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Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: David Wojnarowicz, Bread Sculpture

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Bread Sculpture
All Photos By Gail

David Wojnarowicz (1954 – 1992) used red string as a material throughout his practice. From his early supermarket posters to the flower paintings, he stitched red string into the surface of his compositions to suggest the seams and irreconcilable breaks in culture. In his unfinished film, A Fire In MY Belly (1986 – 87), Wojnarowicz included footage of the stitching together of a broken loaf of bread. This sculpture is a physical manifestation of that earlier idea.  The film also included footage of what appeared to be a man’s lips being sewn together. A version of that image by Andreas Sterzing — featuring Wojnarowicz himself — would become one of the most galvanizing images to come out of the AIDS crisis.

Photographed as Part of the Exhibit, History Keeps Me Awake at Night, at The Whitney Musuem.

Bread Sculpture

 

Arts and Culture

James Cohan Gallery Presents Fred Tomaselli’s Current Events

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Firey Swirl
After Oct. 16, 2010, 2014, By Fred Tomaselli. Photo-collage, Leaves, Acrylic, and Resin on Wood Panel (All Photos By Gail)

My first exposure to painter/collagist Fred Tomaselli’s work was his exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum back in 2011, so I was very excited about attending the opening reception for his latest collection of paintings and collages entitled Current Events, which opened at the James Cohan Gallery on May 1st.

Firey Swirl Product Detail
Detail from After Oct. 16, 2010

In his fourth solo exhibition at the gallery, Tomaselli presents eights new collage paintings and over 30 works from his ongoing New York Times collage series. The gallery space is huge and there is a ton of cool stuff to look at.

Black Star By Fred Tomaselli
Black Star

Detail from Black Star
Detail from Black Star

Tomaselli’s art is very visually psychedelic, but there is also so much going on as far as the actual form of the work and the story each tells that you could spend hours studying and enjoying each piece.

Gyre By Fred Tomaselli
Gyre

Fish Spew Detail
Detail from Gyre

As the exhibit’s press release explains, “over the course of a career that spans three decades, Tomaselli has transformed his daily life and many obsessions — gardening, birding, fly-fishing, recreational drugs – into mind-bending, consciousness-expanding paintings.

Bird and Serpent
Penetrators

Serpent Detail
Serpent’s Body Detail from Pentrators

Since March 16th, 2005 Tomaselli has been working on The New York Times paintings. According the the Press Release, “He became absorbed by the photo on the front page in which he describes, “Bernie Ebbers, the just convicted WorldCom chairman, was clutching the hand of his wife as he was being expelled from ‘the Eden of Finance’ by the camera-wielding angels of the paparazzi.” Drawing and collaging directly on the photo, Tomaselli created his first “collaboration” with the lead page of The New York Times. The series now consists of 80+ works.”

Here are a few from the exhibit:

NYT Queens Catholic Church
Nov. 25, 2010

NYT Putin\
Nov. 9, 2011

NYT Oval Office
Aug. 19, 2009

NYT Gingrich
Jan. 21, 2012

So, you know what you like to look at and what stimulates your mind. Surely I do not need to say anymore to talk you into going to see this exhibit: just do yourself a favor and go.

Fred Tomaselli’s Current Events will be on Exhibit Through June 14th, 2014 at James Cohan Gallery, Located at 533 West 26th Street in the Chelsea Gallery District. Hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM.