Hasta La Ideas

Light play and voyeurism in Dan Graham’s latest collection of glass sculptures

The new show by Dan Graham at the Lisson Gallery in London is at once predictable and unexpected. Those who have known and loved the interactive experience of Graham’s Pavilions for the last several decades will recognize his stamp, yet somehow—for those familiar or not with his work—Graham manages to create surprise and delight every time.

The 70-year-old artist continues to develop his series of structural meditations on the perception of space, which he began in the 1980s. The Lisson Gallery exhibition combines two new large pavilions with three pavilion scale models being built, and accompanying the show is a catalog of not-yet-realized pavilion drawings by the perpetually ambitious artist.

As studies on the concepts of inside and outside, it’s appropriate that Lisson has placed one large pavilion inside and one in their sculpture yard outside. The light-filled white space of the gallery suits the perfectly engineered minimalism of Graham’s work, which combines references to the slickness of modern architecture with the entrancing effect of a hall of mirrors.

However, Graham’s is best experienced outdoors where the concave and convex semi-reflective surfaces have so much more to play with, from sky and clouds to trees, buildings and people. The superbly detailed structures are both sculptures to admire and, at the same time, blank canvases to reflect their surroundings. Inside an empty white space, the reflections remain monochrome and calm. Outside, the glass canvas is splashed with busy, eclectic and multi-colored reflections that change rapidly and dramatically.

While many experience the Pavilions as playful spaces, it’s interesting to see the Lisson Gallery referencing more sinister themes such as voyeurism and surveillance. As they explain, it can indeed be disconcerting to be enveloped by a Dan Graham installation. According to the gallery’s description of the exhibition, “Viewers are involved in the voyeuristic act of seeing oneself reflected, while at the same time watching others. Whilst giving people a sense of themselves in space it can also result in loss of self as the viewer is momentarily unable to determine the difference between the physical reality and the reflection.”

Pavilions is on display at the Lisson Gallery through 28 April 2012.

Lisson Gallery

29 Bell Street

London, NW1

All photos by Leonora Oppenheim

Paul Darragh’s design studio launches in NYC with a gallery show dedicated to the East Village

Bemodern, otherwise known as Paul Darragh, grew up in a tiny farming community in New Zealand before moving to Melbourne, Australia, where he lived for the next four years. It was there that he first caught our attention and, not long after that, decided to chase his dreams to New York City to open Manhattan Born. If the name of his new design agency is anything to go by, it would appear this most recent home has had a great impact on Darragh.

“Manhattan Born is a creative place—a studio, agency and production facility,” says Darragh of the agency he started with Casey Steele. “I’d like to think we do it all. Design is such a crossover between mediums now. I feel like if it is something that can be designed, we’ll do it. So far our work has been in print, television, video, branding and interactive. We just launched a collection of T-shirts and an art show with paintings, screen prints, collage and animation.” Across their various branding projects the unique pace and energy of NYC seems to guide the fusion of sharp design and technology that characterizes their work.

The show Darragh mentions christened their brand-new Manhattan Born studio and storefront in the East Village. “We want to be more of a brand than just a studio that caters to people’s brands,” says Darragh. “We want to be a tangible part of your life, rather than just some videos online. The intention of the new shop space is to have a presence as a community creative spot. We are accessible, so people can see what we’re doing, walk past and see the art through the window. The other part of the new space is a gallery. We will have monthly shows. It’s a platform for artists and designers to show their work in a new context.”

Settling in to their new neighborhood, Darragh and Steele chose to launch with a show entitled “East Village, I Heart You”. “I’ve always loved living in the East Village and I’m definitely inspired by it,” says Darragh. “So, now we moved the studio here I wanted the first show to be in part an homage to the neighborhood—almost like ‘Thanks for having us’ and in another way, to set the tone for who we are as a studio, as a brand and as a physical space. The show speaks to the texture of the East Village. In part it’s dilapidated, cracked and dirty. It has patina, it has attitude, and it’s always colorful and exciting.”

“We’re not Chelsea fine art or SoHo pop art. We’re a sub-cultural showcase, still featuring quality, individual and unique art in all different mediums,” says Darragh. “The space is also going to grow by itself. I think the building has control over its own destiny, and it will become something I probably haven’t thought of yet—that’s the most exciting part!”

Manhattan Born

336 E 5th St.

New York, NY, 10003

Macabre drawings modeled after discarded photographs from Scott Hunt

Artist Scott Hunt turns flea market photographs into modern-day allegories. In his new series of charcoal drawings currently on view at Schroeder, Romero and Shredder Gallery in New York, Hunt presents images that are enigmatic, humorous and occasionally discomforting. The black-and-white figures of “Then Darkness Fell” draw inspiration from turn of the century realism as well as film noir.

