Michele Abeles, English for Secretaries @47 Canal

JTF (just the facts): A total of 7 black and white and color works (including 1 triptych), framed in white and unmatted, and hung against white walls in the main gallery space. All of the works are archival pigment prints, made in 2013. Sizes for individual prints/panels range from 32x24 to 47x34 (or reverse), and all of the works are available in editions of 5. While the majority of the photographs on view are displayed in a standard manner, one work includes an oil paint drawing on the protective outer glass and another is covered in dark brown plexiglas. (Installation shots at right.)

 

Comments/Context: The works in Michele Abeles' new show pick up right where she left off with her contributions to the New Photography 2012 exhibit at the MoMA (review here). So much so that there are direct visual connections between the recent pieces and those from a year ago - reused image fragments and common motifs (a rose, a palm leaf, a rock, some Japanese text, a Spanish language newspaper, colored tints), sent back through the artistic blender and reborn in new iterations and incarnations.  It's as if the conversation never actually stopped - it just continued to shift and morph over time, reprising some old themes/ideas and adding in plenty of new ones.

 

Abeles has said that her works consider how we view imagery on computer screens, and it's clear that her crowded, overlapped compositions imply a sense of interrupt-driven, tangent-following distraction. Her juxtapositions swirl and recur, flattened into one continuous plane of imagery that can be peeled back layer by layer. New elements in these works include a while subway tile-like graphic overlay, stenciled letters, transparent bubbles, strands of looping silver chain, gradient color blocks, and the ultimate cliché of the Internet, the kitty picture. These images and effects stutter and repeat in mash-ups that seem like snapshots in fluid, screen-mediated, image-saturated time.

 

Abeles has also introduced two new effects in this recent body of work. One of her compositions is covered in almost opaque dark brown plexigas, making it hard to decipher the images underneath. At first, I found this annoying illegible, but after a moment or two, I found the frustration to be quite thoughtful, as though someone had turned the volume down on my image feed and I was being forced to strain (i.e pay closer attention) to hear it. Another work brings the hand of the artist back to the center of focus, overlaying a hand painted female figure on top of a chaotic juxtaposed concoction. This introduces a jarring contrast of tactile, gestural imperfection to the slick, computer-filtered environment, opening up an avenue for bringing personal, physical intervention back into her mix.

 

In a few cases, I found the ideas Abeles is wrestling with more compelling than their end results, but it's clear that she's exploring some new territory here, trying to come to terms with the compressing weight of imagery around us and how is it affecting the ways in which we process those inputs. Her work feels something like an opportunistic Internet organism, ever adapting, mutating and recombining.

 

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows. The individual prints were priced at $4500 or $5300, while the triptych was $15000. I use the past tense in this case, as I was told that there was nothing available at this point. Abeles' photographs have not yet reached the secondary markets, so gallery retail remains the best/only option for those collectors interested in following up.

 

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

 

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• MoMA New Photography 2012 (here)

 

Michele Abeles, English for Secretaries

Through May 19th

  

47 Canal

47 Canal Street

New York, NY 10002

Photography in the 2013 Independent

This was my first visit to the Independent art fair (it's been up and running for four years now, so I'm a little late to the party), and I came away generally impressed with the quality of what I saw. In contrast to the normal, seemingly endless warren of white cube booths in a fair, the Independent is more free form, with 49 galleries shoehorned into angled spaces and spread across three floors. This design is mostly a blessing, as it makes the whole fair flow better; the one downside is that I often had the feeling of being not quite sure whose space I was in, especially in the higher traffic zones. Photography-wise, the show tended toward smartly conceptual work rather than big name churn and burn merch.

The booths/galleries are arranged below by my winding path through the fair, roughly moving up and through the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors of the building starting at the bottom. 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.

Murray Guy (here): An-My Lê (9). This booth contained a well-chosen mix of Lê's older and newer work. This image of long sticks with toy airplanes attached to the ends was particularly elegant ($5000).

Maureen Paley (here): Anne Hardy (1), Wolfgang Tillmans (2), James Welling (1). I never seem to tire of Wolfgang Tillmans abstractions ($16000).

