Under My Skin - Nudes in Contemporary Photography @Flowers

JTF (just the facts): A group show containing a total of 24 photographic works by 23 artists/photographers, variously framed and matted, and hung against white walls in a series of three connected gallery spaces. Nearly all of the works were made in 2007 or later. The show was curated by Mona Kuhn. (Installation shots at right.)
 

The following artists/photographers were included in the show, with the number of prints on view and image details as background. The works of 3 of the artists/photographers originally planned for the exhibit were not on view:

• Adou: 2 gelatin silver prints, 13x16, edition of 10, 2011
• Jeff Bark: 1 digital color print, 33x41, edition of 8, 2007
• Polly Borland: 1 giclee print on German etch paper with felt, 27x20, edition of 15, 2009
• Christopher Bucklow: 1 cibachrome print, 40x60, unique, 2012
• Ana Casas Broda: 1 c-print, 24x36, edition of 5, 2010
• David Dawson: not on view
• Maciek Jasik: 1 giclee print, 30x24, edition of 6, 2012
• Sarah Anne Johnson: 1 pigment print with acrylic inks, 30x20, edition of 3, 2013
• Nadav Kander: 1 chromogenic print, 36x47, edition of 6, 2010
• Kim Joon: 1 digital print, 87x44, edition of 5, 2007
• Bear Kirkpatrick: 1 archival inkjet print, 34x28, edition of 8, 2010
• Mona Kuhn: 1 chromogenic print, 30x30, edition of 8, 2012
• Justine Kurland: 1 c-print, 30x40, edition of 6, 2007
• Christophe Kutner: 1 color pigment print on fiber paper, 24x30, edition of 20, 2009
• Deana Lawson: 1 pigmented inkjet print, 36x34, no edition information, 2007 
• Malerie Marder: not on view
• Geir Moseid: not on view
• Mariah Robertson: 1 print, 11x14, unique, 2009
• Jenny Saville/Glen Luchford: 1 chromogenic print, 40x31, no edition information, 1995-1996
• Collier Schorr: 1 collage, 48x43, edition of 2, 2007
• Alec Soth: 1 archival pigment print, 30x40, edition of 10, 2011
• Bill Sullivan: 2 c-prints, 28x21, edition of 3, 2010
• Esther Teichmann: 1 fiber based print hand tinted with inks, 20x24, edition of 3, 2013
• Spencer Tunick: 1 c-print sealed between plexiglas, 30x38, edition of 6, 2009
• Shen Wei: 1 chromogenic print, 30x45, edition of 3, 2011

Comments/Context: Summer group shows have never been a favorite of mine (recall a 2009 diatribe on the subject here), so I am always pleasantly surprised to run across one that actually merits some attention. This show eschews the tired "one each from the gallery stable" formula and instead takes stock of a classic genre: the photographic nude. Curated by Mona Kuhn (herself a successful photographer of nudes), the exhibit brings together a broad sampler of contemporary nudes, charting how artists are handling the aesthetic challenges of such a traditional form. It's a vibrant, uneven bunch of known and unknown names, proving that innovative experimentation is still very much taking place.

 

At its essence, the classical nude has always been about line and form, about the elegant shapes the unadorned human body (male or female) makes when seen from different angles. Even in its contemporary form, this concept still holds true for many artists. Nadav Kander's white on black nude makes the ample curves of his model look like polished marble, while Jenny Saville and Glen Luchford use glass to flatten out the female form into a fleshy distortion. Christopher Bucklow directs light through tiny holes to create nude silhouettes, while Mona Kuhn contributes warm palm tree reflections to her standing nude. The bending legs and folded arms of Sarah Anne Johnson's female nude echo a familiar Weston, aside from the tattoo covered limbs and the hand painted clown nose and ruffled collar which undermine its seriousness; Polly Borland works in a similar manner, starting with a body that is all linear arms and legs and adding on red felt dots over the eyes.

 

The added effects of Johnson and Borland point to a further investigation of process and materials in the context of nude subject matter. Mariah Robertson uses nudes forms in her expressionistic color photograms, while Kim Joon turns the nude into body art by painting intricate patterns across the flesh of his subjects. Esther Tecihmann adds gestural overpainted color, while Bill Sullivan allows the pixelation of a rephotographed TV screen to obscure his nudes. In each case, there is a sense of starting with the standard form but pushing the subject beyond its normal boundaries via non-standard interventions and mediations.

 

Many of the other works in this show follow a more narrative strain of nude making, where the naked bodies have more context and plausible storyline. This approach ranges from the personal (Shen Wei, Deanna Lawson, Collier Schorr) to the allegorical (Justine Kurland, Jeff Bark, Bear Kirkpatrick), where introspection and intimacy are exchanged for staged scenes and posed groupings. Alec Soth's nude bends over to pick something up in her scraggly suburban back yard, while kids draw all over their mother with markers in Ana Casa Broda's playroom nude, and puzzling narrative scenarios like these turn more exaggerated, surreal and performative in the hands of Adou and Spencer Tunick. Across this diversity of work, the common thread is the vulnerability of the primal human form, where a naked body stands out in an unexpected place. 

