Niko Luoma, And Time is No Longer an Obstacle @Wolkowitz

JTF (just the facts): A total of 18 large scale photographs, variously framed and matted, and hung in the entry gallery, the hallway, and the main gallery space in the back. 13 of the works are archival pigment prints, unframed and mounted on Diasec, and made between 2009 and 2012. These prints are sized 67x55 or reverse and are available in editions of 5+2AP. The show also includes 5 smaller archival pigment prints, framed in black and unmatted, and made in 2011. These prints are sized 14x13 and are also available in editions of 5+2AP. A monograph of this body of work was recently published by Hatje Cantz (here). This is Luoma's first solo show in the United States. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: "Drawing with light" is one of those overly mystical honeyed chestnuts I associate with bad writing about photography. But in the case of Finnish photographer Niko Luoma, drawing with light may indeed be an apt description of what he is actually doing. Using an entirely analog process, he methodically exposes his negatives to hundreds of individual lines of light, building up dense thickets of pulsing linear abstraction. His works have faint echoes of Minimalism, iteratively evolved into compositions brimming with futuristic energy.

The smaller works displayed in the hallway of the gallery have the most direct connection to a familiar Minimalist aesthetic. Thin almost invisible white lines arrange themselves with mathematical precision against a dark black background, becoming intimate arrays of horizontal and vertical stripes. It's easy to see a conceptual kinship with Frank Stella's black paintings or with Agnes Martin's delicate strips and bands.

Luoma's larger works are presented as glossy objects, scaled up in wall power and intensity. Straight school bus yellow lines radiate outward from a criss-crossed center and circular black swirls overlap into a bird's nest of interlocked basket weave curves. Most of the works play on ram rod straight horizontals and verticals, piled up and layered into symmetrical thatched rectangles and woven angled patterns. Their color is pure and electric, almost as if it is backlit or lasered, from blinding monochrome contrast to intense multicolored lines in rainbow hues. The works feel modern and machined, like the output of code running open loop or a controlled, systematized process that has been allowed to wander.

I think Luoma's brand of geometric abstraction is full of freshness and vitality. His lines flutter and palpitate with a precise cadence, drawing the viewer into their seemingly endless mathematical repetitions. And it is this mix of brashness and order that gives them their originality and punch, keeping them from becoming something we have seen before.

Collector's POV:  The works in this show are priced as follows. The large 67x55 prints are $17000 each, and the smaller 14x13 prints are $6500 each. These prices represent a small bump up from prices I have encountered at recent art fairs. Luoma's work is not yet consistently available in the secondary markets, so gallery retail is still likely the best option for those collectors interested in following up.

 

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

 

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Feature: Photo District News (here)

 

Niko Luoma, And Time is No Longer an Obstacle

Through February 16th

 

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery

505 West 24th Street

New York, NY 10011

JR on the High Line

Another JR mural has popped up along my normal gallery pathways, this time up on the High Line near the 30th street entrances. Covering the entire side of a building, it's much wider than the other one I saw a few weeks ago on Mulberry and Prince (here), although it's clearly from the same series. Its background dot pattern is optically bold and the scale of the eyes-closed face is imposing, even from far away. Helpfully, this one has slightly more information printed on it: a title Brandon Many Ribs, Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota, and the logo of his Inside Out Project (here). JR is represented by in New York by Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery (here).

JR at Mulberry and Prince

On a recent gallery swing through SoHo and the Lower East Side, I passed this huge (roughly six stories tall) photographic mural by JR on a building near the corner of Mulberry and Prince. Apparently, it is part of his Inside Out Project (here), from the subseries of North Dakota Native Americans. Its brash energy, mixing raw anger and frustration, is unexpectedly jolting and memorable. I have no idea how long it will be on view, so swing by a take a look before it gets torn down. By the way, JR is represented by in New York by Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery (here).

