9/26/2006

Wendy White

71 comments:

Painter said...

Wendy White @
Sixtyseven gallery
547 West 27th Street, #309
New York, NY 10001

youth--less said...

so good it hurts

youth--less said...

quite an eye painter. did u pick this 1 cuz of its similar composition with the KMcH?

kelli said...

Already said I liked this show but will say again. Like the Chie Fueki show ( which baffled me) better to see in person.

zipthwung said...

love to love ya

I was starting to feel metrosexual. All better.

Sven said...

are the 80s graf artists who got booted out of the system being mined?

I dont mean this in a negative way but this painting reminds me of this futura 2000 painting

also of 80s guys still selling like kenny scharf

and I guess i gotta say David Reed just cause of the brush stroke

I suppose the last two are kinda dumb to mention? but futura gets slept on (with reason;his art got real boring)

the dangerous part for me is the constructivism similarities
especially cause there are some russian constructivist painters who also used an airbrush, but I'm not gonna try and find images for those though. Personally I just have a phobia of retrogression. Is there a clinical name for that?

zipthwung said...

Its called having fun I think...WW is compared to isa genzken.

Like I mentioned - anxiety of influence shouldnt keep you from making history.
History repeats itself.
I dont believe in progress beyond the personal.

zipthwung said...

This painting doesnt hold my iterest. Its like a bonbon

kelli said...

phobia of retrogression:
eightieshating
flasheoncanvasflashbacks
candycolored coprophobia
billcosbysatonmyairbrush
graffhairballs

Sven said...

I see the Genzken comparison with her sculptures but not the paintings

Genzken cant be called retrogressive though, her stuff looks incredibly fresh to me.

I dont mean my points in a negative way, I enjoy some of Wendy's work, just being inquisitive about the connections.

I heard someone rapping on the radio about rocking a Cosby sweater throwback

jpegCritic said...

funny, epi.

kelli said...

Cooky I will cut back on geek humor and historical trivia. Somebody told me the old subway system was amazing and beautiful before the city started removing all graffiti from the cars. He said it was like riding in works of art.

Sven said...

@epi, you said the same thing about Mchague; obviously somebody likes his stuff if he's selling at Metro for 5 figures. Kelli I like the historical trivia..I personally think NYC subway art from the 70s + 80s was some of the most original American folk art ever, but it did get extremely watered down once it reached canvas.

Sven said...

I didnt hear of it till now, just browsed through it, saw a James Esber that I kinda liked.magazine (is that what it is?)seemed kinda boring though

jpegCritic said...

Sure I look at it. It's in my pile, above
leaves of grass next to the john.
Don't know much more about it than that.
But if I were the editor, I'd take out the
mug shots and move the bio to the left of spine
(beginning of artist section). My one big
annoyance is my reading eye gets assaulted
first by the inconsequential statements and
mugshots upon opening the book(s).
What a waste of valuable real estate.

zipthwung said...

Anybody been to a Megachurch? They sound subversive.

Transumerism



Massclusivity


did you hear it here first?

Im on it.

zipthwung said...

I saw it on the newstand I think - a friend asked me about it so I looked at it. Looks middle brow - like Mixed Greens or much art here - nothing wrong with it?

Slithey Toves.

no-where-man said...

i will reserve judgement till i see the show..

what did ya'll think of the Graffiti show at Brooklyn Museum? My roomie and his buddies just bombed my hall and i have to admit - i like the energy and sense of 'place' in it.



Charles Saatchi rents out his art

Charges range from £7,000 a year for five works to £20,000 for twenty works

JD said...

The show is wonderful. The space in the paintings is my favorite part; very physical and twisting. The graffitti references are playful, knowing resamplings; the paintings themselves aren't eighties retreads. They are actually in a surprisingly fresh dialogue with AbEx.

JD said...

Sorry Thunderpal, you just said what I said, only better.

zipthwung said...

archival

zipthwung said...

