Hasta La Ideas

Things are not as they appear in this Pakistani artist’s pixelated works

Working across mediums—sculpture, video installation and large-scale photography among them—Pakistani artist Rashid Rana explores the singular issue of South Asia’s struggle between tradition and modernity. Typically he uses a pixelated aesthetic to express how globalization and the media impact the region’s identity.

This approach separates out and reassigns associations between the part and whole as a way of challenging stereotypes. His work—on view at London’s Lisson Gallery—teeters between 2D and 3D perspectives, creating tension and forcing his audience to question reality while underlining his position that “we live in a state of duality.”

Rana’s series of sculptures, aptly called “Books,” are really aluminum cubes printed with pixelated photographs, putting the perceptions of three-dimensional space and form into play by toying with our sense of concrete information.

Described by Rana as “unpacked abstraction,” his large-scale photographic work looks like a chaotic field of geometric shapes from afar. As you focus closer, the pixels reveal themselves as smaller, context-specific images disrupting the serenity of the work as a whole with their sheer volume.

Rashid Rana’s show will be at Lisson Gallery from 30 March 2011 through 30 April 2011, and is accompanied by a new monograph on the artist.

Collages, calligraphy and grids in a retrospective of the late Beat painter Brion Gysin’s work

by Isabelle Doal

The work of British-Canadian artist Brion Gysin, defined by techniques like mixed collages, systematic repetition and “cut-up” (a method he invented), is experiencing somewhat of a revival since his death in 1986. A stream of contemporary artists have recently taken interest in the artist and the newly-opened “Alarme” exhibition at Paris’ Galerie de France illustrates the scope of his oeuvre, following two recent important exhibitions of his contributions.

The Pompidou showed a film, jointly produced by Gysin, William Burroughs (the two were good friends) and Antony Balch, demonstrating “semi-conscious states and trances,” while his work on sound-collages, a medium he conceived with his former NYC studiomate Ramuntcho Matta, was featured in a group show on the topic at Galerie Anne Barraulthe.

Gysin’s based his works on crossings, formally represented by the constant use of grid patterns. Most of the time he employed a rudimentary printing technique, rolling a paintbrush on a paper sheet over a canvas of wire threads, consistently incorporating script letters and photos into the grids.

Both poet and painter, and part of the Beat Generation, Gysin has always played with words and letters as graphic materials. He arrived in New York during World War II and started experimenting with literature and various kinds of writing experiences. He created “permutation poems,” repeating a single sentence several times with the words rearranged in different orders so that each reiteration is a new discovery, for example “I don’t dig work, man/Man, work I don’t dig.” Many of these variations he derived using a random sequence and was inspired by free verse, but several also followed a mathematical structure.

The cut-up technique was used by writers such as John Dos Passos and laid the foundation for “Naked Lunch.” “Alarme” shows a couple of artworks featuring pieces of text from the pivotal novel, using letters as signs on small square water-colored papers, created by rolling paintbrushes on metallic grids.

A couple of panels show the four-year-long construction of the Pompidou through a photographic series consisting of vertical stripes stuck together. Small square photos from contact sheets act as grids, one by one incorporated into inked columns reminiscent of skyscrapers.

Completing the overview, a series of ink-painted letters in Asian and Arabic scripts speak to Gysin’s devotion to painting and drawing. The artist, who spoke Japanese and Arabic, played with the opposition between the Japanese vertical script and horizontal Arabic writing with an interest in painting these figures to make crossings and grids.

“Alarme” runs through 2 April 2010 at Galerie de France.

Sculptures and illustration explore busking in an L.A. artist’s newest work

In his newest piece “Busker Rig,” L.A.-based artist Kiel Johnson explores past, present and future through a steampunk take on the one-man band. With an almost instantly recognizable style, his distinct drawings and cardboard sculptures make explicit the transformation of humble materials into form.

As an artistic craftsman, Johnson relates to the notion of musicians peddling their talents for money. “Busker Rig” is a tribute to anyone “trying to earn a living through their handiwork.”

While he embodies the DIY aesthetic, creating all of his sculptures from cardboard, chipboard and more recently UV-activated surfboard foam, Johnson’s ability to construct such complex works comes from a technical mastery that’s the upshot of an extensive education and meticulous study of his craft. Offsetting monotone colorways, his attention to detail makes his work exude energy and feel full of life .

Catch Johnson’s latest work alongside a variety of great artists—including our friend Kim Rugg—at the inaugural exhibition for the new Mark Moore Gallery space in Culver City, CA, running through 12 February 2010.

Dutch artist Ron van der Ende beautifully transforms pieces of found wood into inventive examples of bas-relief, creating sculptures that span the traditional church to a Nascar Charger. Van der Ende displays his labor-intensive works in a new solo show, “A Shallow Wade,” currently on exhibit at Seattle’s Ambach & Rice gallery through 2 May 2010.

Exploring a “fractured American consciousness,” works included in the show demonstrate the Rotterdam-based artist’s concern for the disparate messages emanated by U.S. culture. For example, “Shotgun Shack Row” portrays an aerial view of houses from New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. Seemingly viewed from a helicopter, the contorted angle reminds his audience that parts of the country still experience dread while others prosper, like in works such as “Taylor/Burton.”

A giant diamond constructed from hundreds of small pieces of salvaged wood and painted to reflect the myriad angles of the massive gem Richard Burton gave Elizabeth Taylor in the late ’60s, “Taylor/Burton” represents the excessive nature of America’s upper class. Eventually the bauble sold for over $1million, an idea that Van der Ende’s sculpture calls into question with the humble materials pointing out the absurdity of spending such a lavish amount of money on such a frivolous item.

Ironically, Van der Ende’s “On Re-Entry” depicts a giant log with glowing embers beneath its charred surface, again created from recovered pieces of wood. Like the rest of his works, the log is comprised of copious amounts of thin veneers pieced together onto plywood for an overall stunningly complex relief.

The mixed media of Sangbin IM‘s latest exhibition “Confluence” challenges its audience to see the world through the Korean artist’s eyes—a view that teeters between reality and illusion for a unified glare at the perceptions held by contemporary society.

Currently on view at NYC’s Mary Ryan Gallery, IM’s work is the result of a meticulous method that involves layering digital images of his original paintings (usually depicting an element from nature) over a digital photograph—typically one of hundreds he took over a period of time of the same location.

The Yale University grad (who now teaches at Columbia University as he works on his doctorate in art education) creates these semi-delusional scenes to comment on the disparity between Utopian desires and the insatiable consumerism that modern culture seemingly wrestles with.

“Confluence” is on display at Mary Ryan Gallery through 27 March 2010.