While this show generally leaves out the male nude, the fashion nude, and the more aggressive, risk taking gender studies, I think Kuhn has done a solid job of taking the pulse of the contemporary photographic nude and providing a sampler of some of the vitality in the genre. It's proof positive that even in categories where we might assume we've seen it all before, there is still plenty of white space for original thinking.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows:

• Adou: $2500 each
• Jeff Bark: $14000
• Polly Borland: $2800
• Christopher Bucklow: $18000
• Ana Casas Broda: $5100
• David Dawson: not on view
• Maciek Jasik: $3500
• Sarah Anne Johnson: $10300
• Nadav Kander: $12400
• Kim Joon: $27000
• Bear Kirkpatrick: $2800
• Mona Kuhn: $11000
• Justine Kurland: $8500
• Christophe Kutner: $1500
• Deana Lawson: POA
• Malerie Marder: not on view
• Geir Moseid: not on view
• Mariah Robertson: $3500
• Jenny Saville/Glen Luchford: NFS
• Collier Schorr: $24000
• Alec Soth: $12730
• Bill Sullivan: $3500 each
• Esther Teichmann: $4500
• Spencer Tunick: $8400
• Shen Wei: $3900

In terms of secondary market history, this show contains a wide sweep of artists/photographers, from those with well established track records (Saville/Luchford, Soth, Bucklow, Tunick et al) to those whose work has recently entered the secondary markets or has little or no action history at all. For those collectors interested in following up, gallery retail likely remains the best option for many of these photographers.

 

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

 

Transit Hub:

• Features/Reviews: New York The Cut (here)
• Interview: Le Journal de la Photographie (here)

 

Under My Skin - Nudes in Contemporary Photography

Through July 27th

 

Flowers Gallery

529 West 20th Street

New York, NY 10011

Kim Joon, Fragile @Sundaram Tagore

JTF (just the facts): A total of 22 large scale color works, each face mounted to Plexiglas and unframed, and hung in the two entry areas, the main gallery space, and a smaller back room. All of the prints are digital chromogenic prints, in editions of 5 or 8. The works range in size from 35x21 to 83x47 (or reverse), and were made between 2008 and 2010. A thin catalogue of the exhibit is available from the gallery. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Korean photographer/artist Kim Joon's eye-catching images venture into the unexplored edges of what we call photography, looking for wholly original aesthetics that go beyond the boundaries imposed by the use of a camera. Using the powerful digital tools found in computer labs and animation studios, Kim has pushed the nude figure somewhere unexpected, morphing it into an undulating, intertwined foundation for intense decoration and patterning.
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I think Kim's work brings forward many of the same underlying ideas and questions that were raised by Thomas Ruff's show at David Zwirner earlier this spring (here), albeit with an entirely different visual output. While Ruff made images of abstract mathematical equations, he too was working inside the realm of the computer, extending his visual vocabulary into uncharted white spaces. Kim has taken the freedom generated by the technology and used it to re-imagine human bodies, covering them with a heady mix of colorful Asian and Western iconography, like tattoos or body paint. Rendered in 3D and then "skinned" with his choice of coverings, the bodies become an impossible tangle of male and female limbs, a theme and variation exercise in repetition and geometry, with stylized fish, cats and birds mixing with corporate logos (Donald Duck, Mini Cooper and Honda).

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Kim's newest works trade the look and feel of human skin for the alabaster shine of fine porcelain. Bodies have been broken open, revealing hollow insides like headless figurines. Traditional china patterns from Villeroy & Boch, Limoges and Royal Copenhagen cover the cropped torsos and echo across nearby plates and saucers. Floral designs with gold leaf edges and blue and white butterflies wander across clusters of fallen bodies.

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I think an overly simple reading of Kim's work would be to highlight the clash of cultures that can be found a great deal of contemporary Asian art today and conclude that he too is working this same set of "East meets West" ideas, albeit in a more boldly colorful manner, printed big and glossy to attract a certain kind of collector. When I look at these works, however, I am more interested in where his compositional explorations might be taking us, and how to better interpret his computer-generated visual innovation. We're a long way from clumsy appropriation and photocollage - in fact, we're somewhere entirely new, with inherently different risks and challenges for those who employ these revolutionary tools. Do it "wrong" and it's a throwaway gimmick, do it "right" and it breaks all the rules.

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To my eye, while not every one of the works in this show hits the mark, there are certainly moments when the swirl of bodies or the arrangements of china are wonderfully woven together. Give them the backhanded compliment of "decorative" if you must, but when these interlaced forms/patterns find just the right balance of fluidity and refinement, there is something here that we haven't seen anywhere before.
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Collector's POV: The works in this show are generally priced by size, with the smallest images at $7000 or $10000, and the largest either $23000 or $25000, with a number of intermediate sizes and prices. Kim's work has recently become more consistently available in the secondary markets for photography, particularly in the past year or two. Prices at auction have ranged between $5000 and $16000.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Interview: Art Radar Aisa (here)
• Feature: CNN (here)

Kim Joon, Fragile

Through November 13th

Sundaram Tagore Gallery

547 West 47th Street

New York, NY 10001