“Art is anything you can get away with,” said Marshall McLuhan.  That could mean a lot of things.

It could get us surveying how outlandish an object or gesture can go without leaving the province of art.  Or it could be more about access, a way for the elite and endowed to utilize their exclusive resources.  For example, Juergen Teller gets access to the world’s most visited museum, to a screen legend, and to a super-famous model.  He went to the Louvre, and all you get are these grainy photos.  He even gets to shoot with flash!

Common people looking at Teller

This is the show of the season, given that we are officially into autumn.  What is autumn?  Brown leaves?  Whatever! only in Vermont.  Jewish new year?  Maybe, but then we also have Chinese New Year and Everyone-else New Year in January.  Autumn in New York is Fashion Week! The papers report from the runways, Marc Jacobs is coronated again, and office PCs are tuned into style dot com.

Fittingly (no pun intended) the show of the season should be of, for, and by fashion!  Hence, Juergen Teller welcomes us to Paradis, his fifth show at Lehmann Maupin Gallery.  Herr Teller tours the Louvre with screen legend Charlotte Rampling and cover girl Raquel Zimmerman.  Hot!

Don't just stand there/ let's get to it

Actually, it looks chilly and boring.  I’d rather join Godard and Ana Karina in Band of Outsiders, 1964 – the year Teller was born.

Band of Outsiders, 1964

Instead of playing Snap the Whip, the famous women stand around, looking on.  Never let them see you sweat.

Winslow Homer, Snap the Whip, 1872

Are they depressed?  But it isn’t winter yet!  Bored?  No way, not at the Louvre!  Maybe they simply know their own fabulosity, and so don’t have to demonstrate it through effusive body language.  After all, Teller’s photographs “do not present a standard of beauty but are more akin to a tribute to women and the human form,” according to the gallery P.R.  But that’s hard to swallow when we’re gazing at the #1 fashion model in the world, nude.

How you can Tell(er): overexposure, lots of noise

The press release also claims that Paradis blurs the distinction between his commercial and non-commercial work.  Except that the work was originally commissioned for an elite French magazine and will have a third life in a limited-edition book currently in gestation.  Ch-ching!

Silent Pictures at the CUNY James Gallery

What if Stan Brakhage made comics instead of films?  Curator Andrei Molotiu makes a case in Silent Pictures, a group show of comics artists working in the hinterlands of comics abstraction.  Wait – comics can be abstract?

Silent Pictures brings to the James Gallery at CUNY Graduate Center some of the most vital imaginations found throughout a three-year call for entries.  They come from North America, western Europe, and Australia.  Many are American; almost none are women.  In her catalog essay, James Gallery Director Linda Norden reveals that no women replied to the call.  (Why have there been no great women comic-book artists?)

The show also displays selections from Art Spiegelman’s library of wordless comics; and it features a film program for those who really might want to invoke the ghost of Brakhage.  Never mind that the films have sound.  I wanted to investigate why, but the gallery’s noisy security alarm beeped persistently, relentlessly, mercilessly – a disappointing and intrusive distraction for a unique show otherwise worth extended attention.

Francis Bacon, Man with Dog, 1953

But the segment of Robert Breer’s A Man and His Dog Out for Air, 1955, is absolutely silent.  That’s because the film strips are unspooled and sandwiched over a lightbox.  Frame by frame, we witness loose lines inch toward each other, until they amalgamate into a squiggly scribble that looks like an ant, life-sized.  The restless line continues to transform, until it contorts into the image of a portly man walking a dog.  The whimsical cartoon straddles abstraction and representation, something and nothing, like a time-based Kandinsky.

“A line is a dot that went for a walk,” said Paul Klee, whose ghost coexists here with Brakhage’s spirit, leaning against the wall that bears Billy Mavreas’ Border Suite, 2008.  Reminiscent of drawings from Klee’s Bauhaus, the work looks like comic panels that imploded into fractal regenerations of themselves.

Billy Mavreas, Border Suite, 2008

At a glance, Klee’s Bauhaus colleague, Josef Albers, is apparent in the polychrome plans of Squares within Squares, 2007 by Mark Gonyea.  And Jason Overby, from Oklahoma, could be their diligent protégé.  His studious, tiny notes in Apophenia, 2008 say things like, “A linear structure is created by an abstract binary opposition.  Pencil lets flaws in and is not binary (unless you’re thinking conceptually).”  Shazam!