Galerie Jocelyn Wolff (here): Prinz Gholam (6). This artist duo has recreated poses from classical paintings; they're gracefully reverential and entirely modern at the same time (2200€ each).

The Modern Institute (here): Michael Wilkinson (4)

Office Baroque (here): Leigh Ledare (2), Michel Auder (1 video)

Galerie Meyer Kainer (here): Lucie Stahl (6). The process here is worth understanding: collaged found images/photographs glued onto a trash can, the can then held above a scanner, the entire image then printed and covered with thick transparent resin (7500€ each).

Andrew Kreps Gallery (here): Annette Kelm (4, 1 triptych). A simple, conceptual still life of iterations of folded bandanas, executed crispy and cleanly (8500€ each).

Real Fine Arts (here): Heji Shin (3)

Richard Telles Fine Art (here): Dan Finsel (2)

Galerie Christian Nagel (here): Clegg & Guttman (2)

White Columns (here): Michele Abeles (1), Marc Hundley (1), Type 42 Anonymous (1). Look at all those red dots! This black and white Abeles image in an edition of 50 was sold out by the time I arrived ($150). No wonder; it's wonderfully dense and interlocked.

Herald Street (here): Josh Brand (2). These recent images by Brand have become increasingly hard to parse. Fragments of imagery and improvisational darkroom processes meld together in moody, textural abstraction ($4000).

Printed Matter (here): Erica Baum (2). Baum is represented by Bureau (here), but these two prints were on a Printed Matter wall, as part of a fund raiser I believe. The scalloped gradation of newspaper edges was richly tactile ($2500).

Galerie Susanne Zander (here): Thomas Glendenning Hamilton (5)

Jack Hanely Gallery (here): Jessica Rath (3)

Galerija Gregor Podnar (here): Alexander Gutke (3, 1 slideshow of 81 images). I thought this was a very well-executed but quietly straightforward conceptual project. Starting with soft light on a white wall (morning blue or afternoon orange), the image has been rephotographed and layered multiple times, slowly intensifying the color and creating the Albers-like effect ($7800 each).

KOW (here): Tobias Zielony (5). These images were drawn from Zielony's larger project on the lives of young Berlin prostitutes. They're intimate without being exploitative ($8200 or $12000 based on size).

New Photography 2012 @MoMA

JTF (just the facts): A group show of the work of six contemporary photographers (4 individuals and 1 partnership), variously framed and matted, and hung in a divided two room gallery on the 3rd floor. The exhibit was curated by Eva Respini. (Installation shots at right.)

 

The following photographers have been included in the show, with the number of works on view and image details in parentheses:

• Michele Abeles: (9 pigmented inkjet prints, framed in white and unmatted, from 2009-2012)
• Birdhead (Ji Weiyu and Song Tao): (1 group of 71 gelatin silver prints, tacked directly to the wall in a grid, overlaid with 8 additional photographs set in mahogany frames, from 2012)
• Anne Collier: (4 chromogenic color prints, framed in white and unmatted, from 2009-2012)
• Zoe Crosher: (1 group of 11 chromogenic color prints (including 1 set of 15 images mounted together), mostly framed in white with no mat (two are mounted and unframed), from 2012)
• Shirana Shahbazi: (4 chromogenic prints, 3 gelatin silver prints, and 1 wallpaper lithograph with applied pigment, framed in white/black and unmatted, from 2011-2012)

Comments/Context: This year's annual roundup of new photography at the MoMA follows in the footsteps of its predecessor and opts for inclusive diversity as its overriding theme. Given the explosion of image making triggered by the digital revolution and coupled with the loosening definitions and boundaries of the medium, this would seem like a safe and prudent choice. But with today's backdrop of tumultuous innovation and risk-taking experimentation, I have to say I was surprised at how dull and expected this show is. It covers bases and samples styles (especially those with a conceptual bent), but ultimately fails to get out to the edges and bring back something fresh and brilliant.

