dayoutlast is a record of my direct engagement with mostly contemporary art, mostly Los Angelean.

As this blog has evolved since its 2010 inception, so has my perspective. What I once perceived as central within the investigation was what was central, literally, within the photographic frame that I shared here. While still an important consideration, such thinking has also given way to more peripheral considerations, ones also accompanied occasionally by text (written manifestation of thought) and the oscillations between them. What's missing here are larger unknowns surrounding issues of presentation and representation; the amount of time and space it actually takes to accomplish such first-hand observations; and the quandaries between documentation and interpretation.

Despite my attempt to communicate here with image and text what is essential in some respect about the artwork, neither representation should ever be considered a substitution for the primary viewing experience. Of course, occasionally there are exceptions.

Most of the time, these posts are merely remnants---residual fragments---from my last day out.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Martin Soto Climent @ Diane Rosenstein Fine Art


Graffiti Blind,  2010
Plastic blinds, spray paint
84 x 62 x 1 1/2 inches




Tight on Canvas (Bridget),  2010
stockings, canvas, woman's shoe
36 x 24 x 13 inches


When I first saw Soto Climent's artwork at Michael Benevento several years ago (see here), I immediately thought of Senga Negudi's artwork in an exhibition ( "Now Dig This!" ) running concurrently at the Hammer Museum.  See my post from the show here. At that time, I wondered how Soto Climent was invoking and working with territory that had already been well-established by Negudi, some forty some years elsewhere and before.  I also wondered what it meant for a man to be doing work with materials so closely associated with a woman and her intimate body.  Certainly, the signs of hosiery and Nine West heels point to a woman's world (mind you, I'm willing to consider other possibilities as well).

I suppose "Now Dig This!" was gnawing at similar questions about who knows who how and from where by its inclusion and celebration of so many contemporary artists, ones well-established by the end of 2011, but largely unknown outside of Los Angeles, specifically South Los Angeles.  Perhaps "digging" has less to do with groovy talk from an era than it is an attempt to get to the bottom of something.  In Soto Climent's case, I wonder what kind of bottom he is considering?

The two works here also have me wondering about David Hammons (see here) another artist celebrated in "Now Dig This!" In fact the frontispiece for the show bears striking resemblances to the one pictured here. With graffiti often thought to be about pissing contests and objects lodged in women's panty hose as body trash (shit, for example), then I suppose, according to Soto Climent, this could be anybody's game. And he would be right on this point.

As I look more closely at these relationships, I can't help but also wonder if I may be missing something. Part of this has to do with just how much of Soto Climent's work overlaps formally with Negudi's (see here for more examples); the other part is that I can't seem to find a statement from Soto Climent that speaks to appropriation (the likeliest positive explanation) nor to ignorance. If anyone can help suture these questions, do let me know.

In the meantime, also consider the work of Kim Ye.  I thought of her upon seeing Soto Climent's works (posted above) and would be curious to know her thoughts. See here.

I suppose, ultimately, the works and questions posed here speak to our current global identity and our continual discovery of parallel practices.  In my mind, the level of responsibility goes up as we are burdened to spend more time checking sources and considering how our dialogues actually might fit together.  It might be interesting to think about how artworks  such as these from three different generations and three separate locales (Negudi, an African-American  from Los Angeles; Soto Climent born and living in Mexico City; and Ye, a mid-westerner from Illinois by way of Beijing) come together not only to define themselves as individuals but also as participants within an expanding perception and dialogue of world art.

One thing is certain to me for all three, the material sign may have more significance than the medium or the time(s).



B.Wurtz @ Richard Telles Fine Art


Untitled,  2013
Paper, acrylic paint, grommets, plastic lids, thread, graphite
26 x 18 inches



Untitled,  2013
Wood, picture wire, wire hanger, clothespin, string, 
thread, canvas, linen, acrylic paint, buttons, plastic lid
73 1/2 x 16 x 1


Untitled, 2013
Wood, string, thread, bamboo plates, plastic mesh bag,
plastic lids, shoe button, metal eye hooks
73 x 27 x 5 inches



Untitled,  2013
Wood, wire, thread, buttons, plastic containers
62 1/2 x 25 x 25 inches


Untitled,  2014
Buttons, thread, acrylic on canvas
64 x 54 inches





Untitled, 2014
Wood, wire, plastic bags
71 x 31 x 17 inches





Rafael Rozendaal in Liquid Crystal Palace: Recent Works with Jeremy Blake, Curated by Michael Connor and Nate Hitchcock @ Honor Fraser


Into Time 13 11 27, 2013
lenticular painting
61 x 48 inches




intotime.us2012
website infinite













Mai-Thu Perret @ David Kordansky




When you address emptiness, what name do you use?,  2014
glazed ceramic
17 x 21 x 5 inches




Among gods and humans, only I know,  2014
glazed ceramic
13.78 x 28.74 x 19.69 inches





Play with it and even broken tile is gold, 2014
glazed ceramic
5.91 x 31.1 x 19.69 inches




One lamp, ten thousand lamps, lamp after lamp without end, 2014
glazed ceramic
16.14 x 12.6 x 12.6 inches






How can a sparrow know the aspiration of a wild swan?,  2014
glazed ceramic
17 3/4 x 22 x 2 inches






Anthony Pearson @ David Kordansky



Untitled (Etched plaster), 2014
pigmented hyrdocal in walnut frame
24.5 x 48.5 x 3 inches



Untitled (Etched Plaster),  2014
pigmented hyrdocal in walnut frame
24.5 x 18.5 x 2 inches





Untitled (Etched Plaster), 2014
pigmented hyrdocal in walnut frame
24.5 x 18.5 x 2 inches


Untitled (Etched Plaster),  2014
pigmented hydrocal in walnut frame
24.5 x 18.5 x 2 inches


Untitled (Etched Plaster),  2014
pigmented hydrocal in lacquer finished maple frame
24.5 x 18.5 x 2 inches



Untitled (Tablet), 2014
bronze relief with cobalt patina
77 x 23 x 6 inches



Untitled (Etched Plaster), 2014
hydrocal in lacquer finished maple frame
97 x 61 x 3.75


Details (at two different distances).



Untitled (Etched Plaster), 2014
pigmented hydrocal in lacquer finished maple frame
43.25 x 31.25 x 2.25


Mondrian (water in gray). Recent Rashid Johnson show at Kordansky comes to mind (see here), but in a superficial way. Surface and pattern. Audio speaker webbing. Substantial, heavy (at least as far as I can tell). Cf. Valentin (stable mate). Sound of these quiets the intimate view. Overlapping curvilinear and rectilinear lines. Lines that do not resolve onto shape but insist on the movement despite seeming "static" at least in the way white noise would appear on broadcast television outage. Exquisitely stylish objects. Some that are nice in pairs or groups. Hinoki.