Tag Archives: collage

Modern Art Monday Presents: Tom Wesselmann, Still Life Number 36

Still Life Number 36
Photo By Gail

The enormous sandwich and pack of cigarettes in Still Life Number 36 (1964) reflect Tom Wesselmann’s nonhierarchical approach to subject matter and technique. He believed that anything could be art, including the ordinary consumer items that fill our pockets and kitchen cabinets. In 1962, Wesselmann began a series of large-scale still lifes that incorporated fragments of discarded commercial billboards, which he initially scavenged from trash cans but later procured in new, pristine condition directly from advertising agencies. The larger-than-life proportions of the objects in Still Life Number 36 at first seem to celebrate the surfeit of commercial goods in America’s postwar consumer culture. Yet the layers of collage and painted areas bring together incongruent depictions of reality, creating tensions in the composition that Wesselmann described as “reverberation.

Photographed in The Whitney Museum in NYC.

Modern Art Monday Presents: Jasper Johns, Racing Thoughts

Racing Thoughts
Photo By Gail

With it complex accumulation of art historical and personal references, Racing Thoughts (1983)  functions as a kind of symbolic self-portrait. The title refers to a psychological condition in which images and ideas run disjointedly through a person’s mind. Set in the bathroom of John‘s former country house, the running faucet and hanging trousers suggest the artist might be musing in his bath (which, in fact, was the case).

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Erik Jones, Twenty Sixteen at Jonathan LeVine Gallery

Erik Jones Split Heart
Death From Above: The End Is Nigh (All Photos By Gail)

After a leisurely, scenic walk on the High Line, Geoffrey and I showed up fashionably late at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery for the opening reception of Erik Jones‘ new exhibit of collage paintings, Twenty Sixteen, which is the name of the year that we are in right now! By the time we got there, the place was really packed. Scroll down to see a photo of the hot crowd action! Continue reading Erik Jones, Twenty Sixteen at Jonathan LeVine Gallery

David Bowie By Mr. Brainwash

Ziggy Collage
Photos By Gail

These two pieces of art featuring the likeness of the late, great David Bowie (it feels so weird to type that) were originally featured in This Post from last summer, but I decided to haul them out again for an encore. Because, clicks.

Bowie Broken Records

These portraits above were created from broken and carefully placed bits of vinyl LPs. See more photos at the link above!

Jonathan LeVine Gallery Presents Trifecta Group Show!

Sandra Chevrier Installation View
Art By Sandra Chevrier (All Photos By Gail)

Yesterday was one those perfect summer days here in Manhattan, so we went for a leisurely walk on the High Line, stopping in at a few of our favorite galleries, including Jonathan LeVine, where we enjoyed their current Trifecta Group Show. Trifecta showcases three international female artists — Handiedan, Mimi Scholz, and Sandra Chevrier — who are at the forefront of a contemporary art movement with art that reimagines representations of women. Through an array of media, these artists use the female figure as their subject and are strong voices for a new generation of artists. Curator Yasha Young offers, “This exhibition addresses the fact that art created by women has been historically dismissed as craft as opposed to fine art, affecting the development of women in art throughout history. I would like to open doors for women artists and encourage them to step out and up.”

Sandra Chevrier

The show fills all three galleries rooms, one dedicated to each artist. In the largest, main space you can see a collection of work by Montreal-based artist Sandra Chevrier, who merges painting and collage in works that reflect upon the self-imposed limitations within our world and the underlying tragedy of oppressed female identity. In her series Cages, finely hand-painted portraits of women are masked with pages from comic books, symbolizing the struggle of having to uphold unrealistic expectations of beauty and perfection.

Sandra Chevrier

By imposing these strict limitations society is placing women in prisons of identity and asking them to become superheroes. In the greater body of her work, the images used within ‘cages’ range from scenes of conflict, triumph and defeat. Often focusing on the latter, the artist highlights the fragility of the superhero, their personal weaknesses and exposes the humanity within the superhuman.

More Photos After The Jump!

Continue reading Jonathan LeVine Gallery Presents Trifecta Group Show!