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East End Abstraction At Spanierman
Joan Baum |
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"Gray Area" by Josh Dayton, 2008, acrylic and paper on canvas. |
East Hampton - This is, simply put, a beautiful show and an attractive arrangement of significant work. The exhibition is composed of painting, sculpture, and mixed media produced by local artists with wider reputations, who, while still evincing distinctive styles, also surprise with some subtle changes. Thus, the ambiguity (even if unintended) of the title - “East End Abstraction: Six Directions.” Although curator Arlene Bujese says that the title refers to different “personal aesthetic idioms” as defined “within an abstract rubric,” some of the six seem to be exploring their own new directions or showing more variety.
Certainly the exhibit gives the general public a fuller appreciation of Hans Van de Bovenkamp, especially those who mainly know only his large, brushed-silver metal sculptures that sit commandingly outdoors around the Hamptons. But here he is with smaller, smooth, curved, free-form bronzes, elegant shapes that create space by way of center portals and welded cantilevered “tildes” of subtly spotted dark gray-brown. Seeming at once mythological or calligraphic, and eminently tactile, they arch and dip and reveal at various angles different and deeply satisfying configurations.
Josh Dayton continues his love affair with acrylic and paper on canvas. Bold blues, oranges, yellows, olive greens, and flecks of red press under, over and against black cut-outs, ribboned swirls, and swaths of dry brush. But some pieces, such as the large “Gray Area.” with its crinkled rice paper, generous use of white space, and pastel color expanses show him, in his own words, “opening things up more,” simplifying design, having fewer different shapes, and less linear activity. Working as usual with “no preconceived ideas,” and importing sections from other pieces, he says that even he was surprised by some of the new effects.
"Marilyn's Dream" by Hans Van de Bovenkamp, 2008, bronze. |
It must be a Darlene Charneco if it’s got nails you say, but her mixed-media compositions, that also use enamel and acrylic, may startle here in their diversity. Each of five pieces on view evidences unique nail size, angle of application, and color and placement on the painted wood canvases. The result, in the aggregate, is an enhanced understanding of Charneco’s art as craft. The smaller pieces, more geometric in structure, earth-toned, with slight bubble textures in areas not dotted with nails, contrast dramatically with “Reading the Ancestors” where big nails stick out at various angles and, arranged as irregular horizontals, generate a sense of ancient text. The large, striking red “Puja” also shows how concentrated masses of flattened nails in certain areas can produce an illusion of different background hues.
Jonathan Thomas (d. 2005), who may be remembered as Edward Albee’s partner, solos here with arresting totemic figures carved out of wood and embellished black acrylic and rope. Presented in three different heights and positioned on black square platforms, they seem most striking composed as checkerboard groups, especially downstairs, where 15 rough-textured sentinels constitute a primitive phalanx and exemplify, not surprisingly, Thomas’ studies in mathematics and art history. The figures reference ethnic culture as symmetrical design playfully touched with rope details, wound innards, and wisps of hair.
And what well-composed, seemingly spontaneous, fun in Fulvio Massi’s acrylic, oil, ink, pastel (sometimes crayon) paper, graffiti-like, surrealist compositions. Although Massi says he does a lot of “dark” work, the selection here nicely complements that of his friend and mentor, Dayton. Thin lines knotted into wild circles spiral out, skip off to lone space of light blue or ice white and peek around and through layers of pigment and small daubs of bold color (a heart, an eyeball, a fish, a bug, a cross?). Suggestive of a background in graphic design, the pieces slowly reveal what the architecturally trained artist calls their “constructionist personalities.” Interested in depicting the “stratification of time,” Massai achieves his goal most obviously in “Heavy Weather” where his signature tightly wound overlapping lines hint at white sails and a storm.
Given the number of works by each artist on display here, it’s tempting to call this show ‘Carol Hunt And Colleagues’. Her huge acrylic on canvas, “Misty Morning,” dominates the gallery window, her acrylics and pastels take over a front room, and more Hunts - watercolor and inks, monotype, etchings - are downstairs. Good for her. Many of the pastels share palette colors with “Misty Morning,” where watery and opaque freeform shapes of bold and subdued orange, rust-brown, deep rose and wine-red create a joyous surface on unprimed canvas that partially absorbs the pigment dots and brush swaths. Series are also on view - smaller ink-acrylic-graphite-and-crayon pieces that prove what Hunt says: “I do something every day.” She also loves to “go with the seasons.” Downstairs it’s still spring but upstairs, including her own attire at the opening, necklace and all, it’s warm - creamy beige, olive green and brown - even if her fall palette appears to have taken on a slightly more somber tone with the admixture of black squiggle lines and black intruding center brushwork. “Misty Morning,” though livelier than the pastels (maybe a summer work?) is nonetheless suggestive of a new direction, and, indeed, Hunt says she seems to be working more these days on larger works.
“East End Abstraction: Six Directions” will run through Oct. 27. Spanierman Gallery, LLC in East Hampton is located at 68 Newton Lane.
"Misty Morning" by Carol Hunt, 2008, acrylic on canvas. |
Joan Baum lives in Springs and covers literature and the arts for print and radio.
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