Miler Lagos at MagnanMetz Gallery "The Great Tree of Water" (26th Street)

This gallery has really distinguished itself as a gallery that brings some of the more meaningful and incisive art work from South America to New York City. 

In the current show by Miler Lagos, we see work by a contemporary Colombian artist who incorporates religious and mythological themes from an indigenous culture.  

In many ancient cultures the tree was considered to be a type of bridge between the earth and the sky (or between people and God or our animal natures and our spiritual natures).  The roots stretched deep into the soil and the branches extended outward and upward into the air.  

For the Tikuna people, however, who reside in an area between Peru and Colombia, there was one great tree which was quite sinister.  It was so immense that it blocked out the sun and extinguished life. 

Twin brothers thus went on a hero quest with the animals of the forest and, by felling the tree, inadvertently created the many branches and tributaries of the Amazon River. Lagos uses paper reliefs and graphite images to depict this 'great tree of water' in what might be called convex and concave manners throughout the gallery.  This approach highlights the positive, creative force of the tree and the imprint in the earth caused by the force.

In particular, however, he has created some amazing tree trunks (made of thousands of sheets of paper, stacked and glued one on top of the other)  which bear beautifully painted scenes from Asian art on the top surface of each trunk.  (Thank you Giulia A. for snapping these photos for me...I miss you - come back soon!)

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The images are often of trees or traditionally clad Asian women or just scenes of everyday equanimity.   

This set seems to connect more with the 'tree as bridge' concept than the 'great tree of water' concept.  These natural connection points between the earth and the sky have been destroyed, yet the plane caused by the severing of this connection now serves as a type of canvas.  The images of trees, fishermen, the sea and women represent an idealized traditional world of tranquility that has also been lost (if it ever existed), but which provides beauty and solace.

Martin Honert Life-Size Sculptures at Matthew Marks Gallery

Take a look at this group of people, and think about who they might be, and from what period of time they might be from:

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What's your general impression of these folks?

My friend Giulia and I pondered this group for awhile and thought it was a family (from the 1960s) at some type of family function - like a wedding or anniversary party.  We identified the eccentric, somewhat wealthy uncle (who looks a bit like Nelson Rockefeller), the uptight, frigid but attractive aunt who might have married beneath herself,  the suburban salesman and his housewife etc.

And we were close!  This is a group of German teachers (from the 1960s).

When we learned these were teachers, the pieces of the puzzle came together for us.  Of course this is a group of teachers!  And if you took a group of teachers now, photographed them, and showed someone the photo 40 years from now, you'd probably get the same response.

Why?

The French have a term called 'professional deformation.'  Basically they say that any profession changes a person so that after awhile everyone in that profession kind of looks and acts like everyone else in that profession.  Someone once said a cab driver in Paris is identical to one in New York or Tokyo.

So I love this sculpture as an example of the professional deformation of a teacher.  When I taught, for a short time, I noticed this deformation as well.  This is because a teacher is not just a dissembler of information.  A teacher is a civil servant of sorts who is expected to get various administrative jobs done and to accomplish goals.  The teacher is a classroom manager first and foremost, and an educator afterwards.

Indeed, the teacher is the prime promoter of the 'hidden curriculum.'  This was a concept created in the 1960s (like most good concepts).  Basically it means that while the teacher seems to be teaching math or science or literature, he/she is really teaching discipline, order, obedience to authority, a blue-collar work-ethic etc.  Benson R. Snyder of MIT apparently created this term.

So in this amazingly funny work by Honert, we clearly see a corps of hidden curriculum engineers in their traditional garb, which changes periodically.

Please go to Marks and see this in person (as well as the other amazing galleries in that neighborhood).

I am Daniel Gauss, The Proletarian Art Snob.

Actually, it turns out these teachers were from Honert's own boarding school in Germany when he was a child.  You can read more at Marks' web site:  http://www.matthewmarks.com/new-york/exhibitions/2013-09-13_martin-honert/

Michael Brown at the Mike Weiss Gallery in Chelsea

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I think that Novalis is definitely a writer who should be revisited.  Looking at Brown's work at the Weiss Gallery, a few of his quotes ran through my mind:

"The path of mystery leads inwards..."  and "The world becomes a dream and the dream becomes reality."  I also recalled Schelling's "Nature is visible spirit; spirit is invisible nature."  Yes, I still read the German 'Romantic' writers.

If you go to Mike Weiss' web page, you can read details about how Brown creates these pieces. What I liked was that Brown first sketches a scene from nature.  Basically he sketches a barren landscape.  Over this sketching he then places rusty iron bars curved into circular shapes.  In many of his pieces the circles overlap each other in various patterns.

I took the above photo from Weiss' web page (so I hope he doesn't sue me) but you can see a closeup of one of Brown's pieces below.  My friend Tomoko might have been a little tipsy because the photo is crooked, but that's OK, I was tipsy too considering that it was the big opening night in Chelsea when we saw this work and free alcohol abounded.

Yes, we were both a bit tipsy.

