ICA Fall Exhibition

by Andrea McGinty

Though the R. Crumb exhibition is the ICA's heavy hitter this fall, I focused on the works of the three other artists featured in the exhibition, all thought provoking and well worth considering. But of course, when you go see the show, check out the comprehensive retrospective of R. Crumb's underground comics.

Stepping into the first gallery we are greeted by a massive open space whose perimeter is lined with photo-collage and framed photographs. The first floor houses the work of artist Douglas Blau. The wall text available before entering threw out phrases to make my art historical mouth water: "narratives unfold across sequences", "mechanical reproduction", and "power of association". Luckily for the viewer, the work delivers with dense collages of prints, photographs, film stills, and postcards, that depend on each other, and the viewer, to create meaning. The images mostly focus on a wealthy, upper-class lifestyle, and their work and leisure activities. Blau utilizes art history, design, architecture, historical and modern culture; combining objects and spaces with human emotions. His titles add a layer of depth to the works, twisting the meaning even further through association. In this installation, the title was posted to the right of the work, so as to continue the thought process after one takes in the images, both separately and as a whole. "Playtime", 2008, features images of children with dolls, women reading and writing, theaters, and men standing in the stairwells of their mansions. Image juxtaposition and meaning through association are far from new concepts, leading Blau's work to feel rather traditional, though his overall composition and the wit exhibited in his work are convincing enough to allow the work to standout.

The Third Space Ramp Project is home to Odili Donald Odita's site specific wall paintings. The murals cover the walls of the ramp space, extending from the ground to the ceiling, forcing the viewer's eyes to move through the entire space. His bold blocks of geometric, solid colors bring to mind "Western modernism and African culture", (as stated in the gallery notes), and are chocked full of color theory, and references to op art and digital culture alike. His influences are at once abundantly obvious and subtly integrated. Both Odita's work, and the work of artist Kate Gilmore, located adjacent to Odita in the Project space, share the theme of well integrated influences. The two exhibitions placed next to each other allow for dynamic conversation. Gilmore's videos and installations do more than hint to the endurance art of the 1970's, and generations of feminist work. In her video "Between a Hard Place", 2008, she is shown breaking through layered drywall, wearing heels and a dress. In Odita's work he fuses his traditional, contemporary, visual, and cultural influences, both glorifying and criticizing them. Gilmore takes her aggressively physical, conceptual influences and uses them to create formally considered videos, employing color, scale, space, and composition.

All of the work featured in the ICA's fall exhibition forces viewers to look, think, and make connections on their own, which should ultimately be the goal of the contemporary artists of our time. All of the works share in common the use of traditional references mixed with modern thoughts and practices, that and a bit of a new twist on old ideas. "Conversation" could almost be coined as the unofficial theme of the exhibit, and a perfect activity to partake in with your lovers and friends while visiting the ICA before December 7th.

[Andrea McGinty is a South Florida expatriate and artist living and working in Philadelphia]

Christopher Davison's Had

Contributed by Andrea McGinty
Had, Showing at Jenny Jaskey Gallery
Through July 31st, 2008

Currently showing in the Cabin Project Space of the Jenny Jaskey/Tower Gallery in Northern Liberties is the work of Christopher Davison. The Philadelphia artist is showing twelve works that feature a variety two dimensional media, such as ink, pencil, paint, and cut paper, as well as one sculpture.

The project space, existing in the very back of the gallery, provides a private, intimate locale to delve into Davison's show. The pieces fill the walls, overtaking both the viewer and the space. At first glance, most of the works are seemingly simple, featuring one scantily clad or naked figure that dominates the page. Painted in a pared down style, the intricacies are reduced to bold streaks of color. On further inspection, the viewer discovers delicate details, in the face or extremities. Soon the eye discovers even more levels of hidden detail as entire line drawings, covered by layers of bold paint, peek through the figures and background. The depth of detail exhibited in Davison's work soon become as overtaking as their installation in the space.

Furthering the reach of his work, Davison's titles are comically dualistic. They are bluntly descriptive, "Man With Church" shows a man physically holding a church, though this title brings up many other conceptual connotations. The titling also actively omits the innumerable details not mentioned directly, thus calling attention to them by way avoidance. This also echoes his method of painting bold streaks of color to conceal elaborate line drawings. The paintings pose as portraits, while existing as dark, open-ended narratives.

His sculptural "Yellow Doll", made up of fabric scraps, wood, and string, is a natural three dimensional realization of his two dimensional works. Jagged portions of cloth, crudely attached together, are accented by drawings created with marker. The individual works as well as the show in its entirety, are as layered as they are deliberate. While this show on its own is well worth making a trip to the gallery before July 31, you can also visit the new show opening in the main gallery space on July 10th, from 6 to 9pm.

