Marilyn Minter, Green Pink Caviar, video, 8:00, 2009, courtesy of Ramis Barquet Gallery

If you find yourself trekking under the hot sun and making the gallery rounds in Chelsea on a 98°F day in the middle of July, then you are surely a glutton for punishment. However, thanks to the cool respite of air conditioning in Ramis Barquet Gallery, one can comfortably experience another sort of “Glutton for Punishment,” as this annual group video exhibition is aptly titled. Rather than a traditional video screening with a seated, theater arrangement, curator Nicholas Kilner presents each of the five videos separately,  realizing a unique exhibition format and creating an immersive video experience. As the press release perfectly describes, “each of the works included uses video as a platform to explore the body in all its physicality and its subjectivity to innocent and aggressive desire.”

In Janosch Parker’s Primordial Ooze Ensemble Act series, the artist harnesses himself by the ankles, hung upside-down,  and is sent through an aggressive carwash-like ensemble, bombarded with various foods and liquids (anything but water). While watching,  Primordial Ooze Ensemble Act VII (Assembly Line) (2011), one can be thankful that they are fresh and clean (unless they were a victim of Myla Dalbesio’s performance last Thursday, Young Money, in which participants were symbolically anointed with bronzer and cheap champagne). Although Matthew Weinstein’s, Cruising 1980 (2010), is presented as an enormous projection, directly onto the gallery’s wall, it is the only video whose soundtrack must be heard privately, from a pair of headphones set at the opposite side of the gallery. The animation depicts two ships, one with a sail made of diamonds and another with an ornamental aquarium, passing each other in a calm sea at a painfully slow pace. There seems to be a tension, or attraction, between the two ships as they inch past each other, but never quite make contact.

Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, The Fast Supper, video, 3:10, 2010, courtesy of Ramis Barquet Gallery

Kate Gilmore’s video work exists somewhere between comedy and tragedy, as she often risks her own physical safety in slapstick attempts to achieve menial tasks, often rendering herself as a ridiculous caricature of a woman and as an artist. In Cake Walk, (2005), the artist makes multiple, unabashed attempts to climb to the top of a chocolate syrup covered ramp in a pair of clownish roller skates. She proves that you can have your cake, but eating it comes at a humiliating cost. Marilyn Minter’s Green Pink Caviar (2009), a video sumptuous, explosion of color, elicits either disgust or fascination, as a pair of lips and a squirmish tongue lick, suck, and spit at (and out) gooey confections.

Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung’s The Fast Supper (2011) is perhaps the most congruous with the exhibition’s title. Diners at Leonardo’s version of the “Last Supper” gorge upon fast food until they explode, reminding me of Marco Ferreri’s 1973 film, La Grande Bouffe. Tin-Kin Hung’s tongue-in-cheek animation questions how far can one delve into the nasty delights of culinary pleasure before ultimately paying an awful price.

Glutton For Punish is on view at Ramis Barquet Gallery, 532 West 24th Street, Monday-Friday 11am-6pm, through August 19.

LANY, pronounced L. A. New York, is the high functioning group show at Peter Blum Gallery in Chelsea where seven artists from both cities have ample space to show their work.  The non-thematic (beyond bi-coastal geography) show, organized by Mario Diacono includes work by New York-based Daniel Rich, Andy Cross and Benjamin Degen and Los Angeles-based Kara Tanaka, James Melinat and Kevin Appel.  There is also a show within a show by New York-based Luisa Rabbia.

In the front gallery, Tanaka’s cowhide maps, Whisper from Meru (the Every-Mountain, the Axis Mundi) and An Earth with Many Navels (Distribution of HolyHermitages) are paired with one of James Melinat’s paper sculptures A Portrait of a Black Hole (Shadows Cast in Total Darkness).  Here the names of mountain systems like Putucusi, Machu Picchu and Huyanu Pichhu of the Peruvian mountains are carved into hide. They interact with Melinat’s large scale origami influenced sculpture, capturing the notion of shadows.

Two more works from Melinat’s, Obsidian Eye of the Abyss and Dark Heart of the Cosmos are cootie-catcher contemplations about the future.  Benjamin Degen’s 2011 Actor, Diver, and Palustric, three oils on linen, are reminiscent of Richard Bosman’s Man Overboard, DrowninMan, and Waterfall. Kevin Appel’s work riffs on architectural themes against a backdrop of nature.  Daniel Rich’s luxuriously precise Saddam Grand Mosque, and Andy Cross’ The Future in Un-Painted: Three Hikers and Walking Liberty, all recall national icons Johnny Appleseed and Lady Liberty.

