Maria Petschnig "De Niña a Mujer" 2010 Digital video, 11:12 minutes (Video still)

I’ve had bad timing with viewing some recent exhibitions in the Lower East Side. I want to be able to write about the fantastic shows that I saw in order to encourage others to go and experience the same, however, they all seem to be closing this week!

I was lucky enough to catch Maria Petschnig at On Stellar Rays, which had already been extended through March 19. In the video, De Niña a Mujer, the viewer is invited into the apartment of Viktor, a Russian New-Yorker who produces elaborately-staged (yet with a low production value) softcore porn. His models, several thirty-something Russian women (who also include Petschnig), appear comfortable and relaxed with the gentle –even silly– man as he helps them put on, shall I say unique, costumes. Oddly enough, this is the sort of behind-the-scenes behavior I would expect on the set of a pornography, whether softcore or hardcore; the relationship between Viktor and the woman is desexualized, and almost familial. Viktor’s final product is a photograph, which seems cold and distant compared to the more intimate moments between producer and actress/model that Petschnig captures in this video. Continue Reading More »

Mobile phones were made for convenience, and cellular technology has universally transformed our engagement with the world.  It is possible to remain completely solitary; physically, mentally, spatially, while simultaneously engage completely within your own mobile network. The notion of photography as an art form hasn’t changed but its mode of transmission and its potential for ubiquitous perception has with the rise of smartphones.

Since cell phones are constantly carried by their owners, they allow one to capture an image at any time, and with the undeniable prevalence of 3G internet connections, these images can be instantly shared with large audiences via social networking platforms. Mobile Uploads is an attempt to concentrate these images into a more intimate — yet still maintaining the live and constantly ‘uploading’ — environment. Continue Reading More »

18 Years Of American Dreams, 2010

An entertaining, animated oral narrator in person, Bryan Zanisnik is also highly talented at telling stories through visually complex works, stacked with symbols, metaphors, and signifiers. In a sort of choose-your-own-adventure visual narrative, the viewer is allowed to piece together the information to create, or re-create, his or her own personal story. Zanisnik photographs complex tableaus constructed from personal and found objects, stages absurdist performances, and shoots videos that follow a New Jersey couple (his parents) through domestic and familiar spaces. His new body of work, Brass Arms Upper Eyelid, is currently on view through February 19, 2011 at Horton Gallery. In conjunction with the exhibition, Zanisnik will present a live performance on Saturday, February 5, from 4-6pm.

Bryan Zanisnik (b. 1979, Union, NJ) lives and works in New York, NY. He received an MFA from Hunter College, attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and is currently an artist-in-residence at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Program. He recently performed at Galeria On, Poznan, Poland; PS1/MOMA, New York, NY; and Marginal Utility, Philadelphia, PA. This summer he will perform and participate in an exhibition at the Times Museum in Guangzhou, China. Continue Reading More »

De la Nada Muerte A la Nada Vida, 2010

Lush and tactile, the canvases heavy with paint, José Lerma is known for his texturally seductive, semi-abstract paintings that allude to the idea of a formal portrait. Recognized for his abstract, expressively personal paintings, Lerma ventures off the canvas to a conceptual, almost sculptural practice in his latest show, “I am Sorry I am Perry” at Andrea Rosen Gallery. In three parts, the bankers, the curtain, and the keyboards, Lerma references both personal and historical narratives, yet encourages the viewer to create their own.

José Lerma (b. Spain, raised in Puerto Rico) lives and works in New York and Chicago, where he is on faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently, he has a solo show at Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY. “I am sorry I am Perry” is on view through January 22, 2011. Additionally, “A Person of Color/A Mostly Orange Exhibition” – a group show curated by Lerma, opens at Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI, on January 22, 2011.

Amanda Schmitt: Rather than just a showing of new paintings, “I am sorry I am Perry” seems to me to be a very thoughtful exhibition with clear formal and conceptual intentions. Are you both the artist and the curator?

José Lerma: I planned this exhibition around 3 elements that I had worked with in the past.   Curating is a good way of putting it.  Even before I started making art, I loved Mardsen Hartley’s paintings of Von Freyburg. I like the idea of a collection of objects and stories collapsing on each other and becoming, in effect, a portrait.   In that sense, all my shows are a kind of curated self-portrait. However I didn’t want it to feel like discreet parts that were there to be decoded instead I wanted the viewer to arrive at kind of “fourth reading”; I love when clarity devolves into babble and facts become aesthetics. What I mean is that what matters to me is the effect that the parts have on each other and not their individual meanings. Continue Reading More »

Pam Lins, installation 2010

If you’ve been on an LES art crawl in the past few years, chances are you’ve been down Orchard Street. Galleries on this stretch include On Stellar Rays, Miguel Abreu, and Lisa Cooley, as well as recent neighbors like Untitled, who relocated from around the corner. It’s no secret that the LES gallery scene has been growing exponentially in the past five years. In fact, the neighborhood has produced a number of groundbreaking, must-see shows  featuring emerging and established artists alike.

Rachel Uffner Gallery has been a mainstay at 47 Orchard Street since 2008, after taking over the space formerly occupied by cooperative gallery Orchard. I appreciate the gallery’s curatorial program and am enthused by the range of artists and media represented. Opening with a solo exhibition by painter Roger White on September 20, 2008, Rachel Uffner Gallery celebrates a second solo exhibition by the same artist, on view through December 19, 2010.

Roger White, installation view

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Sao Paulo Turtleneck, 2010

Working in the woodshop at Parson’s School of Design, Alan Reid draws inspiration, in an ironic way, and finds useful materials, in a work with what you’ve got kind of way, through the discarded scraps of wood left behind from drill presses, routers, and other power tools. In his second show at Lisa Cooley, With, Reid uses these bits and pieces and presents them atop seven large canvases, upon which rest seven lethargic, ephemeral females. Continue Reading More »

The first U.S. exhibition of German painter Otto Dix, at the Neue Galerie is long overdue, and after a recent visit, I have discovered a newfound admiration for a painter whom I only thought of as creating Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden. This exhibition proves Dix to be an incredibly self-aware artist who dedicated his life to the study of painting, and in turn, the study of the human condition as seen in his many variations on portraiture. The exhibition at the Neue Galerie begins with a small gallery full of his work made during World War I, a body of work that ultimately sets the tone for his entire artistic career. Continue Reading More »