[Andrea McGinty is a South Florida expatriate and artist living and working in Philadelphia]



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My First Second Thursday

by Andrea McGinty

New to Philadelphia, and unfortunately having missed every First Friday since I've moved here, I was happy to discover the Second Thursday openings in the Kensington/Northern Liberties district. The Crane Arts Building, the home to an art community with room after room just begging to be explored, proved to be a promising starting point. On Thursday May 8th The Crane featured the openings of five different exhibits, the Tyler School of Art's MFA exhibit "Semi", the University of Delaware's MFA exhibition, Nexus showing the work of Rebecca Gilbert and Virginia Batson, Jessica Demcsak's "The Crane Adjacent" presented by InLiquid, and Kelly & Weber Fine Arts exhibition of Sean O'Neil. Each opening made use of the varying spaces they occupied in dramatically different ways.

The Tyler MFA opening was housed in the Gray Space and Ice Box galleries of the Crane. Both spaces are large, but the Ice Box gallery is expansive, and taking full advantage of a space like that is a difficult task (one made even more so when the exhibition shown in it is curated based on nothing more than the school the artists attend). The Gray Space provided a more appropriate locale to perform the difficult task of making a student show look like more than just a student show. The architecture of the room, unlike the Ice Box, separates itself into several spaces under one roof, allowing individual artists' works to relate separately to each other, as well as the rest of the show. In the Ice Box, with no walls or support beams to soften the blow, each work was in constant competition with one another, so much so that it noticeably took away from the individual works. A perfect example was the installation by Daniel Ostrov (pictured left), one that I had previously viewed when it was shown as part of his MFA Thesis exhibition at the Tyler Gallery in Olde City. "Amnesiac", when placed in the Temple Gallery, appeared monumental, overtaking the viewer's senses. In height and depth it filled the space, leaving little room for standing outside of the installation, forcing the viewer to enter and explore the work's many nuances. The scent of the materials filled the air, and the texture of the salt was felt while shoes crunched over it on the floor. Forced into the gallery, the construction created impenetrable spaces, and upon inspection, one discovered text on the inside of the wooden planks, just barely out of site. Lost in the enormous Ice Box gallery at the Crane, the piece was dwarfed, and the hidden chambers were left open, stripping them of their mystery. On the other hand, the University of Delaware's MFA exhibit had exactly the opposite feeling. The small space it occupied was stuffed full of art, which caused me to quickly flee the room, though, it was hard to tell if it was the compact spacing of the show or the quality of the work that left me uninterested.

Both the Nexus (pictured below) and Kelly and Weber Fine Arts exhibitions had the air of traditional art openings, the Kelly and Weber show was even complete with soft music and well dressed providers of refreshment right outside their door. Luckily, the artwork featured inside the rectangular, white walls of the K&W did not entirely disappoint. Literature provided by the gallery explains that Sean O'Neil "appropriates images, often times using amateur photos or images from instruction manuals as sources (for his paintings). The reproduced image is then washed with new color to create monochrome layers juxtaposed with other images". While the juxtaposition of images is nothing groundbreaking, O'Neil was able to combine elements convincingly. I couldn't help being reminded of John Baldessari's photographic works in which he blocks out information from portions of images with bold shapes of saturated color. In situations like Thursday's openings, the viewer is presented with an onslaught of art and reception, and is provided the opportunity to see a lot of repetition and derivation. The Nexus show presented a number of delicate, small scale, line drawings that I noticed as an overtaking trend at December's Art Basel Fairs in Miami. However interesting an individual drawing may be, it is easy to get lost in the sea of similarity. Directly in front of Nexus, InLiquid is situated in the Big Hall, which allows artists the opportunity to utilize a unique floor-plan. Artist Jessica Demcsak's "The Crane Adjacent" wasn't particularly exciting or new either (a pared down, two dimensional cityscape presented on a three dimensional base), but featured my favorite aspect of the local Philadelphia art scene, an overwhelming sense of community. The skyline shown on her sculptures is the Crane Building itself and its surrounding architecture.

The few art events I've been to so far since moving to Philadelphia have been focused on so much more than just providing a stage for contemporary art. The art community of Philadelphia can truly be described as such: the atmosphere is not one of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours," but dedicated people who seek to involve everyone around them in their passion. I get the impression from both artists and organizers that everyone has a vision of potential for the city, and they're excited to participate in its growth. I realize this view may seem overly rosy, as I'm still brand new to the Philly art scene, though I can happily say I'm welcoming the change from the market driven Miami experience.

[Andrea McGinty is a South Florida expatriate and artist living and working in Philadelphia]



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