Edward Burtynsky: Dryland Farming @Wolkowitz

JTF (just the facts): A total of 12 large scale color photographs, framed in black and not matted, and hung in the entry area and the main gallery space in the back. All of the works are chromogenic color prints, taken in 2010. The images are shown in three different sizes (with a fourth smaller size not on display): 39x52 (in editions of 9), 48x64 (in editions of 6), and 60x80 (in editions of 3). There are 2 images in the 39x52 size, 6 images in the 48x64 size, and 4 images in the 60x80 size on view. A concurrent show of Burtynsky's earlier work is on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Edward Burtynsky's photographs have routinely posed nuanced questions about how certain human actions have potentially far reaching and often unseen implications for the planet. At massive industrial sites criss-crossing the globe, he has documented both the rigid order and the decaying chaos of open pit mines, Chinese factories, ship salvage yards, and stone quarries, finding abstract beauty amid the expansive work environments. In his previous project on the end-to-end influence of oil, he took a broader look at the upstream causes and downstream effects of the entire industry, connecting the dots to consequences that weren't immediately obvious. His most recent pictures are part of a new project on water, presumably investigating how the increasing scarcity of yet another vital resource is changing the way we live.

All of the photographs in this show were taken in the dusty hills of northern Spain, where water has been in short supply for generations. Looking down from a helicopter, Burtynsky has captured the endless stripes and striations carved into the dirty foothills, flattening out the landscape into an abstract puzzle of fingered, terraced fields. The visual patterns are a shocking echo of the dense paintings of Jean Dubuffet (an example, here), where the land has become a patchwork of squiggly quilted parcels, cross hatched by irrigation, mowing and thin, intervening roads. The undulating topography has been condensed into subtle geometries and graphic forms, the hand of man writ large on the rocky terrain.

There is virtually no green in the palette of these images (save a few olive trees as dots); instead, the land is painted in beige and rust, grey and black, with a dusting of drifted white snow. These subdued colors highlight the desolation and desperation in farming this country, accenting the sense of scratching an existence out of land that is indifferent and uncooperative. The pictures ask tough questions about how our agricultural needs will evolve as water sources become more and more depleted, and to what lengths we will be required to remake the land to adapt to this new reality. While there is an uncanny, frenetic elegance to these muted landscapes, their message is surprisingly dark and ominous.

In general, I think these images have moved Burtynsky back towards a more painterly kind of photography, where landscapes are transformed into expressive gestures. At the same time, I think his vision of how photography can influence the direction of the collective conversation is getting broader; with each successive project, he is taking on larger and more complicated issues. The worldwide water situation will only become more tense and strategic in the coming years, so Burtynsky's artistic exploration of this subject may well be an important starting point for raising the awareness of what we're up against.
 
Collector's POV: The prices for the works in this show are as follows: the 39x52 prints are $16500, the 48x64 prints are $24000, and the 60x80 prints are $42000 (I didn't get the price for the smallest size not on view). Burtynsky's photographs have slowly become more available in the secondary markets over the past few years, with prices at auction ranging between roughly $5000 and $48000. 
 

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Article: NY Times (here)
• Reviews: Time LightBox (here)

Edward Burtynsky: Dryland Farming

Through December 10th

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
505 West 24th Street

New York, NY 10011

The Helsinki School - Seven Approaches @Wolkowitz

JTF (just the facts): A group show containing a total of 27 contemporary works by 7 different artists from the Helsinki School, hung in the entry, hallway, and back gallery spaces. (Installation shots at right.)

The following photographers have been included in the show; the number of images on view and their details are as follows:

• Joonas Alhava: 4 c-prints, Diasec mounted, all from 2006, either 74x59 or 49x40, all in editions of 5.
• Hannu Karjalainen: 3: c-prints, Diasec mounted, all from 2009, each 59x47, in editions of 5.
• Pertti Kekarainen: 2 c-prints, Diasec mounted, from 2004 and 2008, 77x49 and 77x71 respectively, both in editions of 5.
• Ola Kolehmainen: 2 c-prints, Diasec mounted, from 2006 and 2009, both roughly 80x105, in editions of 6.
• Anni Leppälä: 13 c-prints on aluminum, made between 2007 and 2010, in various sizes ranging from 8x11 to 43x32 (hung as a group salon style), all in editions of 7.
• Niko Luoma: 1 c-print, Diasec mounted, made in 2009, 67x55, in an edition of 5.
• Susanna Majuri: 2 c-prints, Diasec mounted, made in 2009, each 35x53, in editions of 5.

Comments/Context: In the past few years, I've read quite a bit about the high quality contemporary photographers coming out of the Helsinki School in Finland, but until this show (and its siblings at the Armory and AIPAD), there hasn't been any real opportunity to see the work in person in New York, at least in any significant quantity.

