Wassic Slideshow

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Wassaic Project

Wassaic Project is an old mill and stable turned into a place for artists to exhibit



See Sarah Walko's Installation here

B.O.S.

I went to the Bushwick open studios this year and had a terrific time. I saw the studios and work of Clintel Steed, Gabbe Grodin, Gili Levi, Andy Piedilato, Kat Zavvides , Jerry Blackman and Sean Gallagher among others.

I spent a while in Gili Levi's studio discussing her work, it's ugly/beautiful mood, and the hilarious awkwardness of entertaining passersby to an open studio.

Gili, a twenty something, Israeli gemini makes great paintings. Her work is full of dark pink and charged, impossibly varied marks. They teeter and breath, being both difficult to confront and welcoming. She unveils dark secrets of a sexual, quest seeking nature to a musical tune.

I went to Chelsea to drop off a painting today. Afterwards I went to see a few shows. On the list to see were Chantal Joffe and Alice Neel. I popped in and out of many galleries along the way.

I am not sure if it was my mood or if it was the paintings, but my normally free spirited, Libertarian leaning political view did a 180 and rotated all the way to Totalitarianism. I thought, "You know.. this 'everyone has an opinion thing' just isn't working for the art world. We need two, three or maybe four taste makers, they should be appointed by me, and their job will be to cultivate the careers of great artists." Ha. Egomaniacal, I know.

The Chantal Joffe show was not very good. Her work looks powerful on the Internet, but is deflated in real life. She is compared to Alice Neel as a painter so it was exciting to see both shows one after the other. The problem with Chantal is that she seems to suffer from today's confusing exchange of beauty for plain prowess. Why have one when you can have both? Alice Neel does. Neel's paintings are confrontational, mesmerizing AND beautiful. You sense her connection with the model, her compositional intelligence, and her awareness of the possibilities of paint all at once. As she grappled to convey the personality in front of her, the painter in her ejected instances of life and light as a part of her natural instinct. Her particular baby blues crushed against an olive ochre, and placed in the background of a forceful portrait, carry the viewer into the timeless space that you want to be in when you look at a painting. These elements of beauty were missing in Joffe's work and instead replaced with incoherent drips and harsh, vacant placement of color.