In the “side gallery”, is the show’s centerpiece by Luisa Rabbia. The floor sculpture Crowd dramatically represents a clutch of humans.  A massive crowd of heads is supported by elongated torsos that extend to form roots covering the floor. The viewer is drawn inwards as one would be to outstretched arms or the sudden presence of a choir about to sing.

Rabbia’s humanistic focus on the immigration issues challenging the west, Italy in particular, turns Crowd into an androgynous messenger whose faces and recycled clothes speak to our collective identity. The piece reinforces the notion that there is but one race, the human one. Potentially, “we are all immigrants”, says the artist.  This piece accompanies two particularly strong works on paper. From the Within Out situates a heap of people and pillows on untethered wheels, making itinerant that which is most closely associated with domestic safety. People depicts a strip of cranial masses rising from a dark block of roots so tightly packed they eliminate white space

LANY is less an exploration than an exploration of our unified, mythopoeic identities driven by the many ways these hard-working artists tell stories of understanding and explanation.

Installation, Can I Get a Witness, 2011

Joshua Abelow set out to create a personal, visual archive through his blog, “ART BLOG ART BLOG,” but within a year he was getting up to 900 hits a day from over 125 countries. Less than two years later, the blog has materialized into a physical, artist-run gallery space, ART BLOG ART BLOG, with nine independently curated exhibitions, open through October 29, in a donated space located in Chelsea at 508 West 26^th St, Floor 11.

“ART BLOG ART BLOG” (the blog) emerged in early 2010 as an important way for Abelow to build a community over the web and engage with artists in other cities. Now back in New York, Abelow maintains his blog as a diaristic visual journal, with daily posts including other artists’ work, book and album covers, posters, personal work and photographs, poems and quips, and more. I had a chance to sit down with Abelow, and the curators of the upcoming exhibition, “Can I Get a Witness?” to find out more about the project.

Artcards: How did you start the blog? Where do you find your material for the blog?

Joshua Abelow: I guess I never set out to create a “blog” so much as an archive, a means of keeping a visual journal for myself. I find the blog format interesting because of the immediacy.  Instant contact with a relatively wide audience is the exact opposite of what it’s like to be alone in the studio all day.

I often find out about other artists’ works through the Internet and by sifting through emails. The material I post is a mix of other artists’ work and my own personal contributions. I take a diaristic approach to posting…I see it as a visual radio show and in that sense it is important for me to update the site regularly.  It also gives me something to do when I’m waiting for paint to dry and I don’t feel like sharpening pencils or stretching canvases or whatever.

Do you read other blogs? Also, I find a lot of art-related blogs to be criticism-based; do you read any art criticism?

I look at a few other blogs like, AH HOLE AH HOLE (published, or rather curated by Tisch Abelow and Dakatoh Savage).  It is more like an art project than a blog – I’d love to see it projected on a big wall every morning when I wake up. I also look at ANABA, KCLOG and HKJBLOG regularly.

As for art criticism, I like to read what my peers’ are writing. I enjoy 16 Miles of String (Andrew Russeth) because it’s art criticism from a younger point of view and he covers a lot of stuff that bigger publications overlook.

How did “ART BLOG ART BLOG”, the blog, turn into “ART BLOG ART BLOG,” the gallery?

Ross Bleckner invited me to use his studio space to organize some shows for the summer and fall.  The project is a group effort and I’ve invited several individuals and groups to curate shows in the space.  Jon Lutz (Daily Operation), NUDASHANK, and Regina Rex have all presented exhibitions in the space thus far.  It’s funny and interesting to see a blog go 3D.  The exhibition space is a direct extension of the blog, which is why I gave it the same name.

There’s a lot of hard work going into this and, of course, it would not be possible without Ross’s generosity (thank you Ross!). It would also not be possible without all of the talented people involved. The spirit of the project is one of generosity: the space was a gift from one artist to another, which is a gift to many other artists. It’s exciting to be exhibiting work by both emerging and established artists, unknowns mixed in with bigger names. In a way, this is reflective of the Internet – a weird flattening device that levels the playing field.  This project, both the blog and the gallery, provides me with a chance to examine this moment as we proceed further into the 21^st century.

