Jimmy DeSana: Party Picks @Salon 94 Bowery

JTF (just the facts): A total of 22 black and white and color photographs, framed in white and matted/unmated, and hung in the main space downstairs and the smaller entry gallery upstairs. 7 of the works are gelatin silver prints, made between 1978 and 1983. These prints range in size from roughly 19x15 to 26x20 (or reverse). The 15 color works are all c-prints, made between 1977 and 1987. These prints range in size from roughly 23x18 to 50x34 (or reverse). No edition information was provided on the checklist. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Salon 94 has recently taken on the estate of Jimmy DeSana, and this show provides a useful introductory sampler of his work, from color saturated portraits of artists and musicians from the 1970s/1980s downtown scene (Kenneth Anger, Laurie Anderson et al) to more conceptual concoctions of nude bodies and everyday objects. His photographs are clearly drawn from a particular time and place, where punk attitude, gay culture, and a rejection of artistic boundaries came together in a unique underground aesthetic.

While the bright, sunglassed smile of Debby Harry that opens the show is enduringly fresh and young, DeSana's tone quickly turns quite a bit darker and more combative. Most of the photographs on view are staged nudes, where the body in question has become an object, alternately cocooned in gauze, wrapped in masking tape, and striped by lines of toothpaste. While S&M hoods, bondage ropes, and plier-pulled nipples make fleeting appearances, his best works upend our conventional notion of the nude and tilt the balance toward the puzzlingly surreal. Cocktail toothpicks with frilly tips poke out from a man's anguished mouth, each one lodged into the gaps between his teeth, while small orange parking cones are used as unlikely shoes for another nude, the figure perilously perching on the plastic tips against a background of astroturf. Acidic color bathes most of the images, a rainbow of gel filter pinks, blues, greens, and yellows blasting down like the glow of creepy nighttime neon; it's exactly the kind of light we wouldn't expect, and it soaks the images in ominous mystery. Faceless bodies act out incomprehensible scenes in anonymous homes and apartments, from the balletic grace of a nude with cowboy boots on every limb, to the back and forth bathtub tussle of one sweater worn by two people (both heads obscured by motorcycle helmets); the face down nude floating in a pool decorated by hopelessly happy beach balls and the man in disturbingly misshapen and oversized pants complete the cycle of quiet transgression.

While there are obvious time period and subject matter overlaps with some of Robert Mapplethorpe's 1970s work here, DeSana's vision was decidedly less classical. There are loose connections in DeSana's work to both the witty subversiveness of some of the conceptual photography of the same time (Nauman, Oppenheim, Bochner, Wegman et al), as well as to the body as a surface for art making of the Viennese Actionists who came slightly before. In nearly every case, DeSana's objectified nudes are struggling with their associated props: pushed into awkward situations, fighting their confinement, and upending our expectations.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows. The black and white prints range in price from $15000 to $30000, while the color prints start at $8000 and run up to $38000. DeSana's work has very little auction history, with only a handful of lots coming to market in the past decade or so. As such, gallery retail is likely the only option for those collectors interested in following up.

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

Transit Hub:

• Features/Reviews: TimeOut New York (here)

Jimmy DeSana, Party Picks
Through August 9th

Salon 94
Salon 94 Bowery
243 Bowery
New York, NY 10002

David Benjamin Sherry, Astral Desert @Salon 94 Bowery and Freemans

JTF (just the facts): A two-part show, split between the Bowery and Freemans Alley gallery spaces. The Bowery show consists of 13 large scale color photographs, framed in white and unmatted; a few are hiding in back offices. All of the works are chromogenic prints from 2012, sized either 30x40 (in editions of 3), 48x58 (in editions of 2) or 60x72 (in editions of 1). The Freemans show consists of 15 unique works (framed in white and unmatted): 7 chromogenic photograms and 8 chromogenic prints covered in adhesive, sand and colored pigment. The photograms are each sized 30x40, while the sand images are sized either 20x24, 40x50, 48x58, or 60x72 (or reverse). All of these works are also from 2012. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: David Benjamin Sherry's use of vibrant, electric color is much more than a simple love affair with oversaturation. His monochrome images jump off the wall in a rainbow of Easter egg hues, as though they were recently dipped in pure bowls of food coloring, taking on uniform tints of plum and tangerine, ice blue and mint. His palette is strikingly bold, almost overpowering in its sunny, jelly bean brightness.

In the Bowery space, Sherry has applied this audacious color to tightly cropped, skyless images of American desert dirt and rock formations, turning jumbles of stones, gully washes and smooth erosions into otherworldly landscapes in crimson and acidic lime green. Craggy patterns of swirls and lines, pits and deformations become almost abstract when swimming in such unexpected incandescent color. Each one is like a scene from some dusty uninhabited planet, lit by some strange combination of nearby stars.

