Nick Paparone – Accents for the Self-Made Man

Nick Paparone at Fleisher-Ollman. Lamps made from a stack of molded pineapple shapes

It’s not clear what the underpinnings of Nick Paparone’s works are. Nick, is, of course himself a CEO of a corporation, as the press material points out. But whatever this swanky parody of a furniture showroom has to do with — Ikea, Walmart or any of a number of global corporations — Paparone’s blue light specials (and red and yellow and green) are marvelous design statements, and you should get over there for a look before they leave.

Nick Paparone at Fleisher-Ollman.

The rugs are real rugs, printed digitally, that would fit your living room or family room, and the color-coordinated pineapple accent lamps would look excellent anywhere.  Prices affordable for what they are — not mass-produced products although they may well have been made (the rugs at least, and the wall hangings) in China.  I must bring up Amway here although I hate to give that corporation any ink.  Paparone has been doing PowerPoint presentations throughout the show’s run, and I am struck by how close his idea of the tight product line coupled with the, presumably, hard sell in the PPT lectures, mirrors the way that cult-like corporation works its sales.

Nick Paparone, set up for his PowerPoint lectures at Fleisher-Ollman gallery

Paparone, as you know if you’ve been reading artblog over the years, is one of our favorites. An enfant terrible not so enfant anymore, he co-produces Print Liberation and was a founding member of the late-lamented Black Floor and Copy galleries. Nick, post-grad school at Columbia, is based in New York now and yet he maintains ties to Philly via his internet business and his performance band, Personal Pain, a three-person band with Dave Dunn and Jamie Dillon.  See his website for more goings on. One part of the exhibit that colors it all is a manic and mesmerizing video of cars being crash-tested. See a clip online here.  The sound from the video colors the show as much as the lamps color the individual rugs and wall works.  The video’s aggressive sounds and imagery are tantamount to the corporate assaults we live under every day from advertising and corporate news.

Dan Murphy – Certain Things

Dan Murphy, Certain Things, at Fleisher-Ollman

In the gallery’s front space, small, intimate and perfect for this assemblage and collage work, is Dan Murphy’s Certain Things. The co-founder of Megawords is a vitrine and shrine expert.  His collections of street memorabilia and stuff from the bicycler-recycler-people-power world are sweet, earnest and great to get close to.   Note the pineapple salute on top of this shrine. Right now, Murphy and his collaborator, Anthony Smyrski, are involved in a Creative Time project in New York.  More on that at their website.

Dan Murphy, detail of shrine

Nick Paparone’s Accents for a Self-Made Man; Dan Murphy’s Certain Things are at Fleisher-Ollman Gallery through Sat. Oct. 15. Hours Friday, 10:30am-5:30pm.  Saturday, noon-5pm.

Warren Angle died Friday
We are sad to bring you the news that Warren Angle passed away on Friday, September 9 after a long battle with cancer. Angle, an artist, was the exhibitions director of the Fleisher Art Memorial for many years. He will certainly be missed by many.  There’s a Facebook page set up as a memorial for Warren.

John Vick is juror for New Wilmington Art Association show

Kim Faler, "Slack Tide", 2011, latex paint, paper, wood, clothing and bananas, dimensions variable. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Former artblog writer and co-founder of Art Workers Resource Group John Vick was the juror for the New Wilmington Art Association‘s current show RSVP 2011. The exhibit showcases 20 artists in a variety of mediums and runs from First Friday, September 9 to October 20.

Print Center hosts lecture by Wooster Collective founders
There is a lot going on these days at The Print Center. Of particular interest is the upcoming lecture by NYC’s Wooster Collective co-founders Marc and Sara Schiller. The topic of the lecture is the complex and controversial relationship between street art and graphic design/marketing. The free lecture takes place on October 14 at 6 PM.

Temple presents 9/11 Moments of Silence
Throughout September the Temple Gallery will be filled with recorded moments of silence from public and private events in commemoration of September 11, 2001. Gathered from newsreels, libraries, and the internet, these moments express a nation’s quiet remembrance and solidarity.

CofFREE Mondays at Temple
The Temple Gallery is also holding CofFREE Mondays starting September 12. Stop by the gallery from 7:45 – 9:45 AM for free coffee and the lowdown on cultural events at the university and around the city. Special guest lectures will also be on the agenda from time to time.

Opposites Attract at UArts

The Blind Tongue by James Fuhrman and Mark Warhol.

Starting September 6 as part of the Philadelphia Sculptor’s exhibit Opposites Attract: Collaborative Installations at University of the Arts, sculptor James Fuhrman and composer Mark Warhol present “The Blind Tongue”, a sculptural installation with video projections of an opera performance. The exhibition will be on display through October 13.