Artcards: What can we expect from the newest show, “Can I Get A Witness?” How was the show curated between the three of you?

Abelow/Friedrich/Savage: We are exhibiting works by Joshua Abelow, Matt Connolly and Joachim ‘YoYo’ Friedrich. We also have a reading corner featuring artists books by Kevin Gallagher, Lukas Geronimas, The Kingsboro Press, Davida Nemeroff and Eric Veit.

While researching for the show, it became clear that Matt, Joshua, and YoYo’s work cosmically related. We found it interesting that the artists whose work was the strongest together happened to be ‘the men in our life.’ The curatorial process came about only in the most natural way. Including the reading corner is a way for us to support other emerging artists we admire and because punk lives.

“Can I Get a Witness?”curated by Tisch Abelow, Jashin Friedrich, and Dakotah savage, opening on Thursday, July 14, will be the fourth exhibition at ART BLOG ART BLOG.  Up next for Joshua Abelow is a solo exhibition at Tomorrow Gallery in Toronto, Canada, who will also be publishing the book, “Painter’s Journal,” a diaristic journal in six parts about Abelow’s experience as a young artist moving to New York at the turn of the century.

A full version of this interview can be found here.

ART BLOG ART BLOG is located at 508 West 26^th Street, Fl 11. Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 12-6pm. More info: www.artblogartblog.com.

Simon Linke Warhol, 2004. Courtesy Mireille Mosler Ltd.

(from the press release)  No one seems to be sure what the decline of modernism’s cultural influence, beginning sometime in the 1950’s and 60’s, has led to. The return of narrative and ornament in the art and architecture of the 1970’s suggested an effort to break with the immediate past, but the privileging of rationalism as a guiding social order evident in the idea of markets finding their perfect equilibrium continues to dominate economic discourse, despite the occasionally irrational results. While architects like Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and Rem Koolhaas seemed to have represented “a new way forward,” the prevalence of a creeping re-modernism found in the ubiquitous Corbusier-like, double-height urban lofts sheathed in glass and filled with mid-century modern furniture confirms the continued appeal of modernism’s aesthetic essentialism.

Simon Linke Urs Fischer, 2008. Courtesy Mireille Mosler Ltd.

In art, the early-modern conflict between non-objective painting and representation reached its peak and waned, as the eventual embrace of pluralism paralleled the development of a global, unregulated, free-market economic system. As pluralism was seen to have trumped ideology, the problem of content became increasingly slippery. With the historical determinism of the modernist project now suspect, its inherent iconoclasm began to look puritanical in the context of mass culture’s iconophilia. The series of reactions to modernist orthodoxy (Conceptualism, Minimal Art, Pop Art, Appropriation, etc.) broke free of the aesthetic cul-de-sac of formalism, but certain aspects of modernist thinking (the primacy of authorship, novelty, the “white cube”) have either lingered on or reasserted themselves within the arts.

Acknowledging the confines of discourse while highlighting its means of representation, PICTURE NO PICTURE hopes to raise questions concerning what can be “said,” within the context of visual art. While the reductive aesthetic of the modernist art object proposed a set of limits to insure its autonomy and purity, much of the work in this exhibition employs a spare aesthetic that highlights the phenomenological experience of the gallery setting, underlining the significance of the art object’s context to its reception.

As consumerism continues to expand, the endless manufacture of image and text produces a kind of baroque static, provoking restlessness rather than comprehension. Connecting through the abstraction of expanding personalized technologies has begun to take precedence over face-to-face exchange, encouraging the development of the subject into what Gordon Matta Clark once referred to as the “passive isolated consumer.” In an era of increased physical disorientation afforded by technological short cuts which alter logical sequencing in time and space, the works in PICTURE NO PICTURE reflect on the limits and conditions of the exhibition space (both literally and metaphorically), while underlying the viewer’s self-awareness as a key aspect in shaping their experience of a work of art.

