Unique @Von Lintel

JTF (just the facts): A group show containing 14 photographic works by 9 different artists/photographers, variously framed and matted, and hung against white walls in the single room gallery space. All of the works are unique. (Installation shots at right.)

The following artists/photographers have been included in the show, with the number of works on display and print details as background:

• Matthew Brandt: 1 chromogenic print soaked in Silver Lake water, 30x40, 2010
• John Chiara: 1 Ilfachrome print, 34x28, 2012
• Pierre Cordier & Gundi Falk: 2 chemigrams on paper, 20x20, 2011
• Agnes Eperjesi: 3 color photograms, 10x20, 2011
• Curtis Mann: 1 bleached chromogenic print, 30x40, 2011
• Klea McKenna: 2 photograms on gelatin silver fiber paper, 24x20, 2013
• Amanda Means: 2 developer on Ilford matte gelatin silver fiber paper prints, 24x20, 2005
• Floris Neusüss: 2 gelatin silver prints, 88x42 and 25x21, 1987, 1991

Comments/Context: The oxymoron of photographic uniqueness has always offered a set of specific challenges for photographers, forcing them to examine the very nature of the image making process itself. While inherent reproducibility may be the hallmark of most forms of the medium, artists have continually wanted to introduce hand crafted gestures, elements of chance, and original marks to photographs, undermining the usual multiplication and creating one of a kind artworks. This group show provides a recent sampler of this impulse, matching contemporary lines of thinking with a few representatives from the prior generation.

 

John Chiara, Curtis Mann, and Matthew Brandt all start with photographs that are recognizably representational (blue skies, trees, lakes, and other landscape elements are readily identifiable), but each quickly moves off from standard documentation into areas of improvisation. Chiara uses a custom made camera obscura, multiple exposures, and uneven cut paper to pile image atop image. Mann adds tiny dots of bleach in a large round circle, creating a transparent scrim like a light flare. And Brandt dips his image in the lake water it depicts, allowing the color chemistry to break down into unexpected abstract swirls.

 

Other artists forego the use of a camera, either heading into the darkroom to make photograms or playing with light sensitive paper in more uncontrolled environments. Floris Neusüss provides the baseline for traditional photogram work, mixing positive and negative silhouettes of bodies and greenery (often with added solarization) into complicated, overlapped abstractions. Agnes Eperjesi offers a contemporary foil to these works, with her photograms of newspapers, hands, flowers, and other random objects, all bathed in washes of drifting color. Klea McKenna's photograms of raindrops are a process mystery; how she captured the literally thousands of individual drops with such amazing clarity (some like circles, others like bursts of flame) is a fascinating puzzle.

 

The remaining artists in the show take these ideas to their ultimate photographic limit, effectively drawing with developer on light sensitive paper. The chemigrams of Pierre Cordier and Gundi Falk are astonishingly intricate, with grids of squares and rectangles covered in concentric light brown polygons; there is a connection here to Chuck Close's approach to painting his individual grid elements, but Cordier and Falk's process is even more strict and controlled, except when the lines melt into tiny blobs and pools. Amanda Means takes a more fluid approach, allowing the developer to wash across her cut grid, creating fingers of color like the gullies of a dry river bed.

 

All in, this is a well-edited gathering of unique works, mixing both known and unknown names. It successfully defines the essential challenge of uniqueness and points to the diversity of innovative approaches being used to upend the idea of the repeatable photograph.

 

Collector's POV: The prices for the works in this show are as follows:

• Matthew Brandt: $5000
• John Chiara: $6400
• Pierre Cordier & Gundi Falk: $21000 each
• Agnes Eperjesi: $3150 each
• Curtis Mann: $6700
• Klea McKenna: $2400 each
• Amanda Means: $4900 each
• Floris Neusüss: $23000 and $42000

Aside from Neusüss and Cordier, most of the photographers in this show have little or no secondary market history, although Brandt and Mann are recent regulars on the art fair circuit. As such, gallery retail is still the best option for those collectors interested in following up.