In the Freemans space, Sherry mutes the eye-popping color by applying a layer of fine sand to the surface of the photographs, making the lumpy rock formations more delicate and tactile. His tints move closer to pastels, and in some cases, the sand obscures the detail in the photographs to the point where the works become extremely subtle, striated gradients. This abstraction is taken one step further in a series of colored photograms, where the angles and shapes of the rock walls are used as inspiration for simple layered patterns, once again executed in a spectrum of undiluted radiance.

To my eye, the bolder forms in the Bowery space are the more radical and unusual. I can imagine one of the large colored rock walls punctuating a survey show of photographic landscapes and truly throwing viewers off guard. These works bring something original to the view of the land, while still being tied to historical precedents (imaging hanging a bright purple Sherry rock wall adjacent to a 19th century view of Canyon de Chelly by O'Sullivan). I think I would actually like the photograms better if they were taken out of this desert sand context and allowed to function as stand alone abstractions. In this case, their extreme use of color would separate them from traditional darkroom practices and show off their innovation better.

Color this buoyantly joyful might have a tendency to become too easily decorative, but I think Sherry has found ways to keep the edginess in many of the pictures. Effectively harnessing and applying such powerful color without becoming gimmicky is undeniably a stiff challenge. But Sherry's use of color here is clearly original, and seems likely to lead to further unexpectedly brazen chromatic explorations in the future.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows. The standard chromogenic prints are either $8000 (30x40), $12000 (48x58), or $18000 (60x72). The photograms (30x40) are $12000 each, while the sand covered prints are either $8000 (20x24), $14000 (40x50), $16000 (48x58), or $22000 (60x72). Sherry's work has not yet entered the secondary markets in any significant manner, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

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

• Artist site (here)
• Features/Reviews: Interview (here), ARTINFO (here)

David Benjamin Sherry, Astral Desert

Through June 2nd
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Salon 94
Salon 94 Bowery
243 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
and
Salon 94 Freemans
1 Freemans Alley
New York, NY 10002

Katy Grannan: The Happy Ever After: The Believers and Boulevard Series @Salon 94

JTF (just the facts): A two-part show, split between the gallery spaces at 243 Bowery and 1 Freemans Alley. The Freemans show consists of 28 large scale color photographs, framed in white and unmatted, and hung nearly edge to edge in the single room space. The Bowery show consists of 6 photographs upstairs (framed similarly) and 1 three-channel video (9 minutes long) shown in the main downstairs space. All of the photographs are archival pigment prints on cotton rag paper mounted to Plexiglas, made between 2008 and 2010. The photographs are generally sized 39x29 (in editions of 3), except for one image in the Bowery show which is 26x20 (also in editions of 3). The video was made in 2010, in an edition of 5. A monograph of this body of work is available from the gallery for $45. (Installation shots at right.)
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Comments/Context: It's a pretty tough challenge for a young photographer to wedge herself into the already crowded field of contemporary street portraiture and then durably and defensibly develop an original point of view. In fact, this genre is so strewn with entirely forgettable, derivative photographers that it most resembles a medieval battlefield after a particularly bloody exchange; hardly anyone actually emerges intact with a brand new formula. Katy Grannan's images of the invisible and marginal inhabitants of the sun blasted streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles aren't pictures that deviate widely from those of a handful of recognized masters, and yet, she seems to have found a way to tweak the proportions of the visual ingredients just enough to generate an unusual recipe. A touch less intimate and empathetic than Arbus, a pinch more offhand and less formal than Avedon's In the American West, and quite a bit more theatrical and performative than most street photography or Sander clones, Grannan's photographs capture a melting pot of quirks and eccentricities with a surprising level of cool distance and mystery.

All of Grannan's images have a roughly similar composition: 3/4 pose with an indirect glance, against a whitewashed backdrop in pure sunlight. From there, the details of personalities expand in an infinite number of directions. A man in a silky green and blue shirt shimmies against a wall, while another with a top knot and heavy makeup frowns into the distance. Bushy beards, long wavy hair, black eyes, elaborate tattoos, breathing tubes and wigs tell part of the story, while simple poses and gestures become almost dance-like against the uniform flatness. While these pictures have the trappings of picked from the sidewalk documents, there is something altogether collaborative and choreographed about the final results; there are multiple layers of subtle performance going on, with the subjects creating personalities both for themselves for and the passing camera.

While not every one of these portraits is completely compelling and memorable, I found the overall effect of the many photographs seen together to be evidence of something new. Grannan seems to have synthesized the lessons of her many predecessors and successfully incorporated a more conceptual mindset, generating an approach that is at once personal and removed. It's a tricky line to walk, and several of the images fall a little flat. But when she gets the emotional temperature just right, the photographs have that timeless sizzle that makes me think we will be seeing pictures from this series again and again in the years to come.

