520 West 24th St, NYC
Reflexive Self
June 24 - August 14, 2010
Artists: Kim Dorland, Stefanie Gutheil, Kris Knight. The Dead Dads Club Corporation, Marc Seguin
So as I round the corner of twenty third and tenth to smoke in front of the Half King I encounter an unfamiliar face. Short sleeve collared shirt with dark slacks coke bottle glasses and a clip board first convinced me that this was either a viral ad campaign gone wrong or another artist desperate enough for attention that he had come out on a blisteringly hot summer in Chelsea to shamelessly whore himself on the busiest corner in the neighborhood.
Fortunately, I was wrong on both accounts. He was a registered Republican out recruiting for the team. Apparently there is a Republican representative primary in Chelsea this month and the trend of Republican/Chelsea integration has bumped from the newspapers to the street. I shouldn’t have been so surprised; after all, other unusually conservative people of influence have been trickling into Chelsea over the last few years. Ken Mehlman is a GOP operative and was a Bush administration higher-up who resigned as chairman of the Republican National Committee during the last administration. He'll probably be on critics' gaydar for his decision to settle in Chelsea but I see it as just another a testament to the ever-changing landscape that is NYC. But I digress…
I take one last puff and flick my butt into the street as I beat my feet up to 24th street to check in on Mike Weiss gallery and their new spectacular effort Reflexive Self. Billed as a view of self in the context of the people and situations around us, the show fills the walls comfortably with flatworks and paintings by some of the best young artists out there. I was excited to see Kris Knight’s ethereal portraits that seem like they are renderings of dreams within dreams, desperately holding on to the narrative representational world as it dissolves into non-linear fantasy. I first saw his work two years ago at a small gallery called Art Space MCV near the Brooklyn Navy Yard in a show curated by k,Tracey Norman (formerly of Yancey Richardson Gallery). I was amazed to see how his work has evolved in exciting new directions. Kris is one of those artists that turn any show into something that transcends. In a show full of work that transcends he’s not the only artist to shock and awe. The Dead Dads Club presents a crayon collaboration to express what they call “a fuck-you attitude and litany of self referential information”. I just thought they were exceptionally imaginative and a nice juxtaposition hanging across from the centerpiece of the exhibition. If the collection of Hitler paintings defaced by goopy viscous blobs of abstract expressionist makings were any more obvious they wouldn’t work. And if they were rendered with any less than a perfect masterful hand they could easily slip into kitch. But they don’t. Instead they appear to have required a laborious effort to represent and are infused with symbolic mediums like human ash and inferences to the politics of 20th century art. In a world that increasingly feels like nothing is ever shocking anymore I must confess that I was somewhat taken back by the wall of Hitlers.
For an exhibition that served up one of the most sobering beers available the work was intoxicating enough and gets a bonus Double A rating. For every show out there that eats away at your soul like cancer there is a redeeming Chelsea gem like this that keeps you thinking you might be wrong about the future of the art world.
Recommendation Level: HIGH
Refreshments: Coors Light in a Can
Rating: Not Fit For Human Consumption
It has always been a dream of mine to quench my summer thirst with swill from a can that’s been doctored with Thermo chromatic ink so that I can tell if my beer is cold without touching it. Of course the real purpose of this silly marketing ideas is to inform the consumer when the beer is at optimal temperature to consume, but I submit to you good people of New York- There is no optimal temperature for this beer to be consumed at. Good people we’ve been took, we’ve been hoodwinked, and bamboozled, led astray I tell you. You didn’t land in the cold golden flavor of the Rockies- the cold golden flavor of the Rockies landed on you! Wait what was I talking about? …Oh right. I know im going to catch a holy living hell from all you frat boys but Coors Light is a silver bullet to head. Not recommended for human consumption. Do me a favor and call Coors will you. Tell em Avery sent you and your seeking financial compensation for psychological damages.
Coors Brewing Co., Golden, Colo.
(303) 279-6565; www.coors.com
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