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CATHARINE CLARK - MODERNISM - CALIFORNIA MODERN NEW LANGTON ARTS - MISSION 17 01.20.05 Catharine Clark Gallery: Reuben Lorch-Miller, New Demands; Matt Heckert, Rotification. Comment: Silky smooth is not a phrase generally associated with machinery, especially heavy machinery, but it works well here. Kinetic metal man Matt Heckert has mastered his craft to the point where big bad bars of steel are tamed to innocence, or at least you think so as you admire his movables from a safe distance. The show's liner notes suggest that Heckert's substantial main installation, Rotifiers (yours for $30K), looks like martini glasses, however drink martinis near these babies, risking one loopy move, and it's conk time in cranial-land. In the adjacent room, two delicate sculpture-bots gently parry (or maybe minuet). Reuben Lorch-Miller's purpose blanks my brain and the show's statement ratchets the mental mangle even further. The individual pieces engage aesthetically, particularly a large photograph of 100 trophies, and a tricky video of helicopters hovering endlessly against a clear blue sky backdrop. I occasionally wonder how certain sectors of the art world have rendered themselves so incomprehensible to the general populace. I mean what's the point of leaving the rest of the world out of it? In related news, I also wonder whether the mission of certain art schools has become to teach artists how to confuse people better. "I'm sorry, Joe, but I'm giving you an F on this. I can still understand it." Trophy gaggle, edition of 3, $1600 (Lorch-Miller). Parry pals, $10,000 (Heckert). Sweatshirt art, $1800, edition of 3 (Lorch-Miller). Rotifiers. Rotifiers. Rotifiers. Rotifiers. Rotifiers. Art, $900, editions of 5 (Lorch-Miller). Wall art, $2000 on your wall, edition of 3 (Lorch-Miller). Flag art, $2400, edition of 3 (Lorch-Miller). *** Modernism Gallery: James Hayward, Monochrome Paintings; Konstantin Titov, Recent Paintings. Comment: Modernism is more an essence than a gallery, a sojourn to a realm officiated by art. Tonight, we kowtow to sumptuous super thick beyond impasto James Hayward texture-scapes. Like extravagantly frosted cakes, you wanna smell them, touch them, even take bites, but making physical contact with the art is extremely off limits, says artist Hayward... unless, of course, you buy. Hayward adds that the largest canvases consume some 20 pints of paint; the most expensive colors cost him $180 a pint at the paint shop. He stores his paintings in special containers until they're ready to show, he continues, which explains their pristine dustlessness. I had the subsequent temerity to ask how you dust these hard-to-dusters once they're hung, to which Hayward asked back, "What do you do when straw falls off an Anselm Kiefer? Have the maid glue it?" His cram-it old-skool charm is endearing, and likely enhances the attraction to his art. But how DO you dust them? Konstantin Titov's dreamy elegant surreal erotic fantasies are so precise, I had to zoom in for a micro-look, but still wasn't sure about the technique. So I asked the owner whether they had any digital imaging aspects (or "mixed media" as certain equivocators prefer to call it), and he told me no. "Even the small ones?" I asked. "Even the small ones," he answered. Very thickly painted art (Hayward). Very thickly painted art (Hayward). Artist James Hayward - very thickly painted art. Surreal erotica (Titov). Surreal erotica (Titov). Surreal erotica (Titov). *** California Modern Gallery: Unfashionable. Artists: Various. Comment: California Modern Gallery is a 12,000 square foot sheetrocked cavern of a space on Market St. between 6th and 7th. They offer a variety-pak assortment, mostly contemporary, but also some vintage works. Topping out the current roster are several tidy color-rich multi-square abstracts by Laura Bauer, looking like massed skyscraper windows superimposed. Art (Bauer). Stretched over wire frame art (Bauer). Co-owner Risley Sams (right) - gallery next door neighbor Brian Barneclo (left). Back forty. *** New Langton Arts: Sit uational Prosthet ics. Comment: Another classic cerebellum chow-down for esoteric intellects, theory freaks, and connoisseurs of obscure names and arcane references. Everything has antecedents and/or explanations and/or suggests this and/or that. And yes, I spelled the show's title correctly. They should card you for proof of MFA at the door. Mommy, I want my bottle!! Artists: ARTKARDS (Todd Alden & Steve Ausbury), Hernan Bas, Mike Bouchet, Jenn Cullen, Richard Godfrey, Jane Kaplowitz, Pali Kashi, Kyoko Kawahata, Adam McEwen, Mai-Thu Perret, the Power of Positive Thinking, Mika Rottenberg, Josh Smith, Kelley Walker, Aaron Young. Stretched T-shirt art. Pants pile art. 2 pieces of wood on a pedestal art. Inauguration opination. Knife in an upside down world map art. Truck thingies on a very low pedestal art. *** Mission 17 Gallery: Together We Can Prevent Earthquakes; An Installation by Tucker Nichols. Comment: Tucker Nichols creates an installation about earthquakes, and about "understand(ing) ourselves, the wonder and absurdity of our place in the world, and our relationships to one another." Every little detail means something, and as we all know, assessing and assimilating details takes time. But the show's plea for the requisite level of attention fails to seismically wobble my threshold of care. Big letter art. Wall scratch art. Wall scratch art. Tiny wall scratch art. *** Addendum: Liturgical incident on Clarion Alley. |
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