New online publication Hidden City Daily launches

Hidden City Daily, a new Philadelphia arts and culture publication affiliated with Thadeus Squire’s Hidden City project, has just gotten underway. They have a lot of picture-rich coverage of arts and culture and info on some of the more off-the-beaten-track locales around the city. One of the co-editors, Nathaniel Popkin, says the Hidden City Daily is geared up to be a hub of informed, reflective and innovative thinking about the city. It will be very interesting to see how Hidden City progresses in the near future.

Michael Rees lecture at Haverford College
Artist Michael Rees will hold a lecture on September 26 from 4:30 – 6 PM at Haverford College. Rees operates at the intersection of biology, art, and 3D rendering and will be hosting a workshop earlier in the day. If you have an interest in 3D art, sculpture, or contemporary art, this is definitely worth checking out!

Madelyn Roehrig Conversations with Andy

Madelyn Roehrig, Conversations with Andy.

For the past two years friend of Libby and Roberta’s, Madelyn Roehrig, has been videotaping individuals visiting the tombstone of Andy Warhol. Her project will be part of Pittsburgh’s Biennial at the Warhol Museum opening Sept-17 and running to Jan 8, 2012.  Also in the show are photos by LaToya Ruby Frazier and work by Dara Birnbaum. So far Roehrig has taped over 200 individuals with a range of insights and whimsical observations. Follow her project “Figments: Conversations with Andy” on its Facebook page.

Sprint 3D video
It may be a commercial for a phone company, but it’s also pretty fantastical! Check out Sprint’s recent 3D “flash art” video (or in 2D) in which park goers get accosted by  swarms of massive bubbles.

Met finds its funny bone

The Head Ache, a print after George Cruikshank by Enrique Chagoya.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be display works of humor, satire, and caricature in its newest show Infinite Jest. Works range from the Italian Renaissance to present day and offer a wide spectrum of satirical and comical work. The exhibition starts on September 13 and runs until March, so you have plenty of time to catch a few laughs.  One of the featured works is Enrique Chagoya’s “The Head Ache,” a print made when the artist was in residence at the Rosenbach Museum and Library.

Freeman’s Auctioneers record sale
Freeman’s Auctioneers had a record sale of a Chinese imperial-style double dragon white jade seal for $3.5 million. This creates a record for the highest-selling single lot and most successful sale of the company.

Opportunities

There’s an opportunities page set up on the Bartol Foundation website announcing teaching opportunities available to teaching artists. A few groups are seeking requests for proposals and teachers. Check out the details here.

Artist News

Gabe Martinez, "Lemon", 2011, archival inkjet print, 30 x 30 inches (76 x 76 cm

Pew Fellow and UPenn factulty member Gabe Martinez has a show dealing with gay male sexual identity at Samsøn in Boston from September 9 – October 15.

Huston Ripley, "Untitled", 2008, # 8XL1: Ink on Japanese paper: 25" x 19"

Huston Ripley will be displaying drawings at the Adam Baumgold Gallery in New York from September 8 – October 8.

In July, the Woodmere Museum acquired one of Doug Witmer‘s 2008 paintings “How Soon is Too Soon?” for their permanent collection.

Three former Philadelphia area artists – Jesse Greenberg, Nick Paparone, and Walter Benjamin Smith – will have work at the Socrates Sculpture Park on Long Island. Paparone’s solo show also opened at Fleisher-Ollman on September 8.

Dave Kim‘s recently completed project My Best Friend Facebook Forever has a website called My Best Friend Facebook Forever. My BFFF was a month-long performance/experiment where Kim did everything he was asked to do via Facebook.

Julie Courtney and Jennie Shanker will soon be completing their collaborative curatorial project CENTERpieces, affiliated with the Center for Discovery in upstate New York. Stay-tuned for an upcoming event for artist Richard Torchia’s work in one of the center’s geodesic domes.

Lee Godie, Untitled , circa 1980. watercolor and pen on silver gelatin print, 5 x 4 inches

The “facts” the photos record are facts of the imagination, using photographic surfaces that have been cut into, folded, collaged, drawn on, written on, smooshed and otherwise distanced from documentary. Strange focuses and interruptions in clarity also undercut the documented image.

May Wilson, Ridiculous Portrait (Seashore), c. 1965-72, Collage7 1/4 x 3 7/8 inches

The portrait-related work is passonate. Weird photo-booth self-portraits by Lee Godie and humorous collaged ones by May Wilson (inserting her homely face into conventional images of women) trumpet that some women not only don’t and won’t pose for Vogue, but that they have other kinds of ideas, altogether.

Miroslav Tichy, Untitled, mid 1960s to mid 1980s, Unique black and white silver gelatin print on Baryt. 7 x 5 inches

With women for his subjects, Miroslav Tichy’s oddly material unique images are taken surreptitiously with home-made cameras. The work comes from the 1960s to ’80s, but it looks like ’20s and even earlier, with its faded exposures and light leaks and lack of focus. In these odd photos the nostalgia is an illusion, but the push and pull of desire and revulsion is not.