Mark Gonyea, Squares Within Squares, 2007

Ibn al Rabin exhibits six comics from his collection, Cidre et Schnapps, 2001.  They are hilarious and brilliant.

Ibn al Rabin, Stop Quibbling Please (l) and Pampers Welcome (r), both 2001

In Rabin’s pages, geometric shapes argue with each other, consume each other, and get ambushed in ruthless panelcide.  Funny pages, but they also offer a study of the means by which they exist and the conventions that define comics, in general.

Ibn al Rabin, The Cannibal Frame, 2001

I would focus on other examples, but too many candidates are hung too high for much evaluation.  Many of the drawings and inkjet prints are intimate in scale and rich in detail, so lord knows why the work is hung salon-style, climbing up the walls like your friendly neighborhood you-know-who.  So the walls imitate a comics page?  But the gallery walls already compartmentalize the space like panels on a page.  Whatever; viewers are advised to bring platforms.

Renée French, Straw Dog no. 44, 2009

Renée French is one of the few women in the show, but her colossal drawing Straw Dog no. 44, 2009 is enough work for several people.  If we accept it as multiple drawings, then that adds to the show 29 drawings made by a woman.  And because the multi-paneled drawing echoes the window panes of the gallery, and vice-versa, the work echoes throughout the space.

(l-r) Renée French, Art Spiegelman, Mark Stafford Brandi

Andrei Molotiu tells us in his catalog essay, ”‘Abstract’ here is specific to the medium of comics, and only partly overlaps with the way it is used in other fine arts.”  Still, Mark Stafford Brandi gives us A History of Composition in Abstract Comic Covers, 2001 – a collection of painted collages on masonite panels, one for each ism, trend, and movement from the last few milennia.

Mark Stafford Brandi, A History of Composition in Abstract Comic Covers, 2009

SVA faculty member Gary Panter is in the show. You can read more about his work in this Artforum piece by Andrei Molotiu.

IMAGES: Michael Bilsborough

Artist Otis Houston, Jr.

During back-to-school season, most galleries open marquee solo shows with their flagship, hot, or new artists. Among the new, Davis Rhodes has his first solo show at Team Gallery, Tom Burr his first at Bortolami, Vincent Fecteau at Matthew Marks, and Dasha Shishkin at Zach Feuer.

Boys to Men: (l-r) Justin Conner, Juan Olivares, Matt Keegan, Jack Pierson, Dan McCarthy, Brian Meola at Vincent Fecteau's Opening

Some artvarks attend every opening on big opening nights, like those last week.  Obsessive, they check listings at Artcards.  Next, they plan an itinerary like a chess match.  Sequence galleries by location.  Check to see whether any openings end later than others.  Which galleries dim the lights at 8 on the dot?  Which welcome lingering scenesters for an extra hour?  Some lucky ducks, or those in the right company, make the afterparty, though open bars and lavish dinners are history.

I prefer to focus on shows of friends.  And maybe other artists of special interest.  And CANADA!  At CANADA, friendly smiles and shabby chic fill the room.  And that’s just the art.  The people are unusually amiable, low-key, and freewheeling.  No heels, blazers, hair gel, attitude.  It’s not a scene.  It’s a culture!

CANADiAns

CANADA opens an unassuming group show of artists with legit exhibition history, covering several generations (Dona Nelson, Chris Martin, Otis Nelson) and demographics, from sort-of outsider (Otis Houston, Jr.) to total insider (Agathe Snow).  The paintings and sculptures are messy, bumpy, juicy, festive, and…mercurial?  In a good way.

Artists Liz Markus (l) and Katherine Bernhardt (r) rockin the velour HOT

A nice guy named Tony gave me the low-down on Otis Houston, Jr and pointed me to the helpful blog/archive that he maintains for Otis.