While it is perhaps foolish to attempt to draw sweeping conclusions from such a small sample of photographers, my takeaway is that the Helsinki School has absorbed many of the important lessons from Düsseldorf (large prints with glossy Diasec mounting, leading to a tangible "art" object quality on the wall, rather than the trappings of "old" photography), and applied them in a style less rooted in rigorous documentation, but altogether more loosely conceptual in nature. To the extent there are people or buildings in these images, they have been placed there with precision and premeditation; there are no "decisive moments" or chance events happening here. Each project is built on a foundation of challenging ideas: careful and tightly controlled explorations of photography and its relationship to perception, space, light, storytelling, and memory.

I particularly enjoyed Niko Luoma's image from his series Symmetrium, with its dense intersecting plaid of red and green lines, as once again (see the discussion of Thomas Ruff's recent show here), we are seeing a photographer using mathematical systems to consider the non-traditional boundaries of composition. And while I have written about Ola Kolehmainen's architectural images before (here), I think I saw and understood them more clearly in person; his work seems to be evolving away from crisp documentation of patterns toward something more minimal and obscure, using blurs and color to create more amorphous abstractions.

In truth, I found something of interest in all the bodies of work on display, from Joonas Ahlava's silhouettes to Pertti Kekarainen's spotted spaces, and from Hannu Karjarlainen's people covered in rubbery paint to Anni Leppälä's fragments of childhood memories and Susanna Majuri's ambiguous narratives. We see so much of a certain kind of American contemporary photography on display in this city (particularly narrative and emotive portraiture) that I think this work from the Helsinki School feels surprisingly fresh and different, with a bit more European (or Scandinavian) distance and intellectualism. As a sampler of photography with an alternate point of view, it's a terrific palate cleanser.

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

• Joonas Ahlava: $10000 for the smaller print, $19000 for the larger ones
• Hannu Karjalainen: $12500 or $13500
• Pertti Kekarainen: $14000 or $18000
• Ola Kolehmainen: $25000 or $31000
• Anni Leppälä: a range from $3000 to $6500
• Niko Luoma: $14000
• Susanna Majuri: $9500 each

While a few of Ola Kolehmainen's prints have begun to trickle into the secondary markets, for the most part, the work of these artists is not yet consistently available at auction, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors in the short term.

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

Transit Hub:

• Helsinki School (here) and TaiK (here)
• Helsinki School books by Hatje Cantz (here)

The only artist sites I could find were (add the others in the comments as appropriate):

• Anni Leppälä artist site (here)
• Niko Luoma artist site (here)

The Helsinki School - Seven Approaches
Through April 3rd

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
505 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Speed & Chaos: Into the Future of Asian Art @Wolkowitz

JTF (just the facts): A group show of a total of 18 works from 7 different artists, in a variety of mediums, hung in the entry, hallway, and back gallery spaces. (Installation shots at right.)

The following artists are included in the show, with details of the works on display to follow:

• Hu Jieming: 1 c-print, 50x84, in an edition of 5, from 2007/2009
• Hsin-Chien Huang: 3 lightboxes filled with printed acetates, in editions of 5, from 2007, and 1 interactive computer simulation, in an edition of 5, from 2009
• Miao Xiaochun: 1 3D computer animation, in an edition of 5, from 2007
• Noh, Sang-Kyoon: 1 large sculpture, from 2008, and 6 sequin covered records with original jackets in glass cases, from 2009
• Junebum Park: 2 color videos (silent), in editions of 5, from 2008
• Wang Qingsong: 1 DVD, in an edition of 8, from 2008
• Xu Changchang: 2 c-prints mounted to aluminum; 1 is 59x44 in an edition of 10, the other is 96x40 in an edition of 5; both are from 2008

Comments/Context: As a general rule, I think that non-Japanese Asian photography (particularly work from China, Taiwan, Korea and India) is consistently underrepresented in the swirl of art in New York, so I'm always on the look out for shows that include exciting examples of contemporary imagery from these locales. This group show gathers works from a variety of media, with several video and computer generated displays and a few digital photographs. While the technologies may be cutting edge, the underlying ideas and themes being explored will be familiar: the impacts and effects of rapid expansion, globalization, and consumerism, and the clash of old and new ways (including the place of religion).

I have run across the photography of Xu Changchang previously, but the works in this show have a new twist. In earlier works, Xu took a physical photograph (often of an appropriated artwork), crumpled it up and rephotographed the result, complete with all the detailed wrinkles and tiny points of glare from the flash. The works on display in this exhibit start with the same type of image (in this case, pictures of an island sunset and the aftermath of a tsunami), but they are now punctured by bullet holes and rephotographed; the holes are therefore not actual holes but a photograph of a photograph full of holes. I found this layering of appropriation and the multiple levels of physicality in the works conceptually intriguing.