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

 

Transit Hub:

• Feature/Review: New Yorker (here)
• Matthew Brandt artist site (here)
• John Chiara artist site (here)
• Pierre Cordier artist site (here)
• Agnes Eperjesi artist site (here)
• Gundi Falk artist site (here)
• Curtis Mann artist site (here)
• Klea McKenna artist site (here)
• Amanda Means artist site (here)

Unique

Through July 12th

 

Von Lintel Gallery

520 West 23rd Street

New York, NY 10011

Photography in the 2013 Armory Show, Part 1 of 2

In what might sound like a contradiction, this year's Armory Show has both more and less photography than in previous years. "More", in that by my count, there were 97 booths showing something that might be called photography (out of a possible 214 not including the publishers). That's over 45% of the galleries, which must be some kind of record and is certainly an increase from what was on offer last year. But a glass half empty kind of person might characterize this show as quite a bit "less", in that eclectic mid-tier randomness seems to have replaced the parade of boldfaced names and highly saleable, contemporary material that we've come to expect at this kind of gathering. If you are looking for Sherman, Gursky, Prince, Gilbert & George, Ruff, Struth, Tillmans, and the like, you will wear out your shoe leather and generally come up empty handed.

This portion of my notes covers the Focus area and the long extending arm of Pier 94; the second part will cover the remainder of Pier 94 and all of Pier 92. The booths/galleries are arranged by my path through the fair, roughly up and back along the aisles. For each booth, a list of photographers has been provided, with the number of works on display in parentheses. Additional commentary, prices, and pictures of the installation are also included as appropriate.

Galleria Continua (here): Carlos Garaicoa (2)

Higher Pictures (here): This booth contained three new works by Artie Vierkant. They're physically thinner than his last works (now on Dibond instead of thick Sintra) and more compositionally complex and multilayered ($17000 each). I think they're getting better.

Aisho Miura Arts (here): Shuhei Yamada (9)

Various Small Fires (here): Liz Magic Laser (2)

moniquemeloche (here): Joel Ross and Jason Kreps (4)

CONNERSMITH (here): Lincoln Schatz (1 set of 30, 1)

Anthony Meier Fine Arts (here): Roy McMakin (1 set of 6, 1 set of 4)

Francis M. Nauman Fine Art (here): Sherrie Levine (1 set of 18 postcards)

Pilar Corrias Gallery (here): Leigh Ledare (1)

Pekin Fine Arts (here): Kata Legrady (1), John Clang (2), Martin Parr (1), WassinkLundgren (4 diptychs). The photography duo of WassinkLundgren have taken to the streets of Tokyo, simultaneously taking two images of the same scenes from slightly different vantage points. The effect is Paul Graham's The Present meets Barbara Probst, highlighting the particular unmistakable flow of Tokyo ($2000 for each diptych). While discussing the fine Martin Parr auto show image on the outside wall, I heard that Parr is at work on a book of Chinese photobooks.

Kalfayan Galleries (here): Hrair Sarkissian (12)

Spaces Corners (here): Ed Panar (2), Andrea Galvani (1), Tim Hyde (5). These four photo collages by Tim Hyde were shown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art a few years ago. I like the way they break up the parking lot view into Cubist shards that are reassembled into abstract interruptions ($5000 each).

Andy Warhol Museum (here): Andy Warhol (5 modern enlargements)

Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (here): Cui Xiuwen (1)

Aperture (here): James Welling (1), Andrea Galvani (1), Enrique Metinides (1), Bill Armstrong (1), Doug Rickard (1), Michel Campeau (1), Sarah Moon (1), Richard Mosse (1), Silvio Wolf (1), Lars Tunbjork (1), Hank Willis Thomas (1), David Levinthal (1), Abelardo Morell (1), Rinko Kawauchi (1), Bruce Davidson (1), Michal Chelbin (1), Denis Darzacq

Whitechapel Gallery (here): John Baldessari (1), Roy Voss (1), Thomas Ruff (1), Zarina Bhimji (1), Rodney Graham (1), Peter Abrahams (1), Gerard Byrne (1)

Upstream Gallery (here): Frank Ammerlaan (1)

Baró Galleria (here): Ricardo Alcaide (2)

Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here): André Kertész (3 Polaroids), Max Neumann (6), Man Ray (1), Silvio Wolf (1 set of 30, 1), Trine Søndergaard (4), Bill Brandt (1), Shinichi Maruyama (3), Keith Smith (2), Constantin Brancusi (2), Michael Wolf (1), Todd Hido (2), Mark Cohen (1), Nicolai Howalt and Trine Søndergaard (1), Walker Evans (1), Aaron Siskind (1), Nicolai Howalt (1), Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1). This booth was a solid mix of both contemporary work and vintage gems. This 1930s Brandt nude was a particular surprise, as I hadn't previously seen one from earlier than the mid 1940s ($35000).

espaivisor - Galeria Visor (here): Nil Yalter (1 set of 10, 1 triptych, 1 set of 16), Sanja Ivekovic (1 set of 100)

ONE AND J. Gallery (here): Jung Lee (5). I suppose it was inevitable that the "pithy phrase in neon" so prevalent in contemporary art would finally make the jump to staged photography ($15000 each).

Galeria SENDA (here): Oleg Dov (2), Anna Malagrida (2)

Galerie Crone (here): Daniel Megerle (10), Adrien Missika (4)

Galerie Ron Mandos (here): Hans Op De Beeck (1)

Rhona Hoffman Gallery (here): Luis Gispert (1), Xaviera Simmons (1), Karthik Pandian (2), Vito Acconci (1), Robert Heinecken (3)

Ingleby Gallery (here): Garry Fabian Miller (1 set of 4)

Sies + Höke (here): Joao Maria Gusmao and Pedro Paiva (1), Daniel Gustav Cramer (1 set of 7)

Sprüth Magers (here): John Baldessari (1), David Lamelas (8), Cindy Sherman (5), Louise Lawler (1)

Goodman Gallery (here): Mikhael Subotzky (2), Alfredo Jaar (1), Hank Willis Thomas (1 set of 6), David Goldblatt (3)

Luciana Brito Galeria (here): Caio Reisewitz (1). Marina Abramović (2), Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich (1), Regina Silveira (1 installation). This is a new work by Marina Abramović; I liked the tiny cracks climbing up the expanse of green and the unsettling blackened finger ($90000).

Cardi Black Box (here): Shirana Shahbazi (4). These are new works by Shahbazi, more active and overlapped than other abstractions I have seen by her.

Corkin Gallery (here): arbara Astman (5), Thaddeus Holownia (1 set of 100), André Kertész (3), Constantin Brancusi (1), Marion Post Wolcott (1), Frank Mädler (1)

Tang Contemporary Art (here): Wang Gongxin (2 videos), Ji Zhou (1), Yang Yong (1 diptych)

Galerie EIGEN + ART (here): Ricarda Roggan (3)

PPOW (here): Adam Putman (10)

Howard Greenberg Gallery (here): Joel Meyerowitz (2), Gordon Parks (1), Edward Burtynsky (1 diptych, 2), Imogen Cunningham (1), William Klein (4), Bruce Davidson (2), Robert Frank (2), Vivian Maier (4), Saul Leiter (4), Ted Croner (1), Caleb Cain Marcus (2). This lively diamond mural abstraction isn't what you might expect from William Klein ($19000).

Angles Gallery (here): Ori Gersht (5, 1 lightbox, 1 diptych) Soo Kim (5). This handcut inkjet print by Soo Kim is elegantly interwoven and delicate ($10000). Another example of a contemporary photographer playing with the surface/physicality of the print.

Haines Gallery (here): David Maisel (1)

Galerie van Gelder (here): Steven Parrino (1)

Leila Heller Gallery (here): Reza Aramesh (1 triptych)

Hales Gallery (here): Sebastiaan Bremer (1)

Vistamare (here): Mimmo Jodice (1)

Pierogi (here): Nadia Bournonville (1), Kevin Cooley (2)

Susan Inglett Gallery (here): Sarah Charlesworth (2)

Yossi Milo Gallery (here): Alison Rossiter (3), Simen Johan (1), Myoung Ho Lee (3), Mark Ruwedel (1 set of 15), Matthew Brandt (3), Doug Rickard (1), JD Okhai Ojeikere (2), Julie Cockburn (3). This new Matthew Brandt is more swirly and abstract than other works from this same series ($19000); the underlying lake drenched image is hardly recognizable.

Ignacio Liprandi Arte Contemporaneo (here): Jorge Pedro Nuñez (4). Square format Artforum ads projected into Albers-like layers of color ($4000 each).

