EUTOPIA

Matt Nolen

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Matt Nolen
Rough Trade
The Bowman~Penelec~Megahan Art Galleries
Allegheny College, Meadville, PA [link]

Matt Nolen pieces together vintage, found ceramic objects to re-member disparate experiences. The works tell a story of self-understanding by combining geometric shapes, eyes, faces, body parts, goblets, and collectible figurines. These amalgamations, while at first appearing to be cacophonous, are in fact a violent harmony of joinery which create an external visualization of the architecture of Nolen’s psyche. His vulnerable assemblages point out the ways in which we construct personal truths, and reveal tensions between internal and external representations of self. They are quixotic metaphors for the fragile notion of an immutable reality.

~Ian F. Thomas
images courtesy of the artist

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The State of the Arts

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Cooper Union, State of the Arts

The State of the Arts
The Annual Exhibition of Students’ Work
Cooper Union New York, NY [link]
May 22-June 10th, 2018

Isolation is decidedly solitary- in social terms: withdrawn, distant, non conformist, resistant, … etc. Qualities that have served the school to set itself apart: on the one hand devising a pedagogical framework unfazed by the proliferation of spectacular images of a pseudo-technological stance;  on the other hand in stark contrast to the increasing venues of garish art fairs and such the show is a hinged décollage of architecture, art, and engineering departments foregrounded as a singular collaborative act that -together with its tentative onlooker- reveals the patent rift between genuine enquiry versus an intrinsically kitsch itinerary of culture industry.

~ Ali Soltani
Photos : Soltani+LeClercq

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Luke Fowler

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Luke Fowler, amphitheatre at the Nasher

Luke Fowler, amphitheatre at the Nasher

Luke Fowler
Sightings: Luke Fowler
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas [link]
Through August 19, 2018

Fowler created a dual, site-specific aural experience in the amphitheater garden of the Nasher and Lismore Castle Arts that reveals hidden histories of the institutions and the inner structure of their respective sculptural objects. Influenced by Minimalist Avant-Garde music and Fluxus, the sound work in Dallas functions as a liminal dialogue between two sculptures by Naum Gabo and Barnett Newman. By transforming the sculptural surfaces into a speaker, recording and synthesizing the sign waves, the resulting auditory action questions the notion of sculpture as a physical object, as well as how we perceive an acoustic composition within the spacial ecology of place.

~ Colette Copeland
all images courtesy of the author, save the Barnett Newman image

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Tatzu Nishi

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Tatzu Nishi
“Capsule Hotel 21”
Grand Projects—How Far Will You Go?
21_21 Design Sight,
→
GRAND PROJECTS: HOW FAR WILL YOU GO?
21_21 DESIGN SIGHT
Tokyo, Japan [link]
Through October 1st, 2017

Constructing a capsule hotel in Ando’s elegant architecture, Nishi’s project transforms the public space into a semi-private space, raising questions about rising costs of real estate and the growing divide between middle and upper classes in Tokyo. His use of rudimentary, inexpensive materials and decision to leave the foam insulation seams visible, further contrasts the sleek, minimal gallery located in one of Tokyo’s poshest neighborhoods. Unlike many container hotel rooms that resemble refrigerated morgue drawers, Nishi’s pods are surrounded by glass and stunning views of the park with rates free of charge, if only for a short nap.

~ Colette Copeland
images courtesy of Ryder Richards and the author

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Tom Sachs

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Tom Sachs
Tea Ceremony
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas [link]

Sachs’ new focus, in coopting and hyperventilating the “religion” of the Japanese tea ceremony, manifests as highly American provisional approximations. Embodying the reductive apparatus of utilitarianism whereby traditional systems or concepts can become lightweight, cheap and nomadic embraces Eco’s “Travels in Hyperreality” or Venturi/Brown’s “Learning from Las Vegas” sign-as-system culture. Taken to insane levels of excess, one can track the adept’s passionate re-valuation through selective interpretation: a whisk becomes motorized = shortcut, while only one in one-hundred handmade bowls is acceptable.
This conversion to American systemic foibles dialogizes contradictory knowledge through subjective insight, allowing the possibility for rich, discursive reappraisal.

~ Ryder Richards
images courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center

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Alison Jardine

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Flood, 2017, cement with pigments, 23 X 23 X 6″

Alison Jardine
Objects From a Future Past
Erin Cluley Gallery, Dallas [link]
Sept. 9 – Oct.14, 2017

Alison Jardine has transitioned from rural to urban landscapes, from delicately painted twigs to delicately concrete-cast plastic bags. Her former rambles on ancient UK paths provided fallen tree-trophies. Walks on paved trails now reward the artist with contemporary Dallas artifacts, recovered flotsam and jetsam from congested run-off streams.

Colors, tones, and textures are mixed into the wet concrete itself, not applied later. The finished skin of each work weaves a density of surface, a unified consistency that penetrates the whole organic mélange.

Like excavated steles, Jardine’s iconic formats suggest emblematic associations, recalling ritualistic, semiotic shapes, votive amulets, or generational site-markers.

~ Thomas Motley
images courtesy of the artist

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