Art-Heavy Weekend, Pt. 2
Part 2 of 3 of my art obsessed weekend!
Saturday: Openings at 6150
I didn't get to see as much as I'd hoped, as I mistakenly thought that the openings took place from 6-9pm. But I did get to catch Chris Finley at ACME before the whole complex closed down for the weekend.
Chris Finley
"Friggin' Curve"
ACME
February 11 - March 11
Here, Chris Finley presents us with a strange combination of dynamic tan and fatigues-colored paintings and mixed-media sculptures, inflected with hints of Tatlin, Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase," Julie Mehretu and Matthew Ritchie--but poised on ellipses. Though I love Ritchie's work a great deal, what's pleasant about Finley's latest show at ACME is that he isn't urging us to to buy into any kind of mythology; it's as though he's doing these techno-sexy shape-shifting paintings for the pure joy and intricacies of invented forms. And thus he makes the act of looking a fun and engaged experience.
Finley seems to be particularly attuned to invention and innovation when he attaches to the paintings delicate lines connected to wooden hanging sculptures (i.e. line drawings in space). It is in these moments--when the wood punctures or touches the surface of a painting--that we see Finley attempting to negotiate the boundaries of painterly and sculptural space. It's difficult to pull off, but this artist does it with visual intelligence. And it's actually quite fun to get the chance to go underneath the wires and sculptures, just to get to the paintings. Almost like a minimal and mini obstacle course, but with all the obstacles hanging from the ceiling...
The best part of the show is in the smaller gallery space where there's a device in the middle of the room that's attached to all the paintings on the walls. When I went, a guy was standing in the middle of the room hanging out and then he suddenly said, "Oh, I have to do this thing!" So when he pulled down the device, the paintings were raised to reveal other paintings underneath. I'm trying to figure out what its 18th-to-19th century equivalent is, and I keep wanting to say that it's like a cabinet of wonders but that doesn't really have the same performative quality as this does; and it's not necessarily the same as a science display where you open a box to reveal some sort of answer. (When I think of something appropriate, I'll certainly add it here!) Anyway, I love any kind of mechanical devices in artwork--even if it comes in bare-bones form--and Finley's device feels especial in its revelatory qualities. The exhibition definitely makes me curious about his turn from figurative work to abstraction. But it makes me wonder even more what other tricks Finley might have up his sleeve.
Saturday: Openings at 6150
I didn't get to see as much as I'd hoped, as I mistakenly thought that the openings took place from 6-9pm. But I did get to catch Chris Finley at ACME before the whole complex closed down for the weekend.
Chris Finley"Friggin' Curve"
ACME
February 11 - March 11
Here, Chris Finley presents us with a strange combination of dynamic tan and fatigues-colored paintings and mixed-media sculptures, inflected with hints of Tatlin, Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase," Julie Mehretu and Matthew Ritchie--but poised on ellipses. Though I love Ritchie's work a great deal, what's pleasant about Finley's latest show at ACME is that he isn't urging us to to buy into any kind of mythology; it's as though he's doing these techno-sexy shape-shifting paintings for the pure joy and intricacies of invented forms. And thus he makes the act of looking a fun and engaged experience.
Finley seems to be particularly attuned to invention and innovation when he attaches to the paintings delicate lines connected to wooden hanging sculptures (i.e. line drawings in space). It is in these moments--when the wood punctures or touches the surface of a painting--that we see Finley attempting to negotiate the boundaries of painterly and sculptural space. It's difficult to pull off, but this artist does it with visual intelligence. And it's actually quite fun to get the chance to go underneath the wires and sculptures, just to get to the paintings. Almost like a minimal and mini obstacle course, but with all the obstacles hanging from the ceiling...
The best part of the show is in the smaller gallery space where there's a device in the middle of the room that's attached to all the paintings on the walls. When I went, a guy was standing in the middle of the room hanging out and then he suddenly said, "Oh, I have to do this thing!" So when he pulled down the device, the paintings were raised to reveal other paintings underneath. I'm trying to figure out what its 18th-to-19th century equivalent is, and I keep wanting to say that it's like a cabinet of wonders but that doesn't really have the same performative quality as this does; and it's not necessarily the same as a science display where you open a box to reveal some sort of answer. (When I think of something appropriate, I'll certainly add it here!) Anyway, I love any kind of mechanical devices in artwork--even if it comes in bare-bones form--and Finley's device feels especial in its revelatory qualities. The exhibition definitely makes me curious about his turn from figurative work to abstraction. But it makes me wonder even more what other tricks Finley might have up his sleeve.
posted by Melissa at 2:53 PM
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