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Visual Arts Highlights of 2006
Visual Codec correspondent Megan Driscoll tracks down a few local arts personas to see what made an impression this past year, both locally and afield.
Greg Kucera
Owner, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle WA
http://www.gregkucera.com
"Best new Seattle thing: The opening of Scott Lawrimore's new space, Lawrimore Project, in Seattle. Without a doubt the scene-changing event of the year in Seattle. If it absolutely must be a singular exhibition, I would have to say it's the Sutton/Beres/Culler show Lawrimore did as his opener."
"Best thing out of town: The Robert Rauschenberg 'Combine' show at the Met in NY. I'd never seen all of these works together and, even 50 years old (and as old as I am now!) they looked startling, provocative, and beautiful, all at once. And then, foolishly, I wandered over to the Whitney to see the 2006 Biennial and was so underwhelmed by what I saw there, I went back to the Met for a second look at the Combines. It's a pleasure to see artwork that so thoroughly succeeds in its mission of unsettling the viewer from their satisfaction with the status quo."
Chris Crites
Artist and Curator, Seattle WA
http://www.bagpainter.com
"My favorite local show of the year was SuttonBeresCuller's 'If These Walls... Three Dragons Restaurant' at the Lawrimore Project. The entire idea of the planning, execution, and isolation included in this project was pretty amazing. I had only recently found out for myself who these folks were, and seeing the retrospective of other works that they had done was awesome. All of this coming from a brand new venue was very exciting indeed."
"My favorite 2006 show outside the region was probably Matthew Barney's 'Drawing Restraint' at the SFMOMA. Whether one loves him or hates him, there was something pretty great about seeing so many of the pieces that have made up all of his projects over the years. His movies are way over the top artsy, but seeing pieces from them, sketches of them, and photos of Bjork dressed up made for a large and excellent show. That I got into the opening night reception free was a bonus. Being familiar with the building and watching the video of his performance/installation while being there was good as well."
Eric Kellogg II
Owner, Sugar Gallery, Portland OR
http://www.sugargallery.org
"My favorite show in Portland this year was Paula Rebsom at the Tilt Gallery. Her work is amazing. She brings a whole new flair to photography. Her photographs were of massive wood structures, cut out in the shape of wolves. Honestly, you have to see the work. It reminds me of Bev Doolittle—when I was younger, I would spend hours gazing at my mother's Doolittle collection. When I saw Robeson's work I had to keep coming back, sometimes twice a day. In my opinion, Paula Robeson is the Bev Doolittle of the contemporary photography world."
"My favorite show outside the Northwest was Kehinde Wiley's show at the Deitch Projects (NYC). He is an African-American painter, young, talented, and clearly a mogul in his field. Rather than painting things that are palatable for White America, he paints huge life-sized portraits of hip hop stars. He adorns these figures in Roman army garb, paintings artists such as Ice-T on a historically correct African throne. Since Wiley's approach is, for lack of a better word, 'classical,' it totally takes you off guard to see these 'urban' artists in such a grand light. Wiley was one of the first artists that I contacted when starting Sugar. His tenacity in an art world that is hostile toward minorities shows that sometimes talent supersedes bias. His work reminds us that art should be a microscope into society, not just a blanket for the quasi-wealthy. While the elite continue in their quest for commodities, artists often suffer—more importantly, ART as a whole suffers. Wiley is a true inspiration to me, and to other struggling art dealers trying to make a path in the world of gallery life."
Stephen Lyons
Co-Director, Platform Gallery, Seattle WA
http://www.platformgallery.com
"My favorite regional show was 'Swallow Harder, Selections from the Ben and Aileen Krohn Collection' at the Frye. While it represented just a small portion of their contemporary art collection, the exhibition provided a glimpse into the minds and passions of two important Seattle collectors. While I'm not sure that some of the work in the show will hold up over time, many of the pieces are important examples of contemporary work. It was also great to see the mix of artists in the collection, both from Seattle and away."
"My favorite show outside the area was 'The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas: Recent Sculpture' at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. A quite interesting exhibit of nine international contemporary artists (three from LA, two from Brooklyn, two from Berlin, one from Miami, and one from Vienna) whose works utilize strategies ranging from the readymade and assemblage to aspects of movements like Dada and Fluxus. Many of the sculptures were created from consumer goods and were obviously labor-intensive, yet few of them gave up meaning easily. The show irritated me at first but the more time I spent with the work, the more a dialogue between pieces became apparent. Also, I was happy to see such a challenging show at the Hirshhorn, which also organized it."
Dan Gilsdorf
Artist, Portland OR
dang@atlastattoo.com
"While there were a few local exhibitions worthy of the title, Roxy Paine's 'Painting Manufacture Unit' takes it. It was refreshingly ambitious for Portland, and best of all, the paintings that it made were actually pretty damn good."
"In Philadelphia, Bean and I went to the Vox Populi Gallery on our way downstairs from the Fabric Workshop. There we encountered, among other fine works, an installation by Xiang Yang entitled 'Buddha Says.' His incredible variation of embroidery practices and situation of Buddhist imagery within a contemporary art context was the best thing I have seen all year."
Bean Gilsdorf
Artist, Portland OR
bean@postalmodern.com
"'The New Embroidery' takes the cake for 2006 in Portland. Not only was it a comprehensive survey of the technique, but it mixed the work of international art stars like Louise Bourgeois with local-area unknowns. It was strong work, hung well, and with excellent statements by the curators. What more could you ask for?"
"In September I was very fortunate to catch a group show at Vox Populi gallery in Philadelphia, which featured the sculptural/installation work of Diana Al-Hadid. This was the first time I had seen someone create large-scale works out of detritus and building materials (styrofoam, joint compound, scrap wood, etc.) that was truly more than just a pile of (s)crap. Her work just blew me away. It was poetic."
James Harris
Owner, James Harris Gallery, Seattle WA
http://www.jamesharrisgallery.com
"The show that is currently at The Frye, 'Little Women, Little Men Folk Art Portraits of Children from the Fenimore Art Museum,' has to be one of the best exhibitions in Seattle this year. When art of this caliber comes to town in a touring show you really should not miss it. The paintings capture an American-ness that reflect the time in which the work was made, but their sense of composition and detail seem so current. Not to mention, the gesture and nuances of the children in the paintings are compelling, edgy and wonderful."
"MOMA's 'Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking' show was an incredible collection of contemporary work by artists of diverse backgrounds - ranging from Algerian, Iranian, Pakistani, and so forth. There was a great video installation by Emily Jacir that juxtaposed a Middle-Eastern business in Ramallah and a small business in New York. It was almost impossible to tell which was which. You kept changing your mind about whether the interior you were looking at was in the US or not. It really brought home both the small differences and the similarities of our very separate our worlds."