Otis' overseer Tony Schultz

Katherine Bernhardt (in vintage, velour shoulder pads) and Liz Markus shared Swatch watch memories.  Andy Coolquitt told Michael Mahalchick and Benjamin Tischer about his installation at Moss, the fancy SoHo design store.  The venerable Chris Martin glowed about his friend, painter Mamie Tinkler.  Matt Greene shared studio updates and Anne Eastman described her adventurous flights to Europe: intercontinental, incontinent, incredible!  Dear Airlines, please carry an emergency stash of baby diapers! -Love, Anne

SVA alum Dan Nadel = PictureBox

CANADA openings also have the prettiest girls:

Chris Martin obviously knows this.

Matt Greene obviously knows this.

Artists Matt Greene and Trinie Dalton

But don’t take their word for it!

IMAGES: Michael Bilsborough

“Years ago, a stranger landed in Brooklyn and quietly rented a storefront. No one saw him; the only evidence of his arrival was a sign that appeared in the window reading, ‘Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery.’ Soon after, art exhibitions cropped up in the space, and three directors became the face of the gallery, but we’ve never seen the man behind the eponym. 

So says the xeroxed playbill for Klaus von Nichtssagend: The Musical, a live performance presented by NYC artist Ryan McNamara:

“See, Klaus starts his first day at the prestigious Old Country Art Academy
Not that he is a particularly talented artist.
His acceptance may just have to do with his mother owning this town’s most prestigious gallery.
On top of that, Frau von Nichtssagend is running for mayor of this fine town.
Oh dear, she heard me. Her ears are sonar when it comes to hearing her name.”

So once upon a time, the earnest art student Klaus wiled away blissful afternoons in the German countryside with Mikke, his schoolmate and soulmate.  Enveloped in virginal love, Klaus and Mikke met regularly for “tutoring sessions,” modeling for each other’s drawings and swapping ideas – among other things.

Grand Dame (Miriam Katz)

Foreseeing the inevitability of this impervious passion, Klaus comes forth to his mother, Frau von Nichtssagend, played by the sizzling Miriam Katz doing Roxie Hart doing Cinderella’s Stepmother.  A scheming shrew and gallery grand dame, Frau Frown is occupied with “Belgian clients” and political ambitions.  Correctly, Klaus predicts her disapproval, not only because Mikke is a six-foot tall wooden ladder: “Mikke is installation and we are exhibition!” she cries.

Ryan McNamara as Klaus von Nichtssagend

What should be an emancipation from his Mother’s icy clutches instead leads to a crueller leash.  ”Enough about love!  What about power?” shrieks the Frau.  Choosing political profile over her son’s heart, our heartless harridan trammels him into a corner of the gallery.  Ruled with masking tape, the small square cordons him off like a Richard Serra Prop sculpture.  There must he wait until after the big election:

“Behind the tape with you!/ Your love is not true/ You are stuck until the votes are in!/ Foolish love will not cost me my win”

Icy clutches

Inspired through love’s extrasensory mechanics, Klaus goes all reverse Galatea, posing as a sculpture that needs to be shipped – to Mikke.  But his postal plan is thwarted.  When the crate arrives, Frau von Nichtssagend leaps out from the package (LOL total Trojan Horse!!! LMAO), armed with a level to “straighten out” our loving ladder.  She goes all Klara Liden on Mikke, beating the last breath from his rungs (OMFG!).

Such tragedy!  Poor Klaus in a loveless world!  Die Leiden des jungen Nichtssagend!

Triumph of the Vill(ain)?

Bereft of his love and his mother’s acceptance, Klaus expatriates himself to Williamsburg.  He loves his community, but hates the G train.

“So, Klaus moved to Brooklyn
And he built a gallery
To fill this void
But, that really didn’t work
So he gave the gallery
to Ingrid, Rob and Sam
then he left the country
and ever since that FATEful day
he’s been SKIing in the Alps..”

Kiss Goodbye

The cast of this one-night-only, sold-out performance included Ryan McNamara, Miriam Katz, Reid Bartelme, and Sara Marcus; with a clad-in-black-leotard chorus including Sam Roeck, Sabine Rogers, and Myles Ashby.  Music and lyrics by Ryan McNamara.  [Many of these voluptuous bodies were made for tights (am i right or am i right?).  Was that the birthday gift to itself from this gallery born five years ago this month?]  Thank you and thank you: Rob Hult, Ingrid Bromberg Kennedy, and Sam Wilson.  Happy bday, Klaus.

A Star is Born

IMAGES: Michael Bilsborough