Oxxxymiron and Kanye West one face
(as well as the artist himself) in a series of four-by-seven-foot paintings on canvas. The work is titled I Became a Famous Artist. It is a work in progress, a sketch of a possible future. It is not a work of art. The fact that it is not art does not diminish its power or significance, and it is certainly not a sign of artistic decline. Rather, it is a brilliant, unexpected statement of confidence in the artists ability to transform his artistic career from one of fame and failure to one of creative mastery. I am sure that he will be successful in the future. I look forward to seeing it.
, a group of characters that recalls the characters in an early-80s photo shoot, but the actual figures are none of those. In fact, they are models who have been rendered in a flat, photographic style, but with the addition of tattoos. Their faces are painted over, but their tattoos remain visible. Their only contact with the world is through a set of headphones. They are silent.What is perhaps most striking about the artists work is that it takes a stance that is simultaneously detached and self-critical. It is an attitude that is both playful and critical, but also calls attention to the ways in which the social and the private become indistinguishable when the individual is reduced to a cipher, a cipher that serves as a signifier of the collective. The artists seem to be suggesting that the present moment is marked by the possibility of an ironic reversal, and that the contemporary moment is marked by the possibility of a playful and critical return to the past. The irony here is one of the many paradoxes of our post-human world. It is the one that is at once so different and so familiar, so far removed from the present and so close to the past. It is ironic that the artists are questioning the possibility of an ironic return, because the ironic is the only way to go. The irony is always present, and it is not an end in itself. But it is also a sign of the times that we find ourselves thinking about the past, the present, and the future.
. The people of the world are not like the people of the world who are, but they are not alone.
Oxxxymiron and Kanye West one face of the figure, as well as the black-robed, white-robed Man. In the latter image, a man in a hat, in a white shirt and blue jeans, lies in a diorama of three mannequin heads. His face is distorted, the muscles of his upper body are pronounced, and his mouth is wide open, as if he is being swallowed up by his head. The black-robed man is also in a diorama, this one with three mannequin heads, one on top of the other, and the third and fourth in a pair of sunglasses, one behind the other, standing at the center of the diorama. The man has a black-robed headdress, a white shirt, and a pair of white pants. He is standing in the middle of the diorama, looking straight into the lens of a camera. The black-robed man is standing to the right of the lens, with his hands in the air. He is holding a large white umbrella. The black-robed man is standing to the left, but is closer to the camera. The black-robed man is standing on the bottom edge of the diorama. The white man is standing on the top, holding a small white umbrella. The white-robed man is on the bottom, with his hands in the air. The black-robed man is standing on the top, with his hands in the air. The white-robed man is standing on the bottom. The black-robed man is standing on the top, with his hands in the air. The white-robed man is standing on the bottom. The black-robed man is standing on the top, with his hands in the air. The white-robed man is standing on the top, with his hands in the air. The black-robed man is standing on the top.
Oxxxymiron and Kanye West one face, and Lili Lechner, the youngest member of the group, was the only one not included in this show. And yet the curators went all the way to the gallerys press office to get Lechner, who is clearly the most accomplished of the group, in touch with West. This was a pity, as Lechner has a lot of great work on her plate. Her paintings are really beautiful, and her drawings are some of the best in the show, and she has a great sense of color, a sensibility that is simultaneously abstract and representational. But theres something missing from this exhibition, something that could have made the show as a whole more convincing. At one point in the catalogue essay, West points out that Lechner isnt even a young artist, and thats not a criticism. Theres plenty to admire in her oeuvre, but the lack of a sense of her own age makes it hard to like the show.I don't know what to make of the fact that Lechner is now ninety-three, and that shes been showing regularly in New York since the mid-80s, and her work has grown considerably more refined. It might be that the more refined her paintings become, the less interesting they will be to look at, and the more relevant they will be to her work. But then again, her paintings are not really representing anything—theyre just good paintings. Theyre not even bad.But perhaps the curators werent aware of the fact that Lechner isnt a young artist, and that the paintings arent really representing anything. I think they may have been. I asked the curators to point out exactly what Lechner has done since she was a child, and they said, Well, thats all, thats all. And thats all thats got to say. What Ive been saying is that Lechner has been an artist for a long time.
©2024 Lucidbeaming