[REVIEW] Greater New York Survey at MoMA PS1

Text by Adriana Pauly

On Sunday MoMA PS1 finally opened the doors to its awaited exhibition Greater New York and let anxious New Yorkers roam through the galleries. The exhibition has been co-curated by Peter Eleey, Douglas Crimp, Thomas J. Laz, and Mia Locks and encompasses the works of 150 New York based artists. Stepping away from the traditional focus on youth the fourth iteration of MoMA PS1’s landmark exhibition aims to balance our desire for the new and nostalgia for the past.

With a significant percentage of works dating before the 