I like her statement

"In these works, they examine the central role images play in bolstering and validating systems of belief and power, and they interrogate the continual recycling and re-inventing of political, social, and artistic traditions, which are consequently revealed to be depleted of any authentic meaning. "

Martin said...

about new american paintings - i always look at it when i see it on the shelves (including seeing it in bookstores in tokyo), have seen a number of good artists in it over the years, and have known a number of artists who have been accepted. jered sprecher is in the current issue... i saw his stuff at wendy cooper in miami last year and very much liked it.

of my friends that have been included... nothing at all happened for most, but a couple were contacted by (non-nyc) galleries and picked up.

the first time i saw laylah ali's work was on the cover of new american paintings. when i visited boston not long after i went to miller-block specifically to see her work, which they pulled out of storage for me.

i've applied a number of times, but never got in.

about wendy white - i am excited to see this show! maybe thursday!

jpegCritic said...

eppi, bottom line is that new american painters is
one of many distribution channels that seem to
propose well-meaning alternatives to our current
elitist gallery economy, in that its aim is to
provide a humble artist with exposure to a public
broader than the one's we are currently indebted
to, and thus more of a potential to make a buck,
or a living. That in itself has got to be a good
thing. Sure it won't get you an invitation to play
with Red Krayola. But as cheezy as it can potentially
get, it also has the potential to out-do the current
middle-man-old-school-gallerist distribution model.. .
once the snobbery dissapates from the system...
Knocking out the middle-man has serious potential,
as illustrated in the housing market where online
brokerage services present a serious challange to
the old brick-and-mortars. But back to the publication,
all it needs to do, is to cut the cheeze.

poppy said...

haven't read any comments yet but this is dubz right?
curious to see where this goes or if she feels she needs to go beyond this somehow..the 80's stuff doesn't bother me, perfectly fine. Don't feel that an artist in early stages of career needs to bang down evident surface concept, on the sleeve if you will...so nice paint exploration, would like to see in person.

Martin said...

laylah ali. many more. james siena.

jpegCritic said...

eppi, i think you're concerned (as are we all)
about the filter of criticality. The filter we
currently trust is built into the current system.
The world moves fast these days. I believe
the model of criticality will one day change.

There is a battle right now, over truth/authority,
between wikipedia and brick-and-mortar groups.
I'm not takin sides right now, but it's enough
to observe that certain challanges are being made
that will effect how we digest or experience the world.

kelli said...

Liked both. The sculptures reminded me of Nicole Cherubini for some reason. The humor and playful, clumsy use of materials.

Anonymous said...

I like Wendy White. I like this image too. I'd like to show it here, in Tokyo, sometime. Glad kellie likes, and closeuup.

arebours said...

palette is ...grating-(not "grading"?)

arebours said...

W.W does seem to be churning them out-and not in a possessed way-I find them a bit hasty,and becoming predictable-at least the black/brite ones

kelli said...

Katherine Bernhardt is good just not as good as Dawn Mellor who is much older. People might want to take age into consideration for her or McHargue.
SixtySeven was the first place to show Echo Eggebrecht. They seem to have a good eye.

zipthwung said...

B17 "nor is she concerned with what would ammount to other limp art historical references."

yeah. Look at her actual statement. TO her, these are psychogeographical landscape paintings, and I believe her.
shes painting from life through the lense of Arrrrt. Not having some "fresh" conversation with history, stroke for stroke. Maybe they are fresh - but I think they are traditional (meaning of a closed loop in art history - thats not death anymore than humanity is dead-but it does repeat itself, and if you look at her formula, you must agree with me).

THis is not her best painting - go to her site. I like some of them - they show some effort.

Katherine Bernhardt is a usefull comparison - the McDonalds Arch she did is by far my favorite painting by her - and also her angriest and easiest.
THe self portrait stuff (most ) is sort of stupid. I wish she'd try to paint more subjects.
Terminal narcissism.

Criticality is the real issue here. I think you can see when a painter is working criticly - and it matters, not because it deconstructs the meduium, but because it informs the painting.