Giulia A. took this photo while she and I were completely sober (am I ever completely sober?)

So why do I like these pieces so much?  Well, to me two processes are represented here. I would argue that two inner processes are represented here.  I think that every meaningful work of art is about our inner lives or inner reality and I believe Brown's work can be interpreted in this manner. I think he is illustrating two processes that occur when we perceive aspects of our inner life.  I guess a person could describe these processes as 'perception' and 'reaction,' or 'perception' and 'construction.'

Initially, in these pieces, we get 'nature' in the form of a landscape sketch.  To me, the perception of an aspect of inner nature necessarily leads to a cognitive process akin to Novalis' idea that a 'dream' becomes 'reality.'  We conceptualize what we perceive or feel.  

When language was created or developed, it must have been created or developed to express what happens in the outer world, because when we attempt to describe processes in the inner world, we are forced to use metaphors or symbols from the outer world.

When we conceptualize, we use metaphors or symbols and this leads us away from 'nature' and into another inner process altogether.  This new inner process can be represented by the curving and rusty iron. Like the circular pieces of iron, this process is a coherent whole.  And regardless of the differences that can be perceived, the process is always the same for every aspect in regard to trying to understand the nature of our inner lives.  

The aspects of our inner world exist for us independently of the nature of the aspects, through cognition, and they become other entities.  Like the rusty iron, our conclusions about what we perceive in our inner nature become separate from nature in a coherent and identifiable (and mostly useless) manner.

One can even mention Hume's Law or George Moore's "Naturalistic Fallacy" here.  Hume pointed out that often when we describe a situation, a judgment about that situation often then occurs.  I can't remember his exact quote, but he said something like, "How is it that we jump so easily from an 'is' to an 'ought'?"

So if I engage in some form of introspection and perceive some type of motive or emotion or inner conflict or something I feel to be problematic about how I am responding to the world, this perception leads to a type of transmutation whereby the natural becomes cognitive. I like Brown's work because, to me, it represents this process whereby nature becomes cognition or the 'dream' of the world becomes the 'reality' of the world.

So the cognition about nature becomes a thing in itself, and not necessarily a reflection of the individual details of nature.  The sketches represent 'nature' to me, while the rusty iron hoops represent our 'cognition' of nature and the new, empty world this divorce from nature brings.

The Mike Weiss Gallery traditionally shows thought-provoking work!  Here's their web page: http://www.mikeweissgallery.com/exhibitions

Quixotic warriors of an inner struggle - Francis Upritchard at Anton Kern Gallery

When you first enter Anton Kern and see the figures of the older men in bizarre tai-chi like positions, you might be perplexed.  In her artist statement, however, Upritchard clarifies matters somewhat by indicating these are warriors engaged in a type of inner struggle.

Some of the figures wear chain mail, some have caps bearing crucifixes.

Often when we think of a person engaged in inner struggle or in a process of inner discernment, we imagine folks like this:

So Upritchard's pieces resonated with me because my own attempts to understand my own motives, emotions and cognitive processes have not always been the peaceful endeavor depicted immediately above. Indeed, an insight can come during some experience or encounter in the world just as readily (or perhaps more readily) as it can during deep reflection.

Upritchard also points to the fact that in our attempts to dive deeper into ourselves, we look for metaphors and military metaphors often help us to, paradoxically, understand inner conflicts or attempts to overcome inner obstacles in order to attain a more peaceful inner life.  Some 'holy' books contain extreme violence and military endeavors ordered or sanctioned by "God."

Here are men - about the age of Quixote - who have adopted all the military trappings (except weapons) but are not engaged in an outward 'fight.'  They have conceived of their inner journey as a battle and their outward posture, facial expressions and accoutrements reflect this.

Bananas and peaches. Amazing drawings by Zhang Dun at Chambers Fine Art

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I must be more pure than I thought (and I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.)  When I walked into Chambers Fine Art with a friend of mine and saw the amazing drawings of bananas and peaches, I was immediately impressed by how the artist captured a sort of perfect ripeness; the drawings were so well executed.  My friend, however, said, "Wow! This is really sexual stuff." Then I realized: Ooops, yeah, this stuff is obviously 'erotic.'  But it's not erotic just for the sake of being erotic.  I think that Zhang Dun is really making an interesting point about how the male and female sexual organs and sexual drives are perceived and even how they are utilized in art and literature.

In allegorical literature the masculine and the feminine often have a symbolic meaning. In the Odyssey or Faust, or any number of older works, you have the wandering, tormented, testosterone driven, struggling male who overcomes obstacles to seek his comfort or solace in the eternal feminine.  The man (Odysseus, for instance) wanders and fights and the woman (Penelope, for instance) stays home and weaves and waits.  The masculine seems to represent something active and searching while the feminine represents a passive ideal of spiritual solace for the man (or what the man represents symbolically).

That symbolic 'paradigm' (for lack of better terminology), of course, doesn't quite work these days, now that society has changed so radically over the generations and women are as active as men.

