ARTISTS
Best in Show
`Knock Knock Picnic` Jack the Pelican Presents 487 Driggs Avenue, Brooklyn Through August 6 Red-Carpet Treatment You enter the gallery on a carpet of
R.C. Baker / Village Voice
02 Aug, 2006
`Knock Knock Picnic`
Jack the Pelican Presents
487 Driggs Avenue, Brooklyn
Through August 6
Red-Carpet Treatment
You enter the gallery on a carpet of pushbroom heads, the coarse red bristles making for a bouncy "Walk of Fame." A nearby video chronicles members of the Austrian collective Parfyme, joined by local artist Deluxe, barge-poling a "street canoe" (actually a wheeled wooden platform) through Brooklyn`s byways. In the rear gallery, a headless, businesssuited dummy hangs by its heels, necktie drooping toward the floor, part of the ongoing happening "Ain`t No Picnic," by Brooklynites David Henry Brown Jr. and Marc Grubstein. Like one of Jack Smith`s legendarily interminable but riveting theater pieces, this constantly changing, garbage-strewn tableau-the gallery was cited for attracting rats with food left over from the opening-night performance-is sharply funny, and such details as a felt American flag with stars collapsed in a heap, a 2000 "Donald J. Trump for President" poster, and a pretzel-log cabin, crustily glued together with mustard, cleverly merge America`s history and profligacy.
`Contact`
Tom Burke uses old-school cameras, such as an East German Pentacon 6 and a `60s-era "Diana," made in Hong Kong`s Great Wall plastic factory, to achieve a soft, pinhole-style result in his enigmatic prints. One shot looks up toward half a dozen small houses suspended from a tower by broad, helicopter-like blades-is it an amusement ride for Dorothy wannabes? His blurry take on aquarium fish imbues them with a gorgeous, underside glow, like silver zeppelins over a silent movie`s nocturnal metropolis. A second space contains a mural constructed of hundreds of Polaroids laid out in a precise grid-Brooke Williams`s photographs of myriad fingers, hands, and wrists, some sporting jewelry or the occasional tattoo. The saturated colors and the format`s bottom-heavy frames continue the retro, anti-digital vibe. Outrageous Look, 103 Bway, Bklyn. 718-218-7656. Through Aug 17.
`Dreamland: Coney Island 1905-1925`
The 2 x 3 foot Blueprint for Dreamland delineates, with ruled boxes, circles, and the precise capital letters of an architect`s pen, a prototheme park with "Alps" created from burlap covered with plaster of paris and the canals of Venice made from tin-lined troughs. Alongside original plans and sketches for Ferris wheels and carousels are vintage photos of boardwalk strollers in bowler hats and ankle-length skirts (their figures made ghostly from the long exposures) and steel shooting-gallery targets; the surface of a 19-inch-high parachute jumper is thoroughly pitted from years of direct hits. Ricco Maresca, 529 W 20th, 212-627-4819. Through Aug 19.
`Action Precision`
In this show of nine abstract painters, James Nares`s solitary, operatic brushstroke tumbles down a nine-foot-high canvas like an electric-blue acrobat. Also notable, Jill Moser`s "Blues for Orange" scries, in which dark blue lines bunch, snarl, and curve across smooth, dirty-white grounds; loops traced in ever widening arcs fill her images with vibrant oscillations. The London Diptych (2006), by Rachel Howard, consists of two 16-inch squares covered in glossy gray house paint-black clumps and tendrils of light and dark could be the lowering smog of an industrialrevolution dystopia. Lennon Weinberg, 514 W25th, 212-941-0012. Through Aug 11.
Charles Long
Long begins by taking starkly lit photos of snowy fields and mountains-in one, his own elongated shadow stretches along a recently plowed road. On these predominately gray, blue, and white grounds he draws blunt organic shapes and pseudo-pictograms in charcoal or vivid pastels. Then, as if carving a rock face, he scratches and sands the photographic surfaces. This sensitive marriage of photography and drawing creates singularly beautiful, soulful narratives. Tanya Bonakdar, 521 W 21st. 212-414-4144. Through Aug 4.
`War on .45/My Mirrors Are Painted Black (For You)`
Like a vinyl Lou Reed bootleg, this show is raw, literally dark, and death obsessed. Gardar Eide Einarsson has enlarged comic-strip captions and balloons; one declaims, "And off we went to destroy everything I held dear," and another, "His Badge Says Death, Ma!" Terence Koh`s huge slab of black plywood has been pissed on, gouged, and burned, recalling Warhol`s "Oxidation" series and the shotgun-blasted paintings of William S. Burroughs. Herwig Weiser`s Death Before Disko-acrylic tubes lined with red strobes and connected to a PA system that crackles, rumbles, and emits distant, distorted howls-could be Armageddon`s jukebox. Bortolami Dayan, 510 W 25th, 212-727-2050,Through Sept 9.
SIDEBAR
A detail from "Ain`t No Picnic"
COPYRIGHT: Copyright Village Voice Aug 2-Aug 8, 2006. Provided by Proquest- CSA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Only fair use as provided by the United States copyright law is permitted.