Oliver Herring, Monika (Vertical), 2009digital c-print with metallic photo paper applied 3-dimensionally on museum board57 5/8 x 41 x 3 1/8 inches framedCourtesy Meulensteen Gallery, New York

Oliver Herring’s masked portraits, however–based on photos he took at one of his Task art events–speak of anomie, Mardi Gras and online avatars. Herring applied 3-D masks like his subjects wore at the Task event onto the 2-D photos of the masked figures (at least that’s how I understood what I was looking at). Although a Walpurgisnacht terror looms in these large pieces, there remains a Second Life-ish disengaged playfulness, and the camp thrill of cinematic sci-fi and horror flicks–capturing the tone of 21st century life as we live it as everyday escapists.

Brion Nuda Rosch, Our Past Laid Out Before Us, 2010, acrylic on paper on found book pages, 10 5/8 x 16 1/2" unframed

The landscapes in this show are anti-Transcendental, to the point of chilliness. Landscapes are gouged with red divots (Letha Wilson), blotted with rectangles (Brion Nuda Rosch), and printed onto metal sheets that are then folded into sculptures (Virginia Poundstone). Micah Danges’ puddles of printed color subvert illusions of space and depth while suggesting a plague. In this show, landscape photographers are the canaries in the mine, chirping warnings with their dying breaths. But amidst all this gloom and doom, Isaac Tin Wei Lin invades the Great Wall of China with just a stroke of the pen. Even as he seemingly mars the landscape with calligraphic graffiti, he retains the seductive beauty–and goes beyond landscape, to confront cultural issues of power and values.

Joe Murphy, "40,000" MurphyInstallation shot

A fragment of Joe Murphy’s collection of portraits–of family and celebrities posing with Joe–are classic barbershop decor, except Joe enhanced the faces, painting or drawing odd eyebrows, red mouths–a child-like intervention all the more poignant for Joe being an adult. While this is outsider-y, with the resulting portraits startling and the size of the collection a marvel, ultimately Joe’s fantasy life is at once familiar and sad, and without the leaps of offbeat imagination I value in outsider art. In contrast, hanging right across from Joe’s portraits are the complex and imaginative collages of folk-artist Felipe Jesus Consalvos.

John Wood, Birds and Racer, c. 1960s, Collage, gelatin silver print mounted on board, 18 x 14 inches

Even much of the contemporary work in this show looks a little retro, partly because of the dominance of black & white. But, with 60 works, there’s a lot to think about, from Anthony Campuzano’s contemporary photographs of his drawings embedded in his drawings–sly syllogisms to ponder–to photographer John Wood’s mixed media experiments that offer a journey to the mind and the eye.

William Hawkins, Trail Riders, 1982, enamel on masonite, 48x60". Image courtesy of Fleisher-Ollman gallery

Ollman and the gallery were early champions of art by outsider artists (now called “self-taught”) and this exhibit demonstrates the appeal of the work. With bright colors, concrete imagery and often mesmerizing patterning, the works by these artists communicate as directly (and sometimes as subliminally) as advertising.  This is narrative art, and whether the story the artist meant to tell is clear or not, the works communicate the urgency of the need to tell the story.  These were not works worried over in the making with erasure marks in evidence – they poured out with confidence.

William Hawkins’ thick, muscular painting “Trail Riders,” from 1982, just one example, shows two tiny cowboys on horseback in a mountainous landscape.  What sounds like a quintessential image of the American West is transformed by Hawkins into something moody, ominous and dream-like.   With undulating horizontal stripes of blue, black and white as the land; huge black almost-abstract birds in the sky; and cartoonish twin red mountain peaks in the background, this work is a turgid piece that wears its makers dark vision as clearly as it wears his signature in big block letters at the bottom.

James Castle, Screen door (abstracted), n.d. construction of then cardboard faced with beige, cream and tan paper from corrugated cardboard, cream/tan card with string, soot wash, blue and brown wax crayon, 12 3/4 x 7 5/8" Photo courtesy Fleisher-Ollman gallery

It’s great to see Hawkins, James Castle, Horace Pippin, Howard Finster and others represented in this mix.  And the price list for the show (from modest 4-figure prices to astounding 6-figures for some works) demonstrates how the art world and the art market have embraced these once-marginal figures and now consider them essential to the history of art.  It’s also great to see contemporary street artist Phil Frost in this mix.  Frost’s installation “Open Heart Ascension” uses pattern painting to anoint and beautify a phalanx of found objects (nine glass water jugs and a hand-made pallet on which they sit).  The piece complements the highly patterned native American works in the show and it relates well to James Castle’s decorative drawings on found scraps of paper and cardboard.