 

In my view, the overwhelming standout in this show is Michele Abeles. What's exciting about her work is that it both collapses several discrete genres (nude, still life, studio staging) and throws the results into the digital mixer, flattening out the space and cutting it into misaligned strips and layers. Odd juxtapositions of male bodies, plywood, printed fabrics, potted plants, wine bottles, engineering drawings, and colored filters lead to puzzlingly complex groupings, which are then further upended by digital stitching and rework, creating woven plaids and jittering lines of image fragments. I like the clash of ideas in these pictures, as well as the smart integration of digital wizardry; the photographs feel like the beginnings of something truly original and invigorating.

 

The other four bodies of work are all accomplished, of course, but don't really offer wildly compelling or particularly new paths forward. Anne Collier sharply recontextualizes printed ephemera (album covers, magazine ads, a MoMA event calendar with a Weston nude), forcing the viewer to reconsider embedded stereotypes and biases. Zoe Crosher immerses herself in the appropriated archive of a 1970s woman, rephotographing and altering her subject's Mae West poses and fantasy lives in a Cindy Sherman-esque study of identity. Birdhead furiously snaps offhand black and white images of the vitality of everyday Shanghai, finding the energy of self-centered youth in a city of bridges, TV towers, and palm trees. And Shirana Shahbazi pairs commercial-style abstractions in bold color with the parallel visual motifs of a jagged mountain or a diver in flight.

 

So while this show certainly covers many of the key themes in today's photographic dialogue (it's all appropriately "on trend"), the overall feeling of the exhibit is more like a checklist of the topics we're supposed to be discussing rather than a discovery or championing of groundbreaking ideas. As we might expect, there's China, and appropriation, and archives, and digital manipulation, and image proliferation, and commercial approaches, and crossing medium boundaries, but aside from the impressive chaos of Michele Abeles, much of the output is less than memorable.

 

Collector's POV: Given this is a museum show, there are of course no posted prices. The photographers in the exhibit are represented by the following galleries:

• Michele Abeles: 47 Canal (here)
• Birdhead: ShanghART Gallery (here)
• Anne Collier: Anton Kern Gallery (here)
• Zoe Crosher: Perry Rubenstein (here)
• Shirana Shahbazi: Galerie Bob Van Orsouw (here)

None of these artists has any meaningful history in the secondary markets, so gallery retail will likely be the best option for those collectors interested in following up.

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

 

Transit Hub:

• Exhibition site (here)
• Features/Reviews: New Yorker (here), Time LightBox (here), New Yorker PhotoBooth (here), Capital New York (here)
• Michele Abeles artist site (here)
• Zoe Crosher artist site (here)

New Photography 2012

Through February 4th 

 

Museum of Modern Art

11 West 53rd Street

New York, NY 10019

Photography at the 2012 Frieze New York Art Fair, Part 2 of 3

This is Part 2 of my review of the photography at the 2012 Frieze New York Art Fair. Part 1 can be found here, along with some background information on the fair and an explanation of the format I'm using for the the booth by booth details.


Yellow Section

Metro Pictures (here): Cindy Sherman (1 set of 35, 1 diptych), Louise Lawler (2), Olaf Breuning (1)

Regen Projects (here): James Welling (3), Wolfgang Tillmans (1), Gillian Wearing (1), Walead Beshty (1 diptych), Doug Aitken (1). It was hard to miss the eye-catching blast of saturated color in these photograms by Beshty. Priced at $48000 and already sold.

Renwick Gallery (here): Talia Chetrit (8). The Renwick booth was a solo show of Chetrit's recent work, with up-close fragments of textural skin, hair and body parts. This chain and nipple image was priced at $3500.

Marcelle Alix (here): Charlotte Moth (1 set of 8, 1 )

Hollybush Gardens (here): Benoit Maire (2)

Galleria Raffaella Cortese (here): William Jones (5), Marcello Maloberti (2), Roni Horn (6), Yael Baratana (2). The floor of this booth was covered in magazine cut outs of mountain ranges, echoing Maloberti's photograph of the process.

