Amy Tidwell scans small painting moments for

Result #1

Amy Tidwell scans small painting moments for vernacular meaning. Her series of photo-graphs of glassware and of the linoleum-covered carpeted walls of her studio, Untitled, 1994, as well as the series of black-and-white photographs of the artists studio walls, Untitled, 1993, confirm her status as an artist of the 20th century. For all her apparent devotion to photography, she is a painter in the best sense of the term: the image she uses is that of a mirror, a mirror, a mirror. She uses her camera to look at herself and to look at the world. In this, her most recent work, she seems to have had the good sense to leave the mirror and the world behind. In the past, her images have been taken as self-portraits, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But the photographs are not self-portraits, and she has moved on to other uses of photography, which could be seen as a continuation of the past work.The photographs of the studio walls that were shown here are the most recent and most personal work in the series. They reveal the original wall of the artists studio, which was destroyed by fire in February 1994. The photographs are of the artist in her studio, looking out at her work, her camera, and the world. The photographs show the artist alone, but they are also a reflection on her creative process. The fire was apparently a small explosion, and the flames have not yet faded. In them, the photographer faces the camera, the audience, and her own shadow. The fire is what they see; the fire is what they see. In this, the photographs are a continuation of her earlier works on paper, and of her earlier photographs of herself in a mirror. The fire is what she faces, and the fire is what she remains. This is the photographic process of reflection and transformation. The fire is what shes reflected upon; the fire is what she remains.

Result #2

Amy Tidwell scans small painting moments for vernacular information, and then combines the photographs with text that floats on the surface like a folktale, explaining, for example, that the first question asked about a painting was, What is the relationship between the word painting and the word ?" The artist could be seen as a miniature, as the past as the present.Tidwells recent exhibition, with its title The Shrinking Male, seemed to reflect the current obsession with the shrinking male body, in which women have played a starring role in the media. The new works, all made in the past two years, are based on photographs that the artist took in nightclubs and bars. In addition to the male dancers, he also included a set of photographs taken by a female photographer who was later identified as the artist. The photos show men in clubs, all too aware that they are being photographed. In one, a man dances in a striped poncho, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. He looks like the stereotypical emaciated caricature of a Hollywood sex worker, while a couple of women in a club wear the same striped poncho and the same pair of shorts as the man. Both men are in a state of undress, which seems to be an entirely appropriate state for a man who has just stepped out of a nightclub.Tidwells earlier works include the videos of men, but these are shot in a much more domestic setting. His photographs, however, are not typically taken for fashion magazines. Rather, they are taken by the artist himself. The photographs are shot in nightclubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the pictures are then edited and transformed by the artist into a series of digital images. In one series of images, a man is seen wearing a striped poncho and a pair of shorts, one of which is a poncho in the foreground. The image is shot from the waist up, with a view of the crowd below.

Result #3

Amy Tidwell scans small painting moments for vernaculars, and then photographs them as scrapbooks. Her photographs are often more compelling than the paintings, for the same reason. The photographs have a deeper resonance: The paintings are just that, snapshots, and are thus of no use. The photographs are, of course, paintings.Tidwells exhibition at the Dwan Gallery is the most impressive, although it is also a bit too much. The show is called (in the subtitle) The Art of the Photograph, and it is a remarkably effective combination of high and low. The art is, in the end, high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too low. The photographs are, of course, paintings. But inasmuch as they are, the paintings are too low. The art is too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are, of course, paintings. But inasmuch as they are, the paintings are too high. The art is too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The photographs are too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The paintings are too high. The photographs are too high. The photographs are too high.

Result #4

Amy Tidwell scans small painting moments for vernacular. In the most recent work, Tidwell, whose studio was destroyed in the bombing of World War II, now exhibits her earliest paintings. She has been described as a black woman painting the vernacular. This show demonstrates how her early work is more than a diary of events.It is not only women who are telling the truth. In the late 20s and early 30s, a number of artists (including Sylvia Plath) used blackness as a proxy for violence. The artist George Herms, for example, used a black body as a weapon against white authorities, threatening to revoke his Miranda rights. In The Black Body, the artist Nina Hesse, who was also black, used her body as a weapon against white society, threatening to take it away from the white world. Hesses body was an abstraction, an abstraction in itself, a disembodied, alienated presence. The work is also a defense, a call to arms. In an interview with the artist, Hesse says: I wanted to show that blackness was a tool for me. . . . I wanted to show that blackness is a tool for me, that it can be a weapon or a weaponizer. I wanted to show that blackness is a tool, not a victimizer.There are a number of works in this exhibition that deal with blackness as a weapon and as a tool. These works are more than just paintings. They are also statements about the condition of black bodies. In one of the most famous of these statements, Hesse writes, The way I see myself in relation to myself is as I see myself in relation to myself. The artist appears to be saying that the way we see ourselves is shaped by our assumptions about others. In other works, Hesse uses the black body as a weapon, for example, in the poem In Defense of the Black Body (1958), where she uses the body as a shield against herself.

Result #5

Amy Tidwell scans small painting moments for vernacular and finds them more than the sum of their parts. In one piece, a hand holds a painting in which a face is captured, but the only thing about the face is that it is a face; the rest of the picture is covered in paint and the eye of the painting is visible through the translucent skin of the hand. The hand is a middlebrow who holds a painting and is painted out of the painting, making a face, a paint-covered hand. The hand is in the face, but the face is behind the hand, and the face is the hand. In another work, a black-masked hand holds a painting while a face emerges from the painting. Again the face is a face, but the face is behind the hand, and the face is the hand. The hand is behind the face, but the face is not. In another work, a hand is seen holding a painting while a face emerges from the painting. Again the hand is in the painting, but the face is not, and the face is a face that is behind the hand. In a third work, a hand is seen holding a painting while a face emerges from the painting. Again the hand is in the painting, but the face is not. The face is visible through the translucent skin of the hand. The hand is in the painting, but the face is not. The hand is behind the painting. In a fourth work, a face is seen holding a painting while a face emerges from the painting. Again the face is in the painting, but the face is not. The face is visible through the translucent skin of the hand. The hand is in the painting, but the face is not. The hand is in the painting, but the face is not. In a fifth work, a hand is seen holding a painting while a face emerges from the painting. Again the hand is in the painting, but the face is not.