Mary Ellen Johnson - PBJ
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The Curator Gallery, in Chelsea, invites various folks to
curate shows on a periodic basis. The gallery was initially underwritten by Ann
S. Moore, a retired Chairperson of Time, as her way to contribute to the arts
scene in NY. The current show “Verisimilitude” was curated by Ethan Karp, of the
now shuttered but immensely influential OK Harris Gallery, and features 6 photo-realist
artists.
Photo-Realism seems to be more of a technique than a type
of content. The paradox of it is that
artists often use this technique to tweak or reposition aspects of perceived
reality to make reality reveal more than reality itself normally does. So the
choice of ‘Verisimilitude’ as the title for the current show is clever and
ironic. The title of the show seems to buy into the concept that the artists
are just approximating real things as well as they can. However, each artist seems to be choosing and
enhancing aspects of reality to convey a greater insight into the interface
between perceived reality and inner experience.
Gina Minichino, for instance, does something interesting
with the types of inexpensive, brand-name food and candy you see at and consume
from the grocery store. She either portrays these products in their original
consumer packaging or as ready to eat. From this contrast, we see that the
packaging does not necessarily enhance our desire for the food: the need to
preserve and sell the food requires a compromise. The Wonder Bread wrapper and
the Tic Tac box are merely reassuring signifiers and do not engage you at the
level of epicurean want that the food itself engages you at. Yet, the packaging
seems to employ transparency and design in an almost titillating manner.
You see glimpses of the product, through the wrapping, to
get the juices flowing a little, but the design itself merely adds an element
of visual attraction. Minichino captures how the advertising folks are trying
to catch the eye and the gut at the same time.
In “Kiss”, however, we see a Hersey’s kiss stripped bare of its wrapper
and engaging the viewer in a way that one might almost say pornography engages
one. This chocolate looks extra succulent. And, am I crazy, or is this ‘kiss’
beginning to look more and more like a stylized clitoris in a stylized vagina? If
I took a Rorschach test I’d probably be committed to an institution.
In any case, this is candy ‘stripped bare by her bachelors,
even’. It is painted as an object of
desire and like pornography the goal is to stimulate a craving as a
hedonistically pleasant emotional response. Yet, Minichino also reveals desire
as being composed of the painful and pleasurable at the same time. We anticipate the pleasure of consuming while feeling
pangs that require some type of effort toward fulfilment when looking at this
creamy dark chocolate. Don’t worry, the gallery has a bowl of kisses waiting
for you so that you don’t go nuts looking at this stuff.
Mary Ellen Johnson helps further explore what exactly the
components of our sense of ‘desire’ are, in her food paintings. In Berries and Cake we see an object of
desire comprised of three distinct elements. We are attracted by the memory of the
discrete tastes of the syrupy chocolate, berries and cake itself, and the
cumulative delight of combining these tastes in an infinite number of
combinations. Yet again desire is revealed
as beginning with pleasurable memories and sensations which morph into a
painful goading to possess and consume.
I see the cake, remember the tastes of the components and suddenly I am
whipped and goaded by something to get that object.
Turning away from food, Arthur Miller brought back some
pleasant memories with his various depictions of movie and entertainment
posters of days gone by. When I grew up
in Chicago there was a weekly TV show called Creature Features, during which
famous old horror films were shown. Here
those folks from the Universal Studios were – especially Bela Lugosi and Boris
Karlov. Just seeing these guys made me
smile and evoked so many memories from my youth, when I was able to vicariously
live through hellish horrors in the comfort and safety of my parents’ bungalow,
instead of enduring my contemporary hellish horrors of Queens roommates and
other assorted NYC terrors. So we have
super-realistic depictions of these famous monsters of Hollywood – why? These monsters were allegorical figures
presented to the masses. By depicting them Miller shows how, perhaps, mass
media dilutes meaningful content in its desire to entertain and profit. The vampire was a potent symbol of oppression
and spiritual depravity for generations, but now I smile when I see Bela Lugosi.
To me Romaine E.’s work shows the sense of permanence and
transition that characterizes every city.
You see the Highline Park looming like an unmovable behemoth while
ant-sized people move about. 100 years
after I’m dead this tourist trap which has helped ruin the Chelsea gallery
district will still be there while I’m being dined on by the worms. In all of his paintings at this group show
you seem to see large, permanent structures through which our ephemeral lives
flow.
Roger Watt focuses on the reflective qualities of highly
polished metals. To me this type of metal represents our desire to fight and
conquer the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
We live in a universe of decay and decomposition and this metal seems
pristine and timeless and resistant to corruption. Shiny metals are part of the myth upon which
we build our lives and societies.
Finally, speaking of the Second Law of Thermodynamics,
there are those that value it. Ron Weis
paints leaves which have changed color due to the drop in temperature which
precludes the development of green-giving chlorophyll in plants. Basically these leaves are dying and in the
process represent their most amazing colors.
Is mortality a curse or an opportunity to seek meaning and contribute to
those around us in a sense of mutual empathy and consideration? Weis seems to
suggest that the aging process and the process of ‘decay’ can be a thing of
beauty and lead to a sense of acceptance and equanimity instead of dread.
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This is a relatively new gallery - here's an article about it: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/former-time-executive-to-open-chelsea-art-gallery/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
I mentioned Creature Features above. Here is the opening theme from WGN-TV Chicago:
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