Phil Frost, Open Heart Ascension, 2001. wood pallet, correction fluid, enamel, glass vessels 32 1/2 x 43 1/4 x 38". Photo courtesy Fleisher-Ollman gallery

In a move that recalls the eccentric hodgepodge installations of Alfred Barnes, Ollman has set out some Pennsylvania Dutch decorative works (a chest, some Fraktur drawings) and Peruvian and Native American vessels in the gallery (see picture).  The idea that art is a stream flowing through cultures and times, with universal human loves and concerns (nature, decoration, spirituality) is argued persuasively.

Ollman began his career at the Janet Fleisher Gallery at a time when employers advertised jobs in the newspapers and applicants hand-wrote cover letters to apply.   In a nice touch, you can see Ollman’s application cover letter from 1970 in a small frame on the wall near the gallery office.  It’s both history lesson and encouragement for anyone wanting to launch a career in a gallery today.  Just put your hat in the ring, have some confidence, and give it a try.  Good galleries steer a path into new waters and in recent years Fleisher-Ollman has become known for mining the local emerging artist scene.   The gallery’s annual emerging artist invitational, coming this December,  is another must-see exhibit.

>>”Four Decades,” to Nov. 22.  Gallery talk by John Ollman, Nov. 13, 3 pm.  Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, 1616 Walnut St., Suite 100.  215 545 7562.

Read this article at Philadelphia Weekly.

Things We’ve Made Since September at Sweatshop

Joseph Hu, Briefly Noted, 2009. acrylic on wood. At Sweatshop in Things We've Made Since September. Joseph has magazines in his show at Pentimenti until Feb. 27

It’s a simple idea for a show–ask a bunch of people in your network to make something new or show something they’ve made very recently.  Voila–a 17-person show with lots of new work, much of it understated with a couple of gems in the mix.

Sweatshop is a new space at the Amber Street Studios in Frankford, run by six artists whose studios adjoin a small common area they’ve dedicated as a gallery.   Gabrielle Lavin, the Galleries at Moore gallery manager, curated this inaugural show.  Notable are Joseph Hu’s two faux New Yorker magazine mock-ups–made of paint on wood.  Hu has a show right now at Pentimenti where you can see more faux real objects — Hu’s got a special touch with the world of false.

Preston Link, Pedestal, 2009. acrylic on wood. Looks like money -- funny money.

Preston Link’s chunky “Pedestal” also made of painted wood, looks like money as envisioned by a child–bigger than life, kind of pretty, and somewhat useless all in all.

Joshua Rickards, Brother and sister, 2009, Flashe on magazine page

Josh Rickards has a wonderful collage painting that seems a new direction…

Linda Yun, After RM, detail from row of 13 polaroids

and Linda Yun’s row of manipulated Polaroid film are tiny Mark Rothko lookalikes — which perfectly complements her recent James Turrell look-alike at Vox Populi.

Sweatshop shows will last for two months.  This one’s gone, ended Jan. 31.  The gallery, 3237 Amber St. 4th floor south, is open Saturdays 1 – 4 pm and by appointment  email afalsefront@gmail.com for more information.  Roberta’s flickr set.  Libby’s flickr set.

Isaac Lin: A Place Near Here and Don Colley: Cascade at Fleisher-Ollman

Isaac Lin collaboration piece. Lin did the drawn embellishment on someone else's photo of what looks like big Sur.

Isaac Lin installed a huge black-painted hut that’s glued together with oogy gray putty that takes over the main space at F-O.  Inside the hut Lin’s colorful cartoon and calligraphy images sprawl on the walls.  Outside the hut a series of large cartoon cutouts ring the room.  We asked John Ollman whether he had sold the black hut and he smiled saying he is trying to tell people it would look great in their living rooms but….Elsewhere in the gallery, Lin is showing more commercially-viable works — photo/drawings. Photo/drawings are works that involve photos by people who agreed to collaborate with the artist and drawings by Lin on the photos.

Isaac Lin's calligraphy is a swarm of gnats!

Lin draws swarms of his signature short calligraphic strokes in many bright colors onto the photos.  It’s like anointing the works with a kind of voodoo magic that’s close to grafitti only more playful.  Some of the photo/drawings are pretty funny –like when Lin’s rain of calligraphy bears down on a figure lying on a field of grass and what’s suggested is the weight of the world about to sit on the man’s chest.  Or when the storm of calligraphy comes barreling in on the Big Sur coast looking like something crazier than a Nino or Nina storm about to hit.  Meanwhile, Don Colley’s print of a scary clown adorns the gallery’s main window overlooking Walnut St.  And on a wall opposite sit a small group of Colley’s ceramic tiles picturing evil clowns.  The tiles were painted at a paint your own pottery joint and all we can say is we wish we had been there when Colley’s evil clowns emerged from the firing alongside the birdies, flowers and hearts on everybody else’s tiles.   Roberta’s flickr for F-O.  Libby’s flickr for F-O.