PROQUEST-CSA, LLC- MAKES NO WARRANTY REGARDING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR TIMELINESS OF THE LICENSED MATERIALS OR ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
Jack the Pelican Presents
487 Driggs Avenue, Brooklyn
Through August 6
Red-Carpet Treatment
You enter the gallery on a carpet of pushbroom heads, the coarse red bristles making for a bouncy "Walk of Fame." A nearby video chronicles members of the Austrian collective Parfyme, joined by local artist Deluxe, barge-poling a "street canoe" (actually a wheeled wooden platform) through Brooklyn`s byways. In the rear gallery, a headless, businesssuited dummy hangs by its heels, necktie drooping toward the floor, part of the ongoing happening "Ain`t No Picnic," by Brooklynites David Henry Brown Jr. and Marc Grubstein. Like one of Jack Smith`s legendarily interminable but riveting theater pieces, this constantly changing, garbage-strewn tableau-the gallery was cited for attracting rats with food left over from the opening-night performance-is sharply funny, and such details as a felt American flag with stars collapsed in a heap, a 2000 "Donald J. Trump for President" poster, and a pretzel-log cabin, crustily glued together with mustard, cleverly merge America`s history and profligacy.
`Contact`
Tom Burke uses old-school cameras, such as an East German Pentacon 6 and a `60s-era "Diana," made in Hong Kong`s Great Wall plastic factory, to achieve a soft, pinhole-style result in his enigmatic prints. One shot looks up toward half a dozen small houses suspended from a tower by broad, helicopter-like blades-is it an amusement ride for Dorothy wannabes? His blurry take on aquarium fish imbues them with a gorgeous, underside glow, like silver zeppelins over a silent movie`s nocturnal metropolis. A second space contains a mural constructed of hundreds of Polaroids laid out in a precise grid-Brooke Williams`s photographs of myriad fingers, hands, and wrists, some sporting jewelry or the occasional tattoo. The saturated colors and the format`s bottom-heavy frames continue the retro, anti-digital vibe. Outrageous Look, 103 Bway, Bklyn. 718-218-7656. Through Aug 17.
`Dreamland: Coney Island 1905-1925`
The 2 x 3 foot Blueprint for Dreamland delineates, with ruled boxes, circles, and the precise capital letters of an architect`s pen, a prototheme park with "Alps" created from burlap covered with plaster of paris and the canals of Venice made from tin-lined troughs. Alongside original plans and sketches for Ferris wheels and carousels are vintage photos of boardwalk strollers in bowler hats and ankle-length skirts (their figures made ghostly from the long exposures) and steel shooting-gallery targets; the surface of a 19-inch-high parachute jumper is thoroughly pitted from years of direct hits. Ricco Maresca, 529 W 20th, 212-627-4819. Through Aug 19.
`Action Precision`
In this show of nine abstract painters, James Nares`s solitary, operatic brushstroke tumbles down a nine-foot-high canvas like an electric-blue acrobat. Also notable, Jill Moser`s "Blues for Orange" scries, in which dark blue lines bunch, snarl, and curve across smooth, dirty-white grounds; loops traced in ever widening arcs fill her images with vibrant oscillations. The London Diptych (2006), by Rachel Howard, consists of two 16-inch squares covered in glossy gray house paint-black clumps and tendrils of light and dark could be the lowering smog of an industrialrevolution dystopia. Lennon Weinberg, 514 W25th, 212-941-0012. Through Aug 11.
Charles Long
Long begins by taking starkly lit photos of snowy fields and mountains-in one, his own elongated shadow stretches along a recently plowed road. On these predominately gray, blue, and white grounds he draws blunt organic shapes and pseudo-pictograms in charcoal or vivid pastels. Then, as if carving a rock face, he scratches and sands the photographic surfaces. This sensitive marriage of photography and drawing creates singularly beautiful, soulful narratives. Tanya Bonakdar, 521 W 21st. 212-414-4144. Through Aug 4.
`War on .45/My Mirrors Are Painted Black (For You)`
Like a vinyl Lou Reed bootleg, this show is raw, literally dark, and death obsessed. Gardar Eide Einarsson has enlarged comic-strip captions and balloons; one declaims, "And off we went to destroy everything I held dear," and another, "His Badge Says Death, Ma!" Terence Koh`s huge slab of black plywood has been pissed on, gouged, and burned, recalling Warhol`s "Oxidation" series and the shotgun-blasted paintings of William S. Burroughs. Herwig Weiser`s Death Before Disko-acrylic tubes lined with red strobes and connected to a PA system that crackles, rumbles, and emits distant, distorted howls-could be Armageddon`s jukebox. Bortolami Dayan, 510 W 25th, 212-727-2050,Through Sept 9.
SIDEBAR
A detail from "Ain`t No Picnic"
COPYRIGHT: Copyright Village Voice Aug 2-Aug 8, 2006. Provided by Proquest- CSA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Only fair use as provided by the United States copyright law is permitted.
PROQUEST-CSA, LLC- MAKES NO WARRANTY REGARDING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR TIMELINESS OF THE LICENSED MATERIALS OR ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
