Channa Horwitz

SOLO EXHIBITION

Searching/Structures 1964 – 2007  @  Aanant & Zoo, Berlin Germany

January 17 – March 14, 2009

Language Series II, 2004 -2005, 21 paintings, plaka and casein on rag board, 75 x 73 inches

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John Coplans + Amanda Means 

Distilled  @  Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston MA

January 2 – February 3, 2009

Left: Coplans Interlocking Fingers No. 1, 1999 gelatin silver print, 33.5″ x 26.75″  

Right: Means, Water Glass 1, 2004 gelatin silver print, 46″ x 38″

courtesy Howard Yezersky Gallery

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Diane Landry

GROUP EXHIBITION:

C’est arrivé près de chez vous. L’art actuel à Québec (It Happened in Your Neighborhood. Contemporary Art in Quebec)  @  Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec

December 4, 2008 – April 12, 2009

Performance  @  Museum auditorium
January 16 & 17, 2009 at 8pm

The Lost Shield, 2005, video installation

Organized around themes – The Good Life, From Bric-a-Brac to Baroque, Bodies’ Resonances, The State of the Premises (Sound Salon) and Postures –, the exhibition will highlight the vitality of the artistic milieu, the quality and relevance of its production vis-à-vis the choices and challenges dominating the national and international scenes, and the fundamental role its actors play in terms of current Québec culture. To do so, the showing features pieces from the MNBAQ’s current art collection, which has grown considerably in recent years, and outside loans.

Tom Marioni

Artforum.com, critic’s picks

January 2009

Door Must Be Either Open or Closed, 2002, drypoint with aquaint printed on yellow and black, 17 x 11-1/2 inches

Crown Point Press

January 9 – February 24, 2009

Deploying lore is a key strategy in Conceptual art—there’s always a backstory. Veteran Conceptualist Tom Marioni’s current exhibition adds extra layers of narrative, as well as an endearing sense of whimsy, as he organizes into narrative groups thirty-three etchings and woodcuts he’s made over the past twenty-eight years at this press. The exhibition is titled “Fabliaux,” an allusion to Marioni’s revisions of classic fairy tales: “Rip Van Winkle,” “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” “Cinderella,” and the like. The texts accompanying these works, which are adult in the sense that they acknowledge art, food, work, and sensuality, have been published in a thirty-five-page artist’s book, while on the gallery walls, signs give context to groupings—some salon-style––by noting the story title as well as the subtext. The “Jack and the Beanstalk” section, for example, with works spanning from 1988 to 2006, is denoted SCULPTURE. The six prints in this grouping are vertical in format, and more than one involves Marioni’s preferred practice of using his physicality—the length of his reach—to dictate the scale and arc of his marks. The images allude to Georges Braque’s assemblages and material alchemy, while the written narrative cynically substitutes an abstract sculptor for the goose who lays golden eggs. A number of the works here express Marioni’s affection for gold, which is fully apparent in the “Goldilocks” section. Two prints from last year depict circles articulated with repeated lines and separately are titled after Gertrude Stein and Kermit the Frog.

Marioni’s prints are striking for their elegance and a stylistic range that articulates Zen-inflected Minimalism, Cubism, graphic Pop, Asian brushwork, photography, and architectural drawing. Refreshingly, this visually complex and inventive show dresses up its retrospective function in storybook disguise. Concurrently, Marioni is enacting his classic The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends Is the Highest Form of Art, which he began in 1970, every week at SF MoMA as part of “The Art of Participation” exhibition. Both shows highlight the artist’s graciousness, wit, and artful appreciation of a good yarn.

 - Glen Helfand

 ©2009 artforum.com