PICTURE NO PICTURE
April 28 – May 29, 2011

Carriage Trade
62 Walker Street
New York, NY 10013
www.carriagetrade.org

(courtesy La MaMa La Galleria)

Tracing the Unseen Border is an exhibition curated by Ian Cofre and Omar Lopez-Chahoud that takes a look at the dynamics surrounding the border between Mexico and the United States. Each of the participating artists critically engages questions about this imaginary line, some as a representation of the actual physical space that separates both countries, and yet is unseen by a large part of the nations’ populations. Others turn their focus to the social, political, and economic implications affecting those who are determined to cross it. Collectively, the artists begin to expose the broader context in which there has been a move to obscure the border. This tendency coincides with a political discourse and policies that have shifted to border security, immigration reform, and protectionism. The artists’ works will help reveal and unravel the interconnectedness of this contemporary landscape to those who may feel far removed.

Participating artists:

Alberto Borea, Monika Bravo, Tania Candiani, caraballo-farman, Sergio de la Torre, Blane De St. Croix, Ricardo Gonzalez, M & X, Teresa Margolles, Tom McGrath, Irvin Morazan, Richard Mosse, Alex Rivera, Javier Tellez, Patricia A. Valencia, Ishmael Randall Weeks, and Judi Werthein.

Curated by Ian Cofre and Omar Lopez-Chahoud

Tracing the Unseen Border

April 21 – May 22, 2011
La MaMa La Galleria
74A East 4th Street

Friday, April 8, “Dear Japan We Love You” opened at OPENHOUSE GALLERY on 201 Mulberry Street NYC, another great silent auction benefit curated by our friends Tanya Arakawa Rosenstein, Will Robins, and Foundation World. There was something for everyone with a focus on urban art, and people were quick to scribble in their bids hoping to snatch up pieces by David Ellis, Kenzo Minami, Shepard Fairey, Swoon and more at a 10th of the market value.  A painting by Jose Parla was going for $5,500!

From the producers:

3.11 Project was conceptually created by Yuko Arakawa, one of the producers, who was motivated to start this project because she is from the prefecture of Fukushima in Japan. Her hometown is only 70 miles away from the Nuclear Power Plant, and she is heartbroken by this devastating disaster that has affected her place of origin and her family. Instead of feeling helpless, she is compelled to find a way to give back to her country and to her community. 3.11 is an on-going project that will continue to strive not only to raise money, but to raise awarenes for the victims of northern Japan that were affected by the Tsunami, Earthquake, and Nuclear Radiation.

100% proceeds of all projects we produce will be donated to Japan Earthquake Relief Fund via Japan Society.

Naomi Kazama

Mika Ninagawa

Will Robbins

Swoon

David Ellis

Tanya Arakawa Rosenstein

The Thingness of Color, installation, 2011, Dodge Gallery, New York, NY

We’ve made it through the winter, and on a warm spring day I let my gallery-legs thaw and took a stroll to see what LES had in store for me. I am happy to have wandered into a new space that I have noticed before, but looks like it will be a mainstay on Rivington, along with its neighbors, ElevenRivington and Thierry Goldberg. In a large, open space that was formerly a sausage factory, Dodge Gallery opened in September 2010 with a group show, Dramatus Personae, a group show that –aptly titled– presented the gallery’s roster of artists. Their sixth exhibition opens this Saturday with a solo show by Sheila Gallagher downstairs and a group show, The Thingness of Color, upstairs.

Continuing our Featured Gallery series, I was able to ask Founder/Director Kristen Dodge about the past, present and future of the gallery.

As a young gallery, you have already developed an impressive and intriguing roster. What was Dodge Gallery before you had a space on Rivington?
I’ve always known that I would open my own business and in fact, decided that it would be an art gallery before ever working at one. There’s something about the combination of business and art that was extremely appealing to me- addressing the two sides of my brain. But it wasn’t until I spent several years working under the guidance of Abigail Ross and eventually growing into the position of Director and establishing a creative partnership with her at the rotenberg gallery in Boston, when I realized that running a gallery is not only something I want to do, but it’s something I can do. I remember asking Sina Najafi at Cabinet Magazine, my first employer out of college, why he decided to start his own business and he said, “because I don’t want to work for anyone else.” I eventually landed in that same place and became my own boss.

On that same note, what is your background? Did you go to school in Boston? Did you study fine arts?
Boston is my hometown. The Red Sox are my team. I was a double major in English and Art at Brown. I’ve had a love affair with NYC for years, lived there after college, and am very happy to be back.

