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MTAA-RR:
Mar 05, 2006
Two openings last night
posted at 18:14 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid
Saw some good, good work in Chelsea last night. My beautiful wife and I attended 2 openings, both of friends of ours.
The first was Inka Essenhigh at 303 Gallery. Inka’s a long-time friend (I’ve known her since college) and her current show is really fantastic.
“In Bed,” 2005 (link to larger image)
I’m unclear as to when Inka moved from painting with household paint to oil (the paintings at 303 aren’t the first, but I think the earlier ones were shown in Europe). Inka’s use of line has always been phenomenal and now with the oils, she has added brilliantly executed volumetric forms and space. For me, this creates a richness to the picture, a greater depth and complexity.
It also allows her to add more detail to the faces, fingers, toes etc. Which is interesting, since they seem to be more and more resembling her figurative work from college. (The more things change…) Her work in undergrad was very figurative and I’m proud to say that one of the only portraits in existence by Inka is of yours truly. I’m continually conniving a way to gain possession of it but it belongs to her parents! :-(
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The next stop was Jennifer and Kevin McCoy at Postmasters for their exhibition entitled “Directed Dreaming” (press release).
The show consisted of two major new pieces: “Double Fantasy II (sex)” and “Dream Sequence.” Both pieces follow the formal and technical achievement of their seminal work “Soft Rains.” They are mini-sculptural tableau’s with bunches of tiny video cameras driven by software algorithms to cut together never-ending cinematic narratives.
image of “Double Fantasy II (sex)” photo courtesy of Tintype
The McCoys’ work is great, in my opinion, for their formal technical achievements. Their work effortlessly marries sculpture (sometimes kinetic, bonus!), video, film and new media. There is a lot of complex technology going on, but it never interferes with the work. The way their work externalizes the usually hidden processes of film-making I find endlessly fascinating. The twisted metal tubes that hold the cameras and lights reminds one of those robots from “The Matrix” and work as a metaphor for the hungry beast of the entertainment-industrial complex, greedily and endlessly slurping up images.
image of “Dream Sequence” photo courtesy of Tintype permanent link to this post
The first was Inka Essenhigh at 303 Gallery. Inka’s a long-time friend (I’ve known her since college) and her current show is really fantastic.
“In Bed,” 2005 (link to larger image)
I’m unclear as to when Inka moved from painting with household paint to oil (the paintings at 303 aren’t the first, but I think the earlier ones were shown in Europe). Inka’s use of line has always been phenomenal and now with the oils, she has added brilliantly executed volumetric forms and space. For me, this creates a richness to the picture, a greater depth and complexity.
It also allows her to add more detail to the faces, fingers, toes etc. Which is interesting, since they seem to be more and more resembling her figurative work from college. (The more things change…) Her work in undergrad was very figurative and I’m proud to say that one of the only portraits in existence by Inka is of yours truly. I’m continually conniving a way to gain possession of it but it belongs to her parents! :-(
+++
The next stop was Jennifer and Kevin McCoy at Postmasters for their exhibition entitled “Directed Dreaming” (press release).
The show consisted of two major new pieces: “Double Fantasy II (sex)” and “Dream Sequence.” Both pieces follow the formal and technical achievement of their seminal work “Soft Rains.” They are mini-sculptural tableau’s with bunches of tiny video cameras driven by software algorithms to cut together never-ending cinematic narratives.
image of “Double Fantasy II (sex)” photo courtesy of Tintype
The McCoys’ work is great, in my opinion, for their formal technical achievements. Their work effortlessly marries sculpture (sometimes kinetic, bonus!), video, film and new media. There is a lot of complex technology going on, but it never interferes with the work. The way their work externalizes the usually hidden processes of film-making I find endlessly fascinating. The twisted metal tubes that hold the cameras and lights reminds one of those robots from “The Matrix” and work as a metaphor for the hungry beast of the entertainment-industrial complex, greedily and endlessly slurping up images.
image of “Dream Sequence” photo courtesy of Tintype permanent link to this post