Loevenbruck (here): Morgane Tschiember (1 set of 6)

Jack Shainman Gallery (here): Richard Mosse (1), Hank Willis Thomas (1), Barkley Hendricks (1). I was blown away by the electric contrast between the blue and the red/pink in this new Richard Mosse ($24000).

Corvi-Mora (here): Anne Collier (2)

Kukje Gallery (here)/Tina Kim Gallery (here): Kimsooja (1), Haegue Yang (2 sets of 4, 1 set of 3, 1 set of 2), Candida Höfer (1), Jenny Holtzer (1)

Part 2 of this post can be found here.

Matthew Brandt @Milo

JTF (just the facts): A total of 61 photographic works, variously framed and matted, and hung in the front and back galleries, the side viewing room, and the connecting hallway. (Installation shots at right.)

The works in the show come from four separate projects. The projects are listed below, followed by the number of works on view and the image details:

• Honeybees: 6 gum bichromate with honeybees prints on paper, framed in white with no mat, sized either 59x100 or 59x40, unique, from 2012
• Trees: 50 charcoal silkscreen prints with wood from George Bush Park, Texas, on handmade paper, framed in blond wood with no mat, each sized 19x13, in editions of 3, from 2009-2011 
• Lakes and Reservoirs: 4 chromogenic prints soaked in lake water, framed in white with no mat, each sized 72x105, unique, from 2008-2011
• Taste Tests in Color: 1 silkscreen with blue, red, yellow, and purple Gummy Bears on paper, framed in white with no mat, sized 40x30, unique, from 2012

Comments/Context: At a time when many in photography have looked back to antique processes in search of hand made, artisanal authenticity, Matthew Brandt has used process experimentation to look forward, mixing newfangled alchemical innovations with conceptual thinking in unexpected ways. He is at once a throw back to the photographers of the 19th century who were constantly tinkering with their chemistries and a contemporary artist who is comfortable with a new breed of photography that is more tactile and physical. The works in this show break down the barrier between the image and the process by both capturing a subject in the traditional manner and embedding the physical matter of that subject in the development process, making it a picture and a version of the thing itself at the same time. Depending on the series, this approach alternately feels truly inspired and transformative or too literal and overly conspicuous.

 

Brandt's landscapes of lakes are the most successful and visually gripping of the works in this show. Starting with fairly standard color views of lakeside scenes, he dips the prints in water scooped from the lake itself, allowing the layers of color in the chromogenic print to dissolve and swirl around. The photographs begin to wash away, leaving behind fragments of the original view covered in expressionistic splashes of watery brightness. The colors run, and spot, and look like manic sponge prints, whirling and eddying in churning pools and gullies. Given the chance effects at work here, some images are naturally more striking than others, but they all use fluid forms to explore a delicate balance between sharp reality and indistinct abstraction.

Brandt's images of swarms of bees made with real crushed up bee bodies mixed into the gum bichromate emulsion create gee whiz, open eyed astonishment when you really get up close. The bulbous forms of the insect body parts sit on top of the paper like they were meticulously glued in place one by one, giving the print a kind of bumpy topography. The problem is that from afar, it's hard to see much more than tiny black dots against a huge sheet of white. Brandt's images of trees also suffer from some compositional weakness; the paper made from wood and the ink made from charcoal provide the unusual physical connection to the trees, but I found the repeated deadpan images in shades of dirty brown to fade into a dull typological blur after the first dozen or so. The one work made out of Gummy Bears just felt too much like a gimmick to take very seriously.

All in, while this show is a bit uneven, there is plenty of evidence that Brandt has a surplus of original ideas. If he can match his novel process innovations with increasingly sophisticated and refined image making as he goes forward, he certainly has the potential to show us something durably new.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced based as follows, based on the project/series.

• Honeybees: $16000 or $22000 based on size
• Trees: $5000 each
• Lakes and Reservoirs: all sold
• Taste Tests in Color: $5800

Brandt's work has very little secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the best option for interested collectors at this point.

 

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

 

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Reviews/Features: New Yorker (here), Time LightBox (here), New Yorker PhotoBooth (here), DART (here), Daily Beast (here)

Matthew Brandt

Through July 20th

 

Yossi Milo Gallery

245 Tenth Avenue

New York, NY 10001