Don Colley, ceramic tile painted at a paint-your-own pottery place

Sean Stoops: Interstellar Medium at Rebekah Templeton

Sean Stoops, installation at Rebekah Templeton

We hadn’t remembered seeing art by curator Sean Stoops before but maybe that’s just our overloaded and aging memories.  Stoops made a wizardly installation with a projected interstellar video on a beachball.  It is a fabulous high tech/low tech mashup.

Sean Stoops, Interstellar Medium j2010 digital vidio installation, 4:56 mins, with, behind, the aureola around the eclipse.

The projection even creates an elipse-like stream of light on the wall behind it–all of which is very much fun to watch.  It’s a kind of lava lamp experience to see this work and we were longing for a bench to sit on — or mattresses or pillows on the floor.  The piece was generated using some algorithms and all we can say is awesome–get on up there.  The show is up til Feb. 20.  Roberta’s flickr. Libby’s flickr.

At Grizzly Grizzly

Brother and sister artists Joshua Abelow and Tisch Abelow were showing a bunch of remarkably similar, geometric abstractions when we stopped by.  Joshua, whose retro abstractions capture ’50s kitsch-en colors Harvest Gold and Avocado, also did a number of cartoony drawings. Here’s one by brother that broke the sister-brother mold:

Joshua Abelow, Untitled (Self-Portrait with di Chirico), 2007, oil on canvas

We met two of the Grizzly-ites who were opening up the gallery when we got there–Dennis Matthews, who’s a blogger, and Michael Ellyson. Here they are amid next to a large abstraction on the left, by sister Tisch. The gallery guys told us Tisch got the large, thick sheet of paper from Richard Serra, who, on decideding he wasn’t going to use the paper, sold it off cheap.

Dennis Matthews and Michael Ellyson, two of the Grizzly Grizzly team. Also Bruce Wilhelm is part of this endeavor.

Upcoming First Friday at Grizzly Grizzly, which is in the Vox building, 319 N. 11th, 2nd floor, is work by Yevgeniya S. Baras and Robert Scobey.

Ted Larsen at Schmidt Dean

Ted Larsen at Schmidt Dean

Ted Larsen, this piece had fake wood trim from a car and some encaustic blobs. The piece was interactive--you could spin it round with your finger.

Ted Larsen’s sculptural paintings are made from junkyard car body pieces.  The colors you see represent the Mustangs, Chevies, Pontiacs and Cadillacs found on the scrap heaps out west in Santa Fe where Larsen lives.  John Chamberlain took car bodies and mashed them up like crumpled paper — art accidents — in the galleries they inhabited.  Larsen is more of a car parts zen master–part Mark Grotjean and part Mark Rothko.     Roberta’s flickr for Ted Larsen. This show ended Jan. 24, alas.

Drexel’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery shows IPCNY show!

Bitch Delux by Any Malfunction, Buttonwood&Holmes, Inthang; silkscreen on cotton in supermarket meat tray, unique

There were a number of standouts at the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery’s current exhibit, New Prints 2009/Autumn, a show of small prints juried by the International Print Center New York.

The highlight is a one-off print, Bitch Delux by Any Malfunction, Buttonwood&Holmes, Inthang. If it’s unique it’s the very opposite of mass production! You can make purchases online for $37, packed in its own styrofoam meat tray (if you can get the website to work).

Marc Blumthal, Mass, 2009, serigraph on inkjet print, ed. 10, 21 x 27 inches, printed and published by the artist

Two Philadelphia artists–Marc Blumthal are included in the exhibit of 60 works. Blumthal’s Mass obliterates a war photograph with a big blob–surreal and funny; Talia Green is showing her retro prints of people with masses of insects for hair. This exhibit is one of the many independent shows affiliated with Philagrafika. Thumbnails and checklist of the work in the show are here.

Amid the upcropping of new galleries like Grizzly Grizzly and The Sweatshop, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. AHN/VHS and its subsidiary gallery, The Cabinet, has closed. It was a good one, so Libby and Roberta have the blues.

The world is a diminished place in “I Don’t Watch the Internet,” Fleisher-Ollman Gallery’s seventh annual emerging artist survey. A non-themed invitational that’s big on miniatures and works that whir and clack, the show rounds up modest-scale sculptures, and drawings and forlorn videos that fit with the current economic climate.

James Johnson, Stop Following Me, image courtesy Fleisher-Ollman Gallery

Viewers are in the land of disenchantment with nine artists who are wizards of sentimentality (or faux sentimentality). This isn’t kitsch, although, like most artists, these individuals seem to have been inspired by Jeff Koons, the master of post-modern irony and ambiguity.

James Johnson, Stop Following Me, 2009. neon sign, foam insulation, cardboard, box, extension cord. 12x48x12" 1/5

Stop Following Me, a neon word piece by James Johnson, is the most overtly postmodern piece in the show. The fabricated neon sign is in its shipping box, lid-open, on the floor. From afar, the box emits a delicious blue light that reels you in, the hook for the passive-aggressive punchline. An edition of five, Stop Following Me is an object conflicted– like a teen who hates you yet needs a trip to the mall, please. If the piece is a comment on the dumbing-down of our whole culture, I buy it.

