the detail is incredible and the overall composition is ingenious - very humorous and inventive. He cuts the tiniest little slivers of the bills - really incredible.

Liberty torch - note George Washington and the cartoon character at the apex

The press release from an earlier exhibition at Pavel Zouboc Gallery states that Mark Wagner, "creates collages that speak to the cultural, social, political and symbolic roles that money plays in our society....[He] transforms this icon of American capitalism into representational images whose symbolic force asks us to question our understanding of money, its cultural significance and relationship to art." See the gallery's website for many more photos of the work.

Worker Bees, 2011, currency collage, 16 x 37 inches

Closeup of Worker Bees

Trafficking, 2011, 37 x 16 inches

Closeup of the green light in Trafficking

In case you forgot, here's a dollar bill with the green seal to the right of George.
How many of these were used in the green light above?

I really loved these pieces - so clever, so obsessive - all made with currency

Closeup of Pretty Please, 12x16 inches

*&?@#!, 12 x 16 inches

This trunk contained a stop-time video of Wagner and an assistant
at work making the collages plus snippets of currency and
assorted objects. It was fascinating to watch the video. 

Of course I also liked this unique piece (image from the gallery's website) called
Plumbing the Depths, with collage by Mark Wagner and paint by Joey Parlett, 2011,
24 x 24 inches. Great surface.

Cheim & Read on W. 25th Street was the next stop. They are showing "The Women In Our Life: A Fifteen Year Anniversary Exhibition," up through September 17th. This was a more pared-down show with single examples from ten women artists who have worked with the gallery. The exhibition announcement notes about the artists, "their selection, impressive in its scope, evolved in response to the artists' individual work." I take that to mean that they weren't chosen just because they were women. (Remember to click to see bigger images of the works.)

Joan Mitchell, Minnesota, 1980, oil on canvas in four parts,
102 1/2 x 243 inches

Closeup of Minnesota

Lynda Benglis, untitled, 1972, "beeswax, damar resin and pigment" on wood,
36 x 5 7/8 x 3 1/4 inches

Greg showing the scale of the Benglish piece

Louise Bourgeois, Nature Study No. 5, 1995, pink marble and steel,
20 x 36 1/2 x 23 inches

Also included in the show was work by Ghada Amer, Diane Arbus, Louise Fishman, Jenny Holzer, Chantal Joffe, Alice Neel and Pat Steir - all first rank artists. Check out the gallery website for a checklist of the works in the show.


Next was Stephen Haller Gallery on W. 26th Street. There was a group show of gallery artists, including my favorite Lloyd Martin, and an exhibition of "Collage Paintings from the 1960s" by Larry Zox. These pieces were quite interesting because they were just assembled roughly with staples and looked very contemporary.

Banner, 1962, collage, oil, staples on board, 72 x 72 inches

Another piece by Zox, this one much smaller and mounted in a sort of shadow box

Another Zox piece, about the same size as the one above. This one was my favorite.

The group show and the Zox show are up until August 5th.

Well, I think three shows are about it for this post. Still to come: Ruth Hiller's show at Winston Wachter, Li SongSong at Pace and Tamar Zinn at The Painting Center - plus the fabulous High Line.

P.S. Many thanks to Greg Wright for serving as the human scale for some of this work.