So what I like about Zhang Dun's work (beyond her amazing draughtsmanship) is her exploration of the male and female sex organs using analogs that allow a differing perspective from common notions of the masculine and feminine sex drives (and how they can be 'allegorized'). 

You no longer have the male penis as something harsh or piercing, for example.  This is no longer the penis of Faust, Dante or Odysseus.  The peach is not the vagina of Gretchen, Beatrice or Penelope. Both sex organs possess, basically, the same type of soft elegance.  Indeed, if we were to look for active and passive analogies here, the peaches would seem to be more "active" than the bananas.  The peaches are, in places, a deep red color, implying passion or desire.  The bananas seem to passively unfold instead of aggressively swell.

The Optimist by Tim Okamura

There has been a great deal of sensitivity to the condition of African Americans shown in some Chelsea galleries recently.  There is, for instance, an amazing show at Jack Shainman Gallery called: Question Bridge: Black Males.    www.questionbridge.com

At Lyons Wier I saw a painting by Tim Okamura that I thought was worth passing along.  He calls it: The Optimist.

We see an African American woman who is apparently surrounded by poverty and violence but who has attained to a degree of tranquility despite her immediate surroundings. Indeed, we even see a type of graffiti halo hovering over her head.

It's a very optimistic painting - I am not even sure this level of serenity is possible and, at first, due to the obvious halo, I thought that the artist was, perhaps, being ironic. 

Being an optimist myself, however, I tend to think the artist was being more sincere than ironic and I appreciated the positive and hopeful belief that even in situations of harsh adversity we can believe in something better and perhaps even reach a state of grace or serenity.

So here's an image of a person who was not corrupted by her surroundings and we are challenged to think about the inner means and struggle she engaged in to reach this state of grace.

Thank you to Giulia A. for taking this photo for me.

Beverly McIver at Betty Cunningham Gallery

While my companion from Korea (Dominique J.) and I strolled through Chelsea during the yearly 'art walk,' we observed that most of the gallery hoppers were white.  Even though the art walk was free and everyone was welcome, I would estimate that 85% of the people there (if not more) were white.

So when we chatted about this, I joked and said, "Well, America is a very diverse country.  We have white culture, black culture, Latino culture, Asian culture..."

And she shot back: "Oh...and these cultures never mix?! Nice diversity!"

I said, "Unfortunately, very rarely do they mix."

I explained that US culture mirrors aspects of US society.  So we live in a society where, 50+ years after the Brown vs. the Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court (to ensure blacks and whites could attend the same schools), we still have black and white schools. Black and Latino students still cannot compete, for various social and economic reasons, with white and Asian young people.

We live in a society with a 'black' president who ran for office (twice) appealing to the middle class and who never, once, spoke out against poverty in America.

Furthermore, 50+ years after the 'black doll/white doll' experiment, young black children still seem to prefer playing with white dolls and consider the black dolls to be 'bad.'

If you've never heard of the black doll/white doll experiment, here's a clip:

The point of the black doll/white doll experiment was to show that African Americans in the USA have a tough time with issues involving an African American identity. In one part of the experiment, as you can see from the clip above, a black child is asked which doll is nice. The child points to the white doll.  When asked which doll is bad, a child points to the black doll.  When asked which doll the child looks like, the child wants to pick the white doll, but begrudgingly chooses the black doll.

We see this struggle for identity in the work of Beverly McIver at Betty Cunningham Gallery.  Indeed, it was ironic that shortly after discussing race in America we stumbled upon McIver's work at Cunningham.  Very few African Americans come into Chelsea to see the art and very few seem to be represented by galleries (Skoto Gallery traditionally represents black folks and Africans, however).

McIver once wrote: "As a child I had dreamed of becoming a clown to escape my black skin, poverty and the housing project I once called home.  Clowning was my disguise, my liberation."

Here we see three images of McIver (her paintings are autobiographical) praying. In the process of prayer we see pain and struggle.

In the first panel, above her portrait, she thanks God for her friends and family because they have been a great support to her.  In the second panel she thanks God for the election of Barack Obama and asks God to help Obama do wonderful things.  In the third panel she expresses gratitude for her 50th birthday.

Below, we see McIver at her birthday party.

Interestingly, McIver now teaches at a university in Durham, North Carolina, that has had a traditionally black student body.  Durham, North Carolina is a city, however, with significant racial issues.  Duke University (one of America's 'best') is located in this same city.  Although about half of Durham is black, about 90% (if not more) of the student body at Duke is white/Asian.  The infamous "Duke lacrosse case" happened in Durham, when the all-white, male Duke lacrosse team hired black strippers to entertain them at a party and there were allegations (later to be declared 'unfounded') of sexual harassment. 

So I think it's great that McIver, who could probably teach anywhere, is at North Carolina Central University.  It is essential that the visual arts not be a 'white' thing or an aspect of white culture.  The students there have an amazing artist to nurture and encourage them.

Here's the website for the gallery: http://www.bettycuninghamgallery.com/