Cari Freno, Hold (from the Pocahantas State Park series) 2009 HD video loop, ed. 35

Videos by Cari Freno, Hold and Hang, are also highly postmodern. The artist, seen embracing a tree (in Hold) and hanging from a tree (in Hang), seems to accept and poke fun at “tree-hugging” at the same time.

Jay Hardman, Cake Block, 2009. synthetic chocolate cake, frosting, wood, concrete

Even works made from new materials—like Jay Hardman’s wonderful miniature landscapes made of chocolate cake and icing, or James Johnson’s minimalist dollhouse rooms—contribute to the ambiance of a played-out universe, a place we know and are fond of but are emotionally distanced from.

Gabriel Boyce, Green Screen 2009, aluminum tubing, plastic webbing, rivets 70 1/2 x 55 1/2 x 1"

There is cultural commentary everywhere. Gabriel Boyce’s Green Screen, a hand-fashioned “Shoji” screen made of cheap plastic webbing and bent aluminum rods is an unlikely mashup. But as a comment on American tackiness washing over something elegant, Green Screen is right on Target (ahem).

Jordan Griska, Gas Pump, 2009. vintage 1960s gas pump, hydraulics, 53x24x18"

Jordan Griska’s Gas Pump, a real pump reduced to child’s size by a series of origami folds in the metal frame, feels cautionary. The piece (which smells vaguely of gas) is somehow both cute and monstrous.

Ashley John Pigford, 28,770 Megabytes, 2008. computer hard drives, micro controller, electronics, wood, wire. 36x34x6"

Ashley John Pigford’s interactive computer-part gizmos clack and knock wood (literally, with wooden mallets on xylophone keys) when you push a button. The hacked and neutered electronics are reduced to court jesters—vehicles of entertainment. And John Broderick Heron’s table-top construction landscapes teetering on sticks show a world completely out of whack.

Installation shot, with Jay Hardman's Vacancy in foreground and Sarah Laina Koljonen’s Comma Scroll, rear, on wall

In a weird twist, most of the drawings in the show (apart from a series of small works by Boyce) feature small items scaled to supersize proportions. Sarah Laina Koljonen’s Comma Scroll puffs up and elongates several commas to ridiculous proportions, a comical play on the lack of commas in eastern grammar — or, perhaps, the super abundance of commas, in western grammar. Sebastien Leclercq’s monumental faux graph paper drawings (blue pencil on paper) likewise elevate the lowly graphing sheets to gargantuan proportions for risible ends.

A big dose of postmodernism might not be your cup of tea this holiday season, but this show will keep you smiling.

“I Don’t Watch the Internet.” Through Jan. 16. Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, 1616 Walnut St. 215.545.7562.

Magiciens de la Terre, installation with Coffin Car by Kane Kwei. Photo courtesy of Fleisher-Ollman Gallery.

The original Magiciens de la Terre (Magicians of the Earth) opened twenty years ago at the Pompidou in Paris, united the diverse esthetics in this show, and subsequently served as a curatorial template for the dissolution of the dichotomy between insider international Big Boy art and the local outsider Little Guy stuff. Such is Fleisher/Ollman’s especial forte.

The best piece in the current show is by James Lee Byers. Byers was an insider’s outsider. The retired epistemologist, John Brockman, introduced me to Jimmy, and I published him in Unmuzzled OX.  As I continue to encounter his work years after his death, I am always struck by its beauty and brilliance, its modesty and wit. To me, Byers takes the academic beyond the vernacular into the truly Universal.

James Lee Byars, Twins Seven Seven. Photo courtesy of Fleisher-Ollman Gallery

The Village Voice, on the other hand, asked me years ago to interview John Baldessari. I published John, too, in OX. But I have unfortunately come to regard him as Mister Cal Arts Lightweight.  His reputation greatly exceeds his achievement. To me, his art is “academic” in the particular sense of “irrelevant.”  Baldessari represents Big Boy Art at its shallow pretentious worst. John is personable and charming, but that only serves to conceal his art’s vacuity — and, of course, makes me personally feel like a mean-spirited ingrate.

Of the outsider art my favorite is a wooden Australian aboriginal “shield” portraying two Joeys. You know Joey, right? The baby kangaroo? The artist goes by the name Murumuru today at Fleisher/Ollman, but 20 years ago in Paris he was called Wunuwunu. Something tells me he did not attend Cal Arts.

And who could dislike the coffin car by Kane Kwei?

But the most interesting piece in terms of the theme of the show is Trixie of the Night by Julio Galan. I loved this painting. Is it Surrealism? Or is it the “primitivism” which Breton and Freud so admired? Or should the distinction matter?