Hu Jieming's moonscape image, complete with a tiny latticework of futuristic settlements, is like something from the cover of a science fiction novel. From afar, it looks like 1960s era NASA footage; up close, the geometric roadways and buildings blanket the crater pocked rock; the effect is unsettling, with a heavy dose of impending doom. As such, it does a successful job of asking questions about the perils of never-ending expansion, without grounding them in the now obvious specifics of contemporary China.

Two artists perhaps best known to collectors for their photography have contributed videos to this exhibit:

• Wang Qingsong's photographs have often considered the effects of consumerism on traditional Chinese culture. In this video work, Wang has taken hundreds of still frames of the construction of a yet another skyscraper in suburban Beijing and tied them together, into a fast forward, flip book style view of the building growing into the sky. As the days pass, the scaffolding rises, becoming the tallest structure for miles around; the completion of the tower is celebrated by nighttime fireworks, a thoroughly hollow and ironic endpoint.


• Miao Xiaochun's photographs have often been built from appropriations of famous paintings. In this video, Miao reimagines Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling (including the creation of Man) using clusters of computer generated mannequins floating in space, surrounded by bubbles or transformed into drifting bones.

And while it isn't exactly photography, take a moment to stand in front of Hsin-Chien Huang's interactive display: as you move your arms and body around, large buildings made up of tiny image fragments are quickly built up and taken down, the transience of the region's construction boom effectively skewered.

All in, the title of this show is surprisingly apt: things are changing fast in this slice of the art world, new technologies and ideas are rapidly being incorporated and exploited, and the overall effect is one of cacophony and chaos; I for one could use an updated photography roadmap for the region. While some of the underlying themes are consistent, it's clear that we need to see this art/photography in New York much more often if we ever hope to make sense of it all.

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

• Hu Jieming: The photograph is $9000.
• Hsin-Chien Huang: The 3 lightboxes are $15000 each; the interactive display is $18000.
• Miao Xiaochun: The video is $20000.
• Noh, Sang-Kyoon: The large blue Buddha sculpture is price on request. The sequined records are $5000 each.
• Junebum Park: The two videos are $7750 and $12400.
• Wang Qingsong: The video is $15000.
• Xu Changchang: The 2 photographs are $8000 and $10000, based on size.

There is little or no auction history in the photography market for most of these artists, so discerning any kind of real price pattern is tricky. While several photographs by Wang Qingsong and Miao Xiaochun have come up for sale in recent years, their works on display here are both videos, and therefore may not be meaningfully representative of or related to their overall bodies of photographic work.

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

Transit Hub:

• Miao Xiaochun interviews/press (here)

Speed & Chaos: Into the Future of Asian Art
Through February 17th

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
505 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10001

Bruce Davidson, Five Decades @Wolkowitz

JTF (just the facts): A total of 44 photographs, framed in white and matted, and hung in the front room, the hallway, and the larger back gallery. (Marginal installation shots at right.) The show is divided into six separate bodies of work. Except for the images from Subway, all of the prints are modern prints, many significantly enlarged from the original size:

Circus: gelatin silver prints, 1958/modern
2 images, each 16x20
3 images, each 30x40, in editions of 15

Brooklyn Gang: gelatin silver prints, 1959/modern
3 images, each 16x20
1 image, 20x24
3 images, each 30x40, in editions of 15

Time of Change: gelatin silver prints, 1961/modern
5 images, each 11x14
2 images, each 16x20
1 image, 20x24
1 image, 30x40, in an edition of 15

LA: gelatin silver prints, 1964/modern
2 images, each 16x20
6 images, each 30x40, in editions of 15

East 100th Street: gelatin silver prints, 1966-68/modern
3 images, each 11x14
2 images, each 16x20
1 image, 20x24
1 image, 30x40, in an edition of 15

Subway: 1980s dye transfers
8 images, hung in a grid, each 20x24, in editions of 10

Comments/Context: In addition to the East 100th Street MoMA show recreation at Greenberg and the massive, three-volume catalog from Steidl (both linked below), Bruce Davidson also has a mini-retrospective show on view at Bryce Wolkowitz. For those, like ourselves, who aren't as deeply familiar with all of Davidson's projects over the years, this exhibit is an effective way to see the whole span of his artistic career. It gathers a group of images from each of his major series, selecting both iconic images and lesser known works, providing a sampler of his overall output across the decades.