Karma International (here): Carissa Rodriguez (3)

The Third Line (here): Youssef Nabil (2)

Gallery Hyundai (here): Seung-Taek Lee (15)

Johann König (here): Annette Kelm (2)

47 Canal (here): Michele Abeles (6). The 47 Canal booth was a solo show of Abeles' work, with densely layered still lifes/photo collages. They were priced at $3600 each and all sold.

Carlier Gebauer (here): Paul Graham (1 diptych)

Galerie Diana Stigter (here): Nathaniel Mellors (1), Amalia Pica (slide show)

Laura Bartlett Gallery (here): Cyprien Gaillard (5), John Divola (3), Becky Beasley (1 set of 3). I liked the changing definition of space in this hybrid of sculpture and photography by Beasley. It was priced at £11500.

Andrea Rosen Gallery (here): Josephine Meckseper (5), Walker Evans (3), Wolfgang Tillmans (7), Aaron Bobrow (1 diptych, 1). I found Meckseper's assemblages of commercial items, complete with fog, fluorescent lighting, and shiny mannequins and backdrops unexpected and odd. They were priced at $7000 each. And while I have seen them before, I continue to enjoy the big Tillmans abstractions of misty color. This one was priced at $78000.

A Gentil Carioca (here): Thiago Rocha Pitta (3)


Orange Section

The Modern Institute (here): Luke Fowler (2)

Galerie Gisela Capitain (here): Alina Szapocznikow (1 set of 20), Christopher Williams (1 diptych), Zoe Leonard (5), Barbara Bloom (3)

Galerie Guido W. Baudach (here): Rashid Johnson (1), Jurgen Klauke (1)

Marc Foxx (here): Luisa Lambri (3), Anne Collier (1)

Mitchell-Innes & Nash (here): Amanda Ross-Ho (1). This Ross-Ho sculptural wall arrangement follows along from similar work show at MoMA in 2010. It was priced at $40000.

Alfonso Artiaco (here): Gilbert & George (1 set of 9), Vera Lutter (1 diptych), Darren Almond (2)

Galerie Francesca Pia (here): Elad Lassry (3, 1 set of 4)

Galerie Meyer Riegger (here): Helen Mirra (3)

Corvi-Mora (here): Anne Collier (1)

Galerie Krinzinger (here): Frank Thiel (1), Valie Export (1), Gunter Brus (2), Otto Muehl (1), Oleg Kulik (2), Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy (1), Thomas Zipp (1), Rudolf Schwartzkoger (1 set of 7), Marina Abramovic (1 set of 3), Vito Acconci (1). This large peeling paint image by Thiel is a recent addition to his Stadt series; it was priced at $34000.

Xavier Hufkens (here): Robert Mapplethorpe (4)

Galerie Praz-Delavallade (here): Amalia Saban (1)

Kerlin Gallery (here): Willie Doherty (2)

Richard Telles (here): Dan Finsel (1 diptych), Josephine Pryde (1)

Vermelho (here): Claudia Andujar (3), Rosangela Renno (1), Odires Mlaszho (2 collages)

Sean Kelly Gallery (here): Frank Thiel (1), Alec Soth (2), James Casebere (1), Robert Mapplethorpe (2), Iran do Espirito Santo (1), Yves Klein (1)
Galerie Chantal Crousel (here): Wolfgang Tillmans (2), Jean-Luc Moulene (3)

Salon 94 (here): Liz Cohen (1 set of 150, 1 diptych), David Benjamin Sherry (7), Carlo Mollino (39 Polaroids), Lorna Simpson (19 collages). While still life images of tools have been done before many times, I liked both the choice of smaller individual scale and the wall-filling volume of this typology; it was priced at $72000.

Sommer Contemporary Art (here): Yael Bartana (3), Gregor Hildebrandt (3)

Experimenter (here): Bani Abidi (1 installation). While the content and message of this piece were of less interest to me, I was intrigued by the agglomeration of photographic layers, of the pictures of pictures (in various sizes) then stacked and placed in spatial relationship to each other in a single collection.

Cheim & Read (here): William Eggleston (2), Jack Pierson (1)

Part 3 is here.