The exhibit includes work by 11 artists selected by singer-songwriter Will Oldham, aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. The work in the show is a suprising mix of homey and slick, the result of what I imagine is one guy’s personal taste mixed with loyalty to his posse of frenz.

But after seeing Lori Damiano’s video animation, Lord I: The Records Keeper, 2003-2009, I think I want to be frenz with her, even though she lives on the West Coast.

Lori Damiano, Lord I: The Records Keeper, 2003-2009, animation, 14:15, 3rd state

She is mining mythology and fairytales, using archetypal themes like journeys, Pandora’s box, the house in the forest, the decision at the crossroads, etc. etc. The story book drawing is charming–a forest of Mr. Softee cone-shaped trees, flat dollops of curls, chunky figures.

Lori Damiano, Lord I: The Records Keeper, 2003-2009, animation, 14:15, 3rd state

The end result is wonderful–although it’s apparently not really the end result. John Ollman told me the video, which Damiano has been working on since 2003, had to practically be wrested out of her hands. She was still madly at work when the show was about to open. Yo, Lori, it’s perfect. Let it go and move on (not that she’s been unproductive; you can check out her website, but it’s a little slow-loading).

One of the comics in Kramer's Ergot 7, 2008, Sammy Harkham, ed. (I don't know who did this particular page), hardcover, 96 00. full-color, 21 x 16 inches, compilation book by numerous contributors

A beautiful compilation book of comics, all two-page spreads, from a wide range of artists, including Matt Groening, was edited by Frenz contributor and ultra-hot comics artist Sammy Harkham. Kramer’s Ergot 7 blew me away, and you can see the complete list of who contributed to the book on the link here. Harkham, who’s a productive life-force of his own,  also contributed a number of his own comics in book and drawing formats, including the books Crickets #2 and Poor Sailor.

Abel Brown, Christ on Water, 2009, ink, watercolor and typewriter ink on paper, 9 1/2 x 8 inches

On the funky side of cartooning, I enjoyed drawings from Kyle Field and Abel Brown. Brown is more about the human condition, and his irreverent Christ as a surfer dude seems like a good, down-to-earth explanation for walking on water.

Kyle Field, 2008, ink, watercolor on paper,

Field has a sharp eye on the culture, drawing the world and people around him. But the people look like medieval peasants–as if they are Renaissance Faire reenactors in Midtown Manhattan.

Shary Boyle, detail Moon Hunter , 2009, paper, ink, tissue, mac-tac, acetate, pins, glitter, fabric, variable materials, with Netsuke, 2007, ink on paper, 11 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches on left

An installation by Shary Boyle, Moon Hunter, is theatrical and stylish. In another part of her life, she draws live on an overhead projector during concerts, including during Will Oldham’s, so theatrical effects must be on her mind. In her installation here, the central figure, a 2-D woman dressed in a part 3-D hip take on men’s Elizabethan clothing, works at a wired-up computer-ish screen. The look is storybook dreamy–a trope emphasized by using the two sides of the wall, like the front and back of a page and like the inside and outside of a house. On the reverse side of the wall, a single tower emits a blinking signal that appears to go out to a starry universe of glitter. The contemporary hyperconnectivity mixed with loneliness and yearning is almost buried in the glib beauty.

Shary Boyle, detail of the reverse side of the wall, Moon Hunter, 2009, paper, ink, tissue, mac-tac, acetate, pins, glitter, fabric, variable materials

Frenz, on view through the end of the summer, also includes work by Jill Gallenstein, Alan Licht, Ashley Macomber, Joanne Oldham, Leslie Shows and Spencer Sweeney.

Billy and Steven Dufala, Trophy, 2009. electrical conduit, junction boxes. 66 x 39'9 x 7"

This is what Steven Dufala told me when I ran into him last Friday.  They were thrilled to win the West Prize, which they really didn’t expect, he said.  And they were very happy with their show at the gallery.  But even more they were glad to be done with all the hoopla. They made their mom very happy, he said, and now they’re ready to go back to life as normal.

Trophy, detail. Look at that woven conduit. Made for the show, its installation took a while, said Gallerist John Ollman, marveling at the labor involved.

The show at F-O is full of the brothers’ down-home labor-intensive pieces, some made with found objects, some highly worked and highly crafted.   As usual, the works are filled with humor and social critique.  Here they’re poking fun at our wasteful society and our lust for the big win.  And also as usual, they are all about the fabulousness of simple objects — a sneaker, a screwdriver, a gardening tool.

Special Air Mission 2800, 2009. rubber, vinyl, shoelaces. 6 x 4 x 32"

There’s obsessive drawings with thousands of hand-drawn leaves or water bottles making up a larger image… a hand-made wood and steel Pickaxe… handmade garden Shears.  And, making a dazzling appearance here, the fabricated-from-scratch Dumpster Coffin, a piece Libby and I saw at Main Line Center for the Arts in 2005 in a show curated by Alex Baker.  