What are some of the main differences between art galleries in Boston and galleries in New York? Are there certain advantages to New York that brought you here?
There is no question that New York is an international hub for contemporary art and simply has more to offer than Boston. I can probably count the collectors on my hand who have made a serious commitment to supporting art in Boston. That’s not to say that there aren’t great institutions, dealers, and collectors there, but the numbers can’t be counted in New York. It’s an incredibly exciting, inspiring place to be. Yes, larger egos come with the territory, but it’s a cocky business. Actually, there have been a handful of friendly dealers who have openly welcomed us, attended our openings, and offered answers to our occasional questions. I have great collaborative relationships with dealers in Boston and I wasn’t expecting to find the same kind of openness in New York. But signs of a growing gallery population in LES supports the collective affirmation that this is the place to be.

Why did you choose the Lower East Side for the gallery? Did you think about opening in any other neighborhoods?
I knew what I wanted and found it on the exact block that I was gunning for. LES is a great neighborhood- for galleries, restaurants and other small businesses. It’s a fun place to be and writers, collectors, curators, and consultants are starting to make LES a destination. It’s an area that’s relatively new for galleries, but is quickly becoming the hot spot to visit for more adventurous art fanatics. Since opening, we’ve welcomed countless groups lead by astute guides- including academics, consultants, directors and curators- who have recently added LES to their guided route. There’s an air of newness and freshness here that brings people back to an essential experience. That is, sifting out the extraneous bullshit, exploring beyond well-beaten paths, and taking the time to really look because you found it. Nothing can replace that moment of being present with a piece, which requires two things, openness and time, both of which LES inspires.

What was this space before you moved in? The layout is very unique, very much not a white cube.
Our space was formerly a sausage factory, and we spent nearly 4 months stripping it down and building it out to be a gallery. I wanted to retain the character of the building- the brick, the beams, the windows- while creating a functional space for showing art. It was a fine line to navigate- creating a space that is unique and memorable, while not trumping the art. One of the most satisfying experiences has been seeing artists eyes light up when they walk into the space- there is so much they could do here.

Since this isn’t a typical, white cube (usually reserved for 2D work) will there be any new media or video art?
I have an affinity for work that engages three-dimensionality, that is aware of the body and how it relates to objects and context. The rough translation of this is sculpture. I have a soft spot for objects- art that literally declares itself while conceptually extending beyond itself. New media is an important part of the dialogue, and becomes compelling for me when it is utilizing space through a relationship to the present context, objects, and viewer.

Sheila Gallagher, Blue Flocked Virgin Mary Bank, 2011, courtesy of Dodge Gallery

One of the upcoming shows will feature Sarah Cain, Franklin Evans, Matthew Rich, and Cordy Ryman. Did you curate this show? If so, how did you bring these artists together? Can you tell me about little bit about The Thingness of Color?
Sometimes, I like to challenge myself to engage things that I am not entirely comfortable with, or don’t personally subscribe to in my daily life. This includes color. It therefore seemed fitting to curate a show about color, and angle the conversation towards the conceptual drive of the gallery- objecthood. I’m very excited to be working with the artists I’ve selected for The Thingness of Color, representing New York, Boston and LA. And importantly, the artists are excited to be showing with each other. Some of them have been on each other’s radars for a while. The show will be bold, active, and yes, colorful.

I notice that a good majority of the artists on the roster hale from MFA programs on the East Coast. Obviously, proximity must have drawn you to these artists initially, but what is it about their work that founded Dodge Gallery? Are there any formal, conceptual, or possibly social, characteristics that draw them together?
People used to marry their neighbors and cousins because they didn’t have planes, trains, and automobiles. Maybe I’m provincial. That’s not to say that I married my cousin, but I did marry artists who studied on the east coast for the most part. However, they hail from all over the US including New Orleans, New Hampshire, Atlanta, Michigan, New Jersey, Idaho, Boston, and New York. In terms of what ties them together, I suppose that would be me. Aside from pursuing three-dimensionality directly or conceptually, they have a fantastic combination of a serious commitment to their practice, a developed voice in their work, and a sometimes irreverent sense of humor.

