All Photos By Gail
To make Cost of Living (2014) and other works in this series, Josh Kline interviewed workers – janitorial staff and package delivers – and then made casts of their body parts that they used to complete their daily tasks. In this case, he spoke with the housekeeper named Aleyda, who worked at the Rivington Hotel. Continue reading Cost of Living (Aleyda) By Josh Kline
All Photos By Gail
Part Surrealist Biology Lesson, part Otherworldly Natural History Museum and part full-on Horror Show, Artist Matthew Day Jackson’s latest exhibit, narratively titled Something Ancient, Something New, Something Stolen, Something Blue is sure to turn a few delicate stomachs as it blows minds and leaves jaws slack during its tenure at the gargantuan Hauser & Wirth space on West 18th Street. Continue reading Matthew Day Jackson Exhibits Subtly Disturbing New Work at Hauser and Wirth
All Photos By Gail, Click on any Image to Enlarge
Part two of Saturday night’s opening receptions at Jonathan LeVine Gallery (because there are always two) was a fun little exhibit called Search Party by Philadelphia-based artist Jim Houser. Search Party, the artist’s fourth solo exhibition at the gallery, includes a series of eight new works and a site-specific installation. Some of Houser’s work reminded me very much of the collages I saw at How & Nosm’s Late Confessions pop up exhibit back in February.
Collage with Detail, Below
Through Houser’s signature style of visual poetry and personal iconography, the artist extends his practice of self-examination to include the topic of art making itself. Works in this exhibition serve to consider Houser’s relationship to the artwork he creates, the compulsion to create it and how his lifestyle has, consequently, been formed.
Collage Painting with Two Detail Shots Below. As you can see, there is a lot of humor and childlike whimsy in the art.
The way he mixes words with pictures reminds me also of the work of Stephen Powers.
The artist’s collages become visual poems through which he cathartically communicates his most private thoughts and emotions with surprising candor. By cataloging his experiences and feelings through a unique pictorial language, the artist creates his own brand of curative iconography. His aesthetic often mixes stylized figures, hand-drawn typography and geometric shapes, creating quilt-like collages in a cohesive color palette.
Painting with Detail Below
Jim Houser layers acrylic on wood, fabric and found objects, blurring the lines between collage and sculpture. Once combined, it becomes clear that all of his works are associative and directly related. This deceptively dimensional quality is further highlighted when the pieces are assembled into one of the artist’s elaborate installations, adding to the complexity of each individual piece by emphasizing a greater inter-connectivity to the body of work as a whole.
If you’ll be heading over to LeVine to check out Shag’s Thursday’s Girl exhibit anyway, don’t forget to spend some time looking over Jim Houser’s Search Party to see what you might discover!
Search Party By Jim Houser will be on Exhibit through May 4th, 2013 at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Located at 529 West 20th Street, 9th Floor, in the Chelsea Gallery District.
This statue of a young man holding the severed head of beloved, iconic fast-food mascot Ronald McDonald can be found in Venice, Italy, though I haven’t yet been able to dig up any information on the statue’s exact location or artist. I love how it sends a strong anti-McDonald’s message through the appropriation of the famous statue of Perseus holding the head of Medusa, as seen in the image below. Extreme, yes. Hilarious, also yes. But no amount of over-the-top “McDonald’s is Evil” propaganda will ever keep me away from a tasty Filet O’Fish when the craving strikes.