Topiary Spray Bottle, 2009. watercolor. 17x12 7/8"

And whether it is voodoo timing or not, the biggest piece in the show –  the wall-spanning “Trophy” — is a perfect encapsulation of the wonders and burdens of winning.   The art deco-esque word piece made of electrical conduit tubing is a billboard-ready logo for a Type A super cult, all of whose members are the president, numero uno and top dog.

Dumpster Coffin, detail. 2002. satin, foam, steel. 53 x 67 1/2 x 36"

The show is marvelous, so get over there before Mar. 28 when it closes.  More photos at flickr.

Shawn Thornton, one of five paintings in the show, oil on panel, 11×11″

Sly and serpentine works turn Fleisher-Ollman’s sixth annual emerging artist show into an Eden with bite. F-O is known for exhibiting the works of visionary outsider artists like James Castle.  But in this annual winter emerging artist exhibit it’s unusual to see a visionary.  So painter Shawn Thornton is the surprise. 

Thornton at the opening reception, posing with two of his works.

His colorful, heavily-worked oil paintings of complex diagrammatic interweavoven lines, nodes, dots and symbols are like 2-D Rube Golderg machines without the punchline at the end.  Several of the five paintings look like super tricked-out gameboards — Candyland or Parchesi for four-dimensional thinkers. The artist – (BFA 2000, VCU) who in 2006 had brain surgery and radiation therapy for a tumor on his pineal gland – is puzzling out life’s flow, energy and meaning right in front of your eyes.  Deeply personal yet somehow universal, the works are fascinating and gorgeous.
 

Steven and Billy Dufala, Long Chuck, 2008. archival digital print, ed. 5. 41×82″ That’s Ann Northrup caught studying the Photoshop whizbang image.

Steven and Billy Dufala‘s digitally-rendered photo of an improbably-long sneaker is another puzzle.  The iconic trick shoe curls into a snaky S curve that evokes snakes, skateboarding and roller coasters,  This virtuoso Photoshopping of a dirty sneaker into a pristine icon is funny and unexpected from the two makers of rough-hewn installations like their Fleisher Challenge show last year.  

Steven and Billy Dufala, Sledge Hammer. 2008. steel and oak. 33 1/4 x 12 1/2 x 6 1/2″

Also unlikely is the Dufala sculpture, Sledge Hammer.  With a a beautifully-finished wood shaft that looks like it’s an entire small tree trunk, the double-headed hammer is a fairy tale of a piece – it may be a lesson about double-dealing but the sculpture is pure seduction. 

Nick Lenker, Sacrifices Will Be Made, 2008. clay, glaze, enamel, wood, metal. 16x8x8″
Always Remember Your Place, 2008. clay, glaze, luster; enamel, wood. 12x14x14″

Next to the hammer — and all the more fragile for being there – are Nick Lenker‘s two ceramic pots in a glass vitrine.  The pieces mimic ancient Grecian urns with beautiful repeat patterns and central images of nudes or draped figures in some ambiguous narrative.  But the wowza pots are 21st Century constructs – the images are made with digital ceramic decals. 
 

Nick Paparone with his IHop special universe, The Long Now, 2008. laminated poster, aluminum foil, carpet, motor and light bulb. 78x24x25″

Nick Paparone‘s mischievous installation of a spinning breakfast special (2 eggs, pancakes, sausage and bacon on a white plate) in front of a laminated poster of the universe explores reality today.  The plastic breakfast is as real as the impossible picture of the universe, and the whole thing is comical.  Truly we are Lost in Space. 

Josh Rickards, Drug Rug, 2008. acrylic and oil on panel. 21×22″

Josh Rickards paintings of people with mutant noses (think Ed Paschke) and 70s hair are wonderfully deadpan; and Charles Hobbs‘ hand-carved snakes and wood installations are beautiful.

Mark Stockton, Mr. Olympia 1974. 2008. charcoal on paper, 104×60″
 
Also good are Mark Stockton‘s figure drawings, especially the 8 ½ ft. tall charcoal drawing of a young, monstrously pumped up Arnold Schwartzennegger; David Clayton‘s mini landscapes; C. Pazia Mannella‘s snake-like zipper constructions; and Jeremy Drummond‘s aerial photos of snaking suburban housing developments.

Charles Hobbs, Untitled. wood, 44x40x4″

Jeremy Drummond, 65-Point Plan for Sustainable Living, 2008. 65 lambda prints face and back-mounted plexi

C. Pazia Mannella, Your Grace, 2008. zippers, thread.

Alex Lukas’ untitled book pages like this one feature a post-deluge metropolis right out of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.  2008. ink, acrylic, gouache and silkscreen on book page. 10×14″

With beauty, virtuoso craftsmanship and dark humor throughout, the exhibition’s an unexpected holiday present.

“You Open So Late, You Close So Early.”
Through Jan. 17.
Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, 1616 Walnut St., suite 100.
215.545.7562.