By: Gallery Crawler and Simmy Swinder
In the midst of an abnormally steamy and a typically slow New York City gallery season, the Lush Life exhibitions aim to inspire cross-media buzz. Curators Franklin Evans and Omar Lopez Chahoud have organized the work of 60 artists across nine shows at nine Lower East Side galleries—Sue Scott Gallery, On Stellar Rays, Invisible-Exports, Lehmann Maupin, Y Gallery, Collette Blanchard Gallery, Salon 94 Freemans, Scaramouche, and Eleven Rivington—each corresponding to a chapter of Richard Price’s celebrated crime novel set in the LES, Lush Life.
These exhibitions are a group of group shows at galleries of various sizes and varying levels of prominence, which, of course, all but guarantees that the results will be a mixed bag. That being said, the experience of walking into each of the galleries, be it the luxuriously vaulted heights of Lehmann Maupin or the tiny, stuffy converted storage room that comprises Y Gallery, was very similar. In each white space hung or stood works in several media, chattering away to each other, talking at cross purposes, buzzing distractingly. And in each space one or two works pull you immediately, silently in.
Lehamann Maupin’s exhibition, “Chapter Four: Let it Die,” yielded the best pickings. The most affecting works in the exhibition correspond directly to the pulsing dread and madness that envelop the character of Billy Marcus, who obsessively wanders the LES alternately looking for his dead son and his son’s killers. Rashid Johnson’s large, framed mirror spray-painted with the word “DEATH” is both a crass declaration and a more subtle suggestion of a momento mori. Nina Lola Bachhuber’s series of 16 pen and ink drawings of capering, skeleton-headed creatures, Untitled (2009), also recalls Medieval momento mori. However, Bachhuber’s creatures often cavort too sweetly to serve as a sobering reminder of our mortality. Amy Logenecker-Brown’s small canvases (10 x 8 inches), Bedroom (2009) and Bathroom (2009), yield maximum horror per square inch: a figure seeming to spontaneously combust in a dingy apartment, an ominous white cloud erupting from a battered toilet stall. The woozy fright of Bedroom is intensified by the work hung to its right, Dani Leventhal’s deer-blood painting, Untitled (2008), which looks like nothing so much as huge scorch mark.
Salon 94 Freeman’s also offers rich rewards in “Chapter Seven: Wolf Tickets.” Like Frazier’s self-portrait, Patrick Lee’s portrait, Deadly Friends (Big Top) (2010), depicts a person or a character that would be at home in the streets. The image of Big Top simultaneously attracts viewers to him and even through the mediating graphite and paper, puts them on their guard. Part of Big Top’s appeal is his hyper-intelligent wariness; he would not be so easily caught by the novel’s Quality of Life squad. Erik Benson’s Overgrowth (2010), is an excellent example of his unique painting style and could easily serve as a stage for the unfolding events in Lush Life. His images are finely detailed renderings of urban ruin and waste which each feature a specific element that subtly rises off the surface of the canvas through the buildup of millimeter thick layers of paint.
Ultimately, it is hard to find the connection between most of the works in the exhibitions and the novel, which amounts to a wasted opportunity. However, this lack of narrative cohesion will likely only trouble those thousands of New Yorkers who have read the novel. On the other hand, as a successful work of cross-pollination, the Lush Life exhibitions are a success. The opening was well attended, by both art-world grandees and neighbors, and with so many works on display everyone could find something they liked. Moreover, this kind of team-work benefits the smaller galleries and the less-well-known artists they represent who will gain cache by association.
Price’s character Eric Cash had this to say about his fellow LES artists: “They were the crest of the wave, young gifted, privileged, serious for now about making art…and not only reasonably confident in their ability to do so but also intheir god-given right to do so.” One can’t help but make that connection between Cash’s jaded description of his compatriots and the cheerful crowds who thronged the exhibitions. But if Price’s book has one overarching message, it is that the LES cannot go back, cannot rewind the tape to earlier decades. Today’s LES, a hipster playground studded with galleries and boutiques, can’t be returned to it’s roots as an ethnic enclave. The beat goes on. And as all the galleries included in their press releases, “ ‘Lush Life’ will be the present for what will become a living ghost to the future form into which the LES will inevitably morph.”
On Stellar Rays Chapter Two: Liar June 23-August 1
Invisible-Exports Chapter Three: First Bird (A Few Butterflies) June 25-July 31
Lehmann Maupin Chapter Four: Let It Die July 8-August 13
Y Gallery Chapter Five: Want Cards July 8-July 25
Collette Blanchard Gallery Chapter Six: The Devil You Know July 8-August 13
Salon 94 Freemans Chapter Seven: Wolf Tickets June 24-July 30
Scaramouche Chapter Eight: 17 Plus 25 is 32 July 8-August 7
Eleven Rivington Chapter Nine: She’ll Be Apples July 15-August 13
Read the full article at www.artobserved.com
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