  

Collector's POV: The photographs in this show are available in two sizes: the 39x29 images are $11000 each, and the 26x20 images are $9500 each. Grannan's work is just beginning to become available in the secondary markets; recent prices have ranged between $3000 and $10000. Given the small amount of her work available at auction, gallery retail is still the best option for interested collectors at this point. This project was also recently shown at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco (here).

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My favorite image in the show was Anonymous, San Francisco, 2010; it's fourth from the left in the top installation shot. I liked the faded, aspirational glamour of the older woman's swirl of windblown hair, combined with her giraffe print shirt and beaded swan handbag; it's roughly harsh and touching at the same time. I also particularly liked the soft, ironic undertone of Anonymous, Los Angeles, 2009; it's the last image on the right in the third installation shot. In it, a long haired man with a FUCK LAPD tattoo across his chest stands gently holding two small bunnies.
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Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

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Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Reviews: La Lettre de la Photographie (here), Huffington Post (here)
• Interview: Daily Serving (here)

Katy Grannan: The Happy Ever After: The Believers and Boulevard Series
Through April 30th

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Salon 94

Salon 94 Freemans
1 Freemans Alley
New York, NY 10002

Salon 94 Bowery
243 Bowery
New York, NY 10002

Laurie Simmons, The Love Doll: Days 1 through 30 @Salon 94 Bowery

JTF (just the facts): A total of 11 large scale color photographs, framed in white and unmatted, and hung in the upstairs entry and the main gallery downstairs. All of the works are Fuji Matte prints, made in 2010-2011. Physical dimensions range from 70x47 to 70x53 or reverse. All of the images are available in editions of 5. A multi-panel video runs in the window facing the street. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Laurie Simmons' new photographs are her latest step in a logical progression in scale that began on a table top decades ago and has now reached full-sized. With the help of a highly realistic, human-scaled sex doll (actually two), she has evolved away from the sparkling irony and wit of the miniatures, ventriloquist's dolls, objects on legs, and deftly arranged color-coordinated rooms of her earlier projects, moving closer to "reality" than ever before.
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What is altogether surprising about this body of work is how the doll itself seems to have become an emotional collaborator in the pictures, with actual mood swings and personal interactions. When seen in chronological progression, the pictures make it appear like Simmons has recently adopted a daughter or welcomed an exchange student, and the development of the relationship between the two of them can easily be followed. Early pictures in the series have the doll looking wistful and melancholy, lying in bed or lounging pensively in the sun. Soon the doll starts to exert her own rebellious personality, with smudged makeup and a tangled mass of plastic necklaces, or jumping from the edge of high stone wall. The arrival of a second doll introduces a new set of interpersonal dynamics, and the story ends just as the scenes are getting more complex and tense.

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I think it is a mistake to get caught up in the lurid sex doll aspect of this work, or to get distracted by the pathetic-ness that such an object implies. While Simmons has always been a talented director and scene setter, I think there is an entirely different emotional resonance in these new images. By using the sex doll as a prop, her work has been reenvisioned on a human scale, with a corresponding increase in realistic detail. Her own house has become a doll house, where the artfulness of the stage has become less important and the interaction of the actors has come to the forefront. The magic comes when the setting seems to inject the doll with personality and the photographs become portraits; we've moved beyond clever retro dress-up, and are now in some other emotional landscape, complete with a nuanced set of feelings and modern behaviors. If you've seen the movie Lars and the Real Girl, you can see where this line of thinking eventually goes - the doll reflects attributes applied to it by the people around it, miraculously becoming part of the community.

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Stylistically, every single one of the images in this show is masterfully constructed, mixing artifice and reality to generate tenderness and ambiguity. Sure, there is an inherent creepiness to this whole endeavor, but if you can get beyond that initial weirdness (the second doll still in the packing box is the most sad I think), these images offer a more complicated commentary on relationships, roles, and internal emotions than Simmons has ever taken on before. If you're in town for the art fairs this week, this is one show to make a special trip to see.
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Collector's POV: All of the works in this show are priced at $35000 each. Simmons' photographs have become more readily available at auction in recent years. Prices have ranged between $1000 and nearly $100000, with a consistently rising sweet spot between $8000 and $15000.

While I liked many of the images in this show, my favorite was The Love Doll/Day 6 (Winter), 2010; it's on the far right in the top installation shot. I found it particularly engrossing because Simmons has got the "suburban/country young mom at school pick-up" look spot on, right down to the knee high muck boots and the long, form fitting down coat; that "stylish but down to earth" combination is like a winter uniform where we live (although the coat is often brown or black), and Simmons' recreation is pitch perfect. The fact that her subject is a doll makes the realism that much more unnerving.

Rating: *** (three stars) EXCELLENT (rating system described here)

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Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Reviews/Features: New York (here), NY Times T (here), Artnet (here), Wall Street Journal (here)

Laurie Simmons, The Love Doll: Days 1 through 30
Through March 26th

Salon 94 Bowery
243 Bowery
New York, NY 10002