Hunt’s preoccupation with discarded photographs is driven by his desire to “save” anonymous people and objects from obscurity. By identifying elements of each photograph that he finds intriguing, Hunt removes them from their original context and uses them to create a new drawing. This creative process gives a second life to other people’s forgotten memories. “My subconscious narratives often reflect a dark, mysterious, and intrinsically Gothic view of America; suburbs leach danger, authority figures evince moral turpitude, nature threatens, and the surface of all things belies the more messy, complicated realities of being human,” explains Hunt.

Hunt’s aesthetic borrows heavily from the 1940s-60s, and is often fueled with an underlying dark awkwardness. Themes of alcoholism, racism, violence and exhibitionism can be found throughout the collection of highly composed drawings. Despite their macabre nature, the works are saved from being unrelentingly gloomy by a consistently wry sense of humor. “Then Darkness Fell” will be on display through 17 March 2012.

Schroeder, Romero and Shredder Gallery

531 West 26th Street

New York, NY 10001

Frank Yamrus’s self portraits take inspiration from a midlife crisis

Debuting a series of self portraits at NYC’s Clamp Gallery today, Frank Yamrus returns from a photographic hiatus after several years of soul searching from out behind the camera. “I Feel Lucky” marks the photographer’s response to his mid-life crisis, reproducing significant moments from his life in an exploration of faith, relationships, mortality, photography and health. Reveling in the changing lines of his face and facing demons of his past, Yamrus creates a thoroughly personal examination of his life to date.

Many of the themes from the series are explained in a brutally honest essay that accompanies the exhibition book. Yamrus admits hitting a creative wall in the years leading up to this show, feeling consumed by his photographic work. Accompanying this shift was the marked change in his appearance, from his jowls—which he associates with his father—to his expanding midsection. Rather than shirking these shortcomings, Yamrus prints them in high definition for the world to see.

Sexuality is a recurring theme in the photographs, building off the success of his “Rapture” series. Critical moments like Yamrus’s last female relationship; moments with Frank, his partner of 30 years; and his thoughts on parenthood are among the featured moments. While he isn’t a parent, Yamrus recalls a pregnancy scare with an old girlfriend and his role as an uncle as influential factors on his personal development and his transition to maturity.

The images play between reality and fiction, at once playfully spontaneous and highly staged. True to the experience of memory, his constructions are partly informed by past events, filled in by his own imagination. Spurred by the difficulty of aging, the collection becomes a celebration of his life to date, full of instances that reaffirm and validate his many stages.

Clamp Gallery

16 February – 24 March, 2012

521-531 West 25th Street

New York, NY 10001

All images courtesy of Frank Yamrus and the Clamp Art Gallery

An artist-curated group show redefines contemporary Realism

The first in a series of artist-curated exhibitions at NYC’s Joshua Liner Gallery, “Resolve” gathers together the peers and influencing figures of the highly skilled painter Tony Curanaj. Each of the 25 contemporary artists included in the group show is classically trained and collectively they demonstrate the diversity of Realism.

“Resolve” explores the human experience artists have with a subject, and the truth in their observations. “Great art expresses life,” says Curanaj, who is more interested in works that convey a person’s sensitivities than those that are focused on the medium, or, as he puts it, “art about art.”

Considered experts of their craft, the artists, which include one photographer, two sculptors and 22 painters, have become completely involved in creating work that reflects their distinct technical prowess. Curanaj aims to show the sincerity and beauty of work made by the hand of a skilled artist. “When you’re painting from life, it’s like a high-wire net with nothing underneath you,” he says. “You could fuck it up at any point.”

The show also makes a different argument about the idea of conceptualism, a term Curanaj believes has been misused for years—especially as it relates to Realism versus abstract art. “There’s a misconception that Realism isn’t conceptual,” he says. “I think Realism is of the highest, utmost conceptual ideas because you’re continuously conceptualizing what’s in front of you and putting it down as notes and feelings, trying to depict what is life, what is reality.” He also feels that the more deeply profound an idea, the more specific the depiction should be. The artist should have a very clear solution for the concept in order to fully get the idea across and relate to the viewer.

The show’s title refers to each artist’s unwavering creative direction and continuous refinement of their craft. Each notable in their own right, alongside Curanaj, the group includes Graydon Parrish, Jeremy Mann, Jefferson Hayman, Kim Cogan, Lee Misenheimer, Shawn Barber, Kris Kuksi and Jacob A. Pfeiffer.

On view for just one month, “Resolve” opens at NYC’s Joshua Liner Gallery on 26 January and runs through 25 February 2012.