Life's Short Play Naked

I had an opportunity to work with my friend and exceptional artist, Michael Wynne, on his exhibition at Ware:Wolf:Haus in west Dallas.  This is the first exhibition I've had an opportunity to work on since leaving VAL in 2010 and it was exhausting hard very satisfying work.   

 

WARE:WOLF:HAUS is hosting Michael Wynne’s first US Retrospective, Life's Short - Play Naked.  The show will include several works from the last two decades of Wynne’s expansive oeuvre.

 

 

In Wynne’s Pissin’ Calvin Series he has produced a body of work in which the excesses of action painting are parodied by mixing the ridiculous color and scale of abstract expressionism with imagery culled from rear view window decals, comic strips, children’s television programs and rock-and-roll. The work clashes the history of abstraction with kitsch culture in a no non sense move.

 

 

Wynne has maintained an interest in responding to Minimalism by way of work that is freed of the burden of academic, philosophical concerns and of the superficial spirituality that is used to market work that could truly be made by all. In his Rubber Stamp Paintings Wynne uses language as a way to contaminate the pure surface of Minimalist painting.  

 

In the most recent works, Wynne takes a workman like approach to create modest paintings which are relatively small in scale using supplies from local hardware stores and hobby shops. Wynne’s banner pieces, neon works and tombstones will also be presented in this historic exhibition.

Michael Wynne

 

Ware:Wolf:Haus is a warehouse space located in Trinity Groves area just west of downtown Dallas.  It is a incubator for experimentation and collaborative effort to show rad things that may or may not be perceived as art.

 

Michael Wynne was raised on a farm in the country town of Kirvin, Texas (population 64) where he maintains a studio. Wynne has been a part of the Dallas art scene since the mid 1980’s and has had solo exhibitions at Foster Goldstrom Gallery in New York, University Club of Chicago, Plush Gallery in Dallas and CSAW in Houston. He is currently represented by Oliver Francis Gallery in Dallas.

Opening held on October 19 with a performance by Inferno Texino
Half-Time event: October 26 from 6 to 9pm
Closing event:      November 2 from 6 to 9pm

 

Ware:Wolf:Haus

425 Bedford Street

Dallas, TX 75212

 

Al Weiwei

Inside and Out

new work by Ray-Mel Cornelius at Norwood-Flynn Gallery.  Made it in time to see Ray-Mel's exhibition before it closed. 

 

I picked up the artist statement at the gallery:

 

Wild Life/Still Life

Those two terms wouldn't seem to have much in common except the word "Life".  But they reflect two of my personal interests, the experience of nature and the impulse to collect and display.  We take our world out into nature, sometimes to its detriment, and bring the natural world in to recreate our adventures in it.
This body of work explores what I have seen while encountering nature and what I have tried to bring home and live with in an attempt to recreate that experience.  My usual interests in color, texture, composition and scale are also satisfied in the  process of making paintings based on these considerations.

Ray-Mel Cornelius

 

 

Of the small paintings this one was my favorite of the exhibition.  Titled "Invented Wildflower", it is a 6x6 inch acrylic on panel.  Just simple pleasure.  

"Yellowjackets" acrylic on panel, 6x6 inches

 

A wonderful work on paper - I should have been early to the opening!

"Jackrabbit" 11x9 inches, pencil on paper

An enjoyable show Ray-Mel!

Georg Herold

at the Dallas Contemporary

EXHIBITION DATES
21 SEPTEMBER - 22 DECEMBER 2013                                

 

Georg Herold
Born 1947 in Jena, Germany.
Currently lives and works in Cologne, Germany.

Georg Herold’s evolving exploration of material has questioned the underpinnings of international contemporary art for nearly four decades. Herold’s career began in the late 1970s when he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Art in Hamburg under the tutelage of Sigmar Polke and Franz Erhard Walther. During his study, he became associated with a group of radical young German artists, including Albert Oehlen, Martin Kippenberger, and Werner Buettner, whose work collectively challenged the meaning, status and value of the ubiquitously exhibited art object, as well as those who view and consume them.

With sardonic wit and a playful sense of irony, Herold masterfully transforms common, raw materials used in basic commercial construction into works full of vitality, dynamism, and contradiction. Herold employs rough, neutral objects such as wooden battens and bricks to create his works. For him the batten, which in Germany is as common and powerful as the 2 x 4 in America, serves as the very foundation of his signature anthropomorphic figures. The material itself creates a spectrum of meaning, from power to vulnerability, from harshness to playfulness. Further, its neutrality allows Herold to best express his unique perspective while simultaneously leaving opportunity for open interpretation.

The finished pieces straddle extremes -- both vivacious and suffering, flawless and imperfect. The seductive sculptures, seemingly unaware of their appearances and seemingly crude but precise interior construction, pose with confidence for an admiring audience. With exaggerated flexibility, the figures aspire to move with broad sweeping gestures, but their immobility holds them firmly in place, reminding us of our own limitations. Simultaneously, the figures suggest an ambiguous struggle with an unknown foe.

In the 1980s, Herold broadened his oeuvre by embracing a material antithetical to the commonplace and unrefined batten: caviar. Despite the exorbitant price of this rare delicacy, Herold began using the small black eggs to create non-representational compositions on canvas. As this aspect of this practice has evolved, Herold has increasingly employed caviar in his paintings by exploring color, form, landscape and portraiture. The eggs, which are preserved on canvas with lacquer, are often individually numbered in a tedious process, both methodical and poetic.               

dallas contemporary
exhibition sponsors: Mark Giambrone, Meg and Daniel Gotvald, Perry Rubenstein Gallery
images courtesy of artist. Georg Herold © 2013.

Latino Cultural Center

 

Founded in 2003, the Latino Cultural Center opens its 10th anniversary season with the "Forging Identy, Creating Local Art: Dallas and North Texas Latino Artists, 1970 - 1993.  The exhibition will be on view until October 19, 2013".  The 21 Dallas and North Texas Latino artists featured in this exhibition are: Celia Alvarez Munoz, Sal Barron, Juan Manuel Campos, Filberto Chapa, Jesus Chairez, Adriana Cobo-Frenkel, Pablo Esparza, Lilia Estrada, Eliseo Garcia, Maria Teresa Garcia-Pedroche, John Hernandez, Juan Hernandez, Benito Huerta, Leticia Huerta, Diana Marquis, Manuel Mauricio, Vincent Morin, Roberto Munguia,  Jesus Moroles, Samuel Torres, and Jose Vargas.  Exhibition curated by Viola Delgado.

 

Benito Huerta

L- "The Eyes of Benjamin Franklin", 2004, water color & photocopy on paper, 30x22.5
R- "Lovers Leap", 1985, diptych, oil on canvas & velvet, 73.5x55

John Hernandez "Skull Guy", 1987, mixed media, 16x14x7

Roberto Munguia "Sol", 1997-2013, collage, 5x10 feet

Latino Cultural Art Center
2600 Live Oak St
Dallas TX 75204

Liliana Bloch Gallery

Second visit to this subtle but very satisfying exhibition of Waddy Armstrong's work at the recently opened Liliana Bloch Gallery.

 

 

 

All paintings untitled, oil on linen or canvas

 

Waddy Armstrong's work is a convergence of botanical structures and motifs melding a philosophical return to nature's simplicity with formal artistic inquiry. He creates visual elements from various plants and trees  that coalesce in seamless, harmonious compositions ranging from gestural abstractions to silhouettes of the imagined. Beauty, pleasure and composition are all key components as the act of mark-making morphs into recognizable-albeit fictional-form. Armstrong's most recent works are his most painterly to date. Bands and washes of color surround his signature hybrid forms, challenging the traditional figure-ground relationship and rendering the picture plane obsolete.  (Liliana Bloch website)

 

 

Waddy Armstrong graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in Painting in 1999. Since then, he has had numerous solo and group exhibitions around the United States, including venues in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Armstrong lives and works in San Antonio.

 

Liliana Bloch Gallery

2919 Commerce St suite C,

Dallas, TX, 75226

Phone: (214) 991 5617 

TERRAINCOGNITA

New works by William Binnie at The Public Trust.

From The Public Trust invitation:

The Public Trust is pleased to host the first major solo exhibition in Dallas by William Binnie. Binnie's research interests as of late have turned towards the use of militarized drones (unmanned aerial vehicles). "My fascination with the drone is one of both awe and fear. It is not so much the drone itself that interests me, but that the drone is a potent and timely manifestation of the fear and anxiety of a secret war, concerns regarding transparency, governmental deception, and that we, as citizens and civilians, are all implicated in this situation. The drone serves as a symbol of this collision of physical removal and psychological proximity that embodies this new variety of warfare." These research interests stem from previous works exploring modern methods of post-colonial imperialism, conquest, and the complexity of power. "Dominance over another is seldom restricted to brute force but is just as much a psychological and visual exercise."

 

Untitled (Crux 1), 2013, oil, latex and enamel on canvas, 64x72

Untitled (Crux 2), 2013, oil, latex and enamel on canvas, 64x72

Untitled (Crux 3), 2013, oil, latex and enamel on canvas, 64x72

 

Screenshot, 2013, oil on canvas, 12x16

Screenshot, 2013, oil on canvas, 11x13.5

Screenshot (Afghan Funeral), 2013, oil on canvas, 10x12

Screenshot, 2013, oil on canvas, 11x13

Installation of studio works

 

 

About William Binnie 

Influenced as much by the gritty aesthetics of punk, hardcore and metal as by more formal modes of art-making, William Binnie's work is marked by a macabre sense of humor and tongue-in-cheek over-seriousness. His work is at once stark, sober, and oftentimes grim, yet rich, delicate and lush. The work is often shrouded in a sensual gloom, where morbidity, death, and decay are balanced by a vibrant and vital, if nihilistic, spirit. (PT invitation)


This is the last week to catch this exhibition.

The Public Trust

Birmingham Museum of Art

After visiting beta pictoris gallery I was encouraged to stop by the BMA.  I was told that Mark Flood's painting was on view in the Modern/Contemporary galleries.

 

L: Kerry James Marshall "School of Beauty, School of Culture", 2012
R: Mark Flood "Mantilla", 2005

 

Roni Horn "Key and Cue, No. 533", 1996

L: Brad Kahlhamer "Cold and Windy Sunset", 2000

R: Bob Thompson "Ornette", 1960-61

Suzan Frecon "double red", 1997

 

This is the second work by Frecon I have come across in a museum.  The first at The Menil in Houston where they had a very large monochromatic reddish painting installed.  I was blown away.  And now, a wonderful luscious small work on paper.  It was nice to see the BMA feature works on paper.  I believe museums are really missing out on showing intimate wonderful personal works. 

L: Robert Arneson "Clay I Am, It is True", 1982-83.

I failed to get the information on the works to the right of Arneson's piece.

L: Raymond Pettibon "Untitled, Superman figure", n.d.

R: Carroll Dunham, untitled, 2005

 

 

Birmingham Museum of Art

2000 Rev. Abraham Woods, Jr. Blvd

Birmingham, Alabama 35203
Phone: 205.254.2565