SHIMMERING GROTESQUE AND GORGEOUS

MARLENE DUMAS AT THE MUSEUM of Modern Art in New York City. Folks, this is an exhibition that meets the eye with the same might as a two by four.

Ms. Dumas’s work tends to aim for the solar plexus, as the show’s morbid title suggests. Fusing the political and the painterly, it grapples with the complexities of image making, the human soul, sexuality, the beauty of art, the masculinity of traditional painting, the ugliness of social oppression. How much it delivers on these scores is a question that this exhibition doesn’t quite answer.

The show suggests that while this amply talented artist has created some riveting images, her work becomes monotonous and obvious when seen in bulk. She has not substantially varied her subjects or her habit of basing her images on photographs in about 25 years. And when you stand in front of her paintings, far too many other photo-dependent artists come to mind for the pictures to qualify as original. Her work tends too much toward well-done pastiches of ideas and tactics from the last 25 years, primarily Conceptualism, appropriation art and Neo-Expressionism

Ms. Dumas’s stained and brush-worked canvases are lurid in subject or color, and usually both. The subjects include pregnant women; rather monstrous-looking newborns; murdered children and victims of suicide and execution (mostly women); hooded prisoners; forlorn adolescents; bodies in morgues. Each image is served up in a blank, abstract space with handsome trimmings of lush colors and surface action that have their history in Abstract Expressionism and even Color Field painting.

Striking abbreviations and fuzzy blurs make us look twice. Is that woman asleep or dead? Has that naked child been playing with red paint or is that blood on its hands? In many instances such doubts keep you moving between the harsh, suggestive imagery and the brushwork and process, but after a while you may begin to feel a bit manipulated.

Other paintings go for point-blank sensationalism. “Dead Girl” shows just the head and shoulders of a fallen adolescent with blood streaming from her face. Yet in some of Ms. Dumas’s portraits suffering is subtle and implicit, a life sentence and therefore more convincing. In “Moshekwa” the resolute face of a black man fills most of a large canvas with an aura intensified by the shifting tones of his skin, which culminates in a gorgeous patch of dark purple glowing from his forehead like a mark of nobility.

Read the entire NYT review.

GABRIEL HANGS IN NEW YORK CITY

Gabriel's work in Antagonist Show, centered around For Denmark

Originally published on September 9, 2007

IN NEW YORK CITY, on Thursday September 6, I showed a few antagonistic paintings in a tiny sweltering East Village basement. Highlights included a long chat with a New York poet named Julian Stockdale about the enigmatic state of literature from the perspective of Generation Z still searching for its own voice, networking with a fellow who owns and operates the same image press I’ve had my eye on for some time now, and the pride of beautiful young fancies who flashed this old poet and painter a smile or two.

Then there were the three young folks from Denmark who spent several long stints staring at my large centerpiece called FOR DENMARK, which is a painting I whipped out in a mere fifteen minutes in a bluster over the Cartoon Rage going on in Europe and across the Islamic world on February 12, 2006. The three Danes, two young guys and a gal, approached me at one point to confirm their interpretation of the work, thanking me for the peace. Well, a Christ-figure complete with stigmata and tears of blood, two fishes painted in a corner and a Jewish bagel popping up from a toaster, and the words FOR DENMARK etched in red across the background renders the explanation rather bluntly, doesn’t it?

There was some talk of an Antagonist Movement Berlin gallery which interested me for some swirl down the road, and I even sold a couple packs of postcards to two NYC artists…

Shout out to Alex (girl in photo above), Scott, Tom, Julian, Kari, Ted, Un, Ethan and Liberty Sue, each for your generosity of spirit…

If you are a MySpace member you can view more pictures here.

ANTAGONIST SHOW IN NYC ON SEPTEMBER 6

YES, THAT'S RIGHT. Outsider art by definition is antagonist art. Self-annointed artists are often antagonistic artists. So this news is a propos. The Antagonist Movement with its roots in the East Village has invited me up to the Niagara Club for a one night group show on Thursday, September 6. I have accepted, and eagerly look forward to my first show in New York where I’ll show five or six works.

Here is the Niagara info:
112 Ave A at the corner of 7th St. East Village NYC
The gallery is downstairs past the bar.
Tele: 212-420-9517

Show opens at 9 PM. All artwork hangs for the duration of the night until closing time at 2 AM.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE ANTAGONIST ART MOVEMENT:

The Antagonist Movement creates venues around New York City.
1. Thursday night. One night showcases with live music.
2. Two month shows bases around a theme.
3. Public Access show. Tuesday nights on MNN 67 or RCN 110 at 11pm. The show covers the art shows. It’s called Antagovision.
4. Writer’s night. The first Sunday of every month.
5. Films. AAM has four films coming out, including two documentaries on the art shows. One narrative featuring punk rock icons from the lower east side, and a documentary that covers female bands in the mid 90s. All of the films have been selected and won a verity of film festivals. To find out more about the release date contact Troma.
6. Fanzines and books. AAM has published a fanzine called Psycho Moto Zine and a book called “Somewhere Between a Punch and A Hand Shake.” Both feature AAM artists and writers.
7. Clothing line. Each year we feature new artists in the designs. All the money goes back into our projects.
8. Over seas art shows. Showing in Berlin October 18th to 26th.
9. Street art. Street Gallery. Sticker Art.
10. In the future AAM plans two books, more clothing lines, and another documentary on the art show in Berlin.