Prior to this show, I have to admit that my shorthand summary for Davidson has always been "East 100th Street and other documentary work". What I think this exhibit did for me was to connect the dots a bit better on his other projects. While I certainly recognized the circus dwarfs, Freedom Riders (especially the boy with VOTE painted on his forehead), Brooklyn gang members (particularly the stick ball game in the street), and the fragmented color shots from the subway, this show helped to put them into a larger and broader context, seeing connections between the disparate threads. In contrast, Davidson's images from 1960's Los Angeles were completely new to me, and in many ways, I found them the most striking and exciting; I liked their dry, ironic humor - posing at muscle beach, the view out an airplane window, a man at a drive-through, parked cars densely packed at the beach, the back of the Hollywood sign. Coming out of the show, I'd like to think that my understanding of Davidson's work is much more comprehensive, and East 100th Street stands out a bit less in my personal rating of his various projects.

As an aside, in my opinion, the large 30x40 prints of the older negatives aren't hugely successful and are a bit distracting as result. In many cases, the prints are extremely grainy (several of the Circus images in particular); they just can't support the enlargement being asked of them. In other cases, I think the intimacy and subtlety of the works are somewhat compromised when the pictures are so big. Only the Los Angeles images seemed to be effective at the larger size, as they depict more outsized craziness.

That said, this is an impressive show of Davidson's long career, with many standout images that deserve to be remembered.

Collector's POV: All of the modern gelatin silver prints are priced on the same scale: 11x14 at $4000, 16x20 at $5000, 20x24 at $8000, and 30x40 at $15000, regardless of which project the negative came from. The dye transfers range between $6500 and 9500. As I mentioned in our Greenberg review, Davidson's work has been thinly traded in the secondary markets in the past few years, with very few of his best vintage images coming up for sale; with that caveat, the recent price range of $2000 to $8000 at auction may or may not be particularly relevant when considering the appropriate prices for his work.

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

Transit Hub:

• DLK COLLECTION review of Greenberg show (here)
• Journey of Consciousness, three volume set (here)
• Interview: Kojo Nnamdi Show, 2006 (here)

Bruce Davidson, Five Decades
Through December 19th

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
505 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Book: Ola Kolehmainen, Fraction Abstraction Recreation

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2007 by Hatje Cantz. 108 pages, with 61 color images. Includes texts and essays by Martina Fuchs, Mark Gisbourne, and Timothy Persons. (Cover shot at right.)

Comments/Context: In the past few years, Scandinavian photography, and particularly that of the students of the so-called "Helsinki School" in Finland, have been getting some much deserved attention. Ola Kolehmainen is one such graduate of the University of Art and Design in Helsinki (TaiK) and has brought an unexpected Minimalist aesthetic to contemporary architectural photography.

Using the structured facades of contemporary buildings as raw material, Kolehmainen makes fragmented images of these grids and lattices (cropping out the sky and other environmental clues), capturing not only the strict geometrical order of the designs, but also the unexpected reflections and distortions that result from the use of mirrored glass surfaces. Clouds, trees, and nearby buildings all interact with abstract patterns to create compositions that juxtapose natural forms and hard edges. Both light and color also interact with these surfaces; think of them as additional tools the artist has to amplify or mute the serial variations.

There are plenty of direct and indirect echoes of artists like James Turrell, Robert Irwin, and Donald Judd in this body of work, but Kolehmainen is of course working in the two dimensions of photography, which imposes altogether different constraints. I think the best of these works fully abstract the subject matter into forms that are unrecognizable as documents of buildings; luscious patterns and eye catching colors, carefully controlled, pared down to something essential.

Collector's POV: Ola Kolehmainen is represented in New York by Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery (here) and in London by Purdy Hicks Gallery (here). Kolehmainen's works have only become available in the secondary markets in the past year or two, so no pricing pattern is yet discernible. For our particular collection, we again run into the issue of works that are too large; otherwise, these images would fit well with our other city/industrial pictures.

Transit Hub:

• A Building is not a Building, 2009 @Kiasma (here)
• A Building is not a Building, 2009 @National Museum of Photography, Denmark (here)
• Helsinki School (here)