Also looking at your roster, can you tell us about Environmental Services?
Environmental Services is Doug Weathersby, Owner/Operator. It’s a business through which Doug operates his art making, including everything from performing cleaning tasks for paying clients to making ephemeral site-specific installations for institutions and collections. For Doug, there is no separation between labor and creativity, work and life. I’ve tracked Doug’s work since he won the Foster Prize and had a show at the ICA in Boston that caught me off guard. I walked past the gallery and was surprised that the museum hadn’t bothered to clean up their janitor equipment during business hours. Then I realized that the dust in the room had been carefully swept into the contours of the bucket and broom’s shadow. It was gorgeous, moving, humbling, and so unexpected. Basically, he had me at hello.

Since it’s officially spring, I am of course already impatient for the summer solstice. What does Dodge Gallery have planned for the summer?
In July, we’ll hang a group exhibition of artists on the roster and by special invitation. This show will bookend our first year of business with our inaugural exhibition DRAMATIS PERSONAE. And then maybe I’ll take a week off.

Tom Fruin "Necktie Party" Hand bent neon tubes, electrical wire, hardware

165 ORCHARD STREET

April 1st, 6 to 10PM

Signs of the Times
April 1st – May 5th

Friends at Graphite Gallery in Williamsburg have organized a silent film and auction event with works donated from more than 28 artists!  All proceeds from this event will be donated to a non-profit organization, JHelp, which is dedicated to helping earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan. Currently they are working to bring food, clothing, blankets, water, etc. to the people in the Tohoku region where the tsunami hit hardest.

Artists include: Phoenix, Matthew Waldman, Ryan McGinness, Kenzo Minami, José Parla, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Lady Aiko, Kenji Hirata, Rostarr, Sebastien Agneessens, Motomichi Nakamura, Tomoko Sugimoto, Katja Holtz, Junko Shimizu, Patrick Bradley, Austin Power, Hiroki Otsuka, Shigeko Okada, Keiko Tokushima, Yoko Furusho, Lisa Alisa, Max Steiner, Terrance Hughes, Hazuki Aikawa, Begonia Colomar, Masa Kawamura, Akane Kodani and more.

Graphite NY Gallery
38 Marcy Ave, Brooklyn

March 31, 2011
Thursday, 6-10PM

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.

Robert de Saint Phalle "Curtain Call" (installation view) Dodge Gallery

At Dodge Gallery, sculptures by Robert de Saint Phalle and pseudo-paintings by Jane Fox Hipple both delight and intrigue. The gallery press release describes Hipple’s work better than I could in that she “works with all of the familiar criteria that denote painting for painting’s sake: oil, egg tempera, rectilinear frames, flat surfaces, wall-hung pieces.” It is obvious through these canvases that Hipple is having fun. With shades of soft blues, hazy purples, and juicy pinks, she paints on the frame, outside of the canvas, and on top of objects that she places within them. Saint Phalle’s sculptures are on the other hand, are more structural and dynamic, yet they are not aggressive. In a way, seem to be three-dimensional literary devices, telling a story between their material and form. A glossy, black plane intersects a sleek, modernist bench. Within this plane is a oddly shaped chasm letting light in from one side, only to land upon a slack cloth already mimicking the possible reflection of the spectrum, were the sun to enter at a perfect angle. If that description seems abstract or ambiguous, then I have accurately described the formal aspects of the works on view. More mid-scale sculptural works are on view Blackston Gallery, where Rachel Beach presents a geometric collection of reconstituted, resituated wood sculptures. The strong verticality of the works, made of plywood and old wood beams, suggest statues or human forms.

Alison Knowles "If the Shoe Fits" 2011. Courtesy James Fuentes LLC

One exhibition that you’ll still have time to see is Alison Knowles, Clear Skies All Week, on view at James Fuentes LLC through April 3. Upon first view of the multimedia works on view (assemblages made of old shoes, pieces of driftwood, handmade paper, and other found materials), I was impressed that this young artist (I thought maybe in their 20s) was able to capture an authentic sense of nostalgia. It almost seemed West Coast, like the type of visual cues that could accompany a Brautigan novel. This is why I never read press releases or CVs before viewing an exhibition — for that element of surprise! I didn’t realize that these were new works by the Fluxus artist who is now in her late seventies. Knowing the age of this artist (rather than the history of her artistic career and her taste for tunafish & buttermilk shakes), rendered the works more gentle, genuine, and charismatic.