THere are a lot of paintings in publications that fail the criticality test (I mentioned the dude at the Chelsea art museum - hes the worst kind of faux - but maybe he works for people, not I)

Most people are happy, comfortable and have nothing to say, and their audience is happy, comfortable and has disposable income. They gamble it away. They buy tchochkies. They pat themselves on the back in magazines they own. They flip paintings for millions of dollars. Yep, most people are pretty darn lucky to be alive. Knwo what I mean?

youth--less said...

How can you tell the difference between strategy and spontenaity?

I'll guess she's using both

zipthwung said...

I had a friend who painted like this - just as good, but where are they now? Not NY.

zipthwung said...

"How can you tell the difference between strategy and spontenaity?

I'll guess she's using both "

closeup, could you please expand on that? Im young and callow and I dont understand the simplistic formalist criticism of WWW's work.

youth--less said...

only if you elaborate on this simplistic notion: Most people are happy, comfortable and have nothing to say, and their audience is happy, comfortable and has disposable income.

I dont think you understand most people.

Does this relate?

"What I am trying to establish is--that Modern Art isn't dislocated, but something with roots, tradition, and continuity. For myself the past is the source (for all art is vitally contemporary). I'm drawn to the primitive, the ritual and fetish elements, to the symmetrical and plastic order (peculiarly basic to both primitive and classic concepts, so relating the two)."

zipthwung said...

pola dots man

I think a lot of people would claim polke as an influence.

Nice twombly.

this could end donuts as I know them

Im PISSED!

zipthwung said...

B17 - well I try to keep it interesting (terminal narcissim) - i was paraphrasing wendy:

here

"I reinvent these mental pictures through an intuitive network of marks and gestures. "
Reinvent being a mental process (psycho) and geography being self explanetory - mental landscapes based on the "real"

THeres this Kant and Hegel subject object bullshit but in essence I thik we can say everyone is INTUITIVE and leave that out of our artist statements as bullshit.

SisterRye said...

This painting reminds me of Repo Man. Twombly feels more chalky. This is like Twombly seen in a haze of neon, and yes, dancing the Sigmar Polke.

sloth said...

WW's work is great: smart and idiosynchratic and kinda twisted. They look like they were fun to make. She gets acrylic to look like oil paint, which is a trick I'd love to be able to pull off. I like the way she messes with the right angles of the paintings with those sneaky wedges in the corners.

There's something new and interesting going on with gestural abstraction right now - bubbling out of Richter and Oehlin and coming from a contemporary context of painting rather than an AbEx lineage: Eric Sall, John Bauer, Wendy White.

& whatevs about artists' statements... they're a necessary evil; critics need hand-holding and something to crib.

SisterRye said...

Everyone could say they work intuitively, in an artist's statement. Statements should be taken with a grain of schmaltz.

WW walks the fine line between beautiful-ugly and ugly-ugly. It's fearless, and not afraid to be gestural or redundant.

I kinda like some of the sculptures, from what I could see on the gallery site. They remind me of the work from the early nineties by the woman who added styrofoam balls to her paintings (?). I didn't like that work. But, somehow WW furthers the gloopy grace that they seemed to be after.

I wonder how this kind of work will look in a few years.

zipthwung said...

walk the dog

zipthwung said...

take it to the streets

poppy said...

good tomas,
it seems riskier to not draw a line from the past to some contemorary current conceptual thread, That seems like painting for intellectuals. I'd personally rather see work that doesn't attempt that and doen't need an excuse to exist.
Wendy, if you are out there, How do you feel about some of the painters mentioned, like polke for example? Do you plan to work with pattern, imagery, or are you keeping it completely gestural? have you drawn your own personal line you don't want to cross?
For me , i would like to this approach
(WW's) with more varying degrees of depth. Would make it more interesting to me. I tend to gloss over the surface right now admiring some of the color, thiness, that stuff. I'm not captivated by this though. There is alot you can do with this gestural approach and i'd say keep experimenting and challenging yourself
with this stuff.

sloth said...

It is an academic idea, or rather a didactic idea, but I don't think that's what's going on here. Lasker quotes brushstrokes and it's boring; Nozkowski doesn't. Marcaccio does, WW doesn't.

kelli said...

Arcana but I'm reminded of a series of little known Robert Indiana sculptures a friend was storing. Roughly painted, metal and wood, bits of text. Not slick like the Love sculpture. If I can find an image will post it.

kelli said...

They were a little like these but a different series. I think they were older.
http://www.artnet.de/Galleries/Exhibitions.asp?gid=587&cid=79672

zipthwung said...

I like what I see of ohlen but there are a lot of people who paint like that (polke).

Hard to define yourself as an ab-ex style individual when you paint like that.

merry christmas

Sven said...

@poppy: you consistently make the point that your tastes gravitate in favor of painters who favor expression from the gut rather than an intellectual approach. I respect this opinion and think it can be a valid one. However I'm wondering who you would name that would embody this practice? Just curious to find out.

Sven said...
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Seth Adelsberger said...
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Anonymous said...

Wendy White, her rhetoric, is not really about 'trying to have her cake and eat it too!' but more a strategic way for taking a contemporary urban angle back to zero.

Anyway, embedded is a whole new way of seeing, in the sense that somewhere along the way someone lost sight of where they were going, but didn't mind anyway.

sloth said...

wade & clement, have you actually seen the show, or are you going from this one jpeg? The work sometimes plays at the edge of "doneness," but it's a deliberate choice. Sometimes "finishing" a painting can mean finishing it off, closing it down. Her restraint is gutsy and refreshing.

Click here and here and here for some of my lousy pictures of the show.

no-where-man said...

still have not been to show (out of town) honestly this work looks "bored" to me

youth--less said...

nice pics thanks mothra

youth--less said...

I dont know anyone here personally--that I know of

zipthwung said...

I want to know you thomas. wheres the work?

zipthwung said...

thomas, the work?

kelli said...

The tone has become a little too personal.

poppy said...

I don't particularly favour gestural painting over more intellectual approaches, but i do think it becomes harder for critics and curators to sell. If they don't know how to wrap a contemporary conceptual frame around it they are tounge tied. I really don't like painters that need a catalouge of text book to support themselves. Personally this is getting a bit bored to me. The thing i dispise the most is trendy work. And, to sit around and think of ways to create work that is clever as it relates to art history, is trying to hard to please.
here is an example: I recently saw a show where the artist scribbled gestures on sheets of metal. Then used had edged lines of paint to represent architecture and space and this also represents how she feels in urban centers etc blah blah.... Now you can talk about this until the cows come home but really this artist needs to shut the hell up. I just say stop making excues to paint, do you really give a shit how big cities make you feel? Do these paintings alleviate some of the pain?
damn fucking nerds...

Sven said...

ok so who represents the the other side of the spectrum that you like? just curious

no-where-man said...

yes that is the song is the reference. love personal attacks. i don't know the Artist or have any reason to like/dislike the jpeg. i do get pretty into graff. and Ab Ex., maybe i just "don't get it" as i mentioned earlier i am not very smart.

poppy said...

right now i really like anything or anyone that i can steal from to make me a better painter. I'm selfish.
I don't like paintings that are very obvious or quick and clever.. I too tried stuff like this and it gets boring. some of those germans are good.
but no 1 step 2 step right now..

Dumbpainter said...

Hot painting ;)

jeff said...
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jeff said...

the male artist... said "you wouldn't be pretty if I knocked your teeth out" after I disagreed with him about collage of all things.


A verbal threat of violence is a felony in New York.
you could press charges the next time this happens if you have a witness.

jeff said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
jeff said...

People should be careful how they say things, using threats to intimidate is cowardly.

kelli said...

P dog it's cool. Maybe openings should stop serving beer :)

jeff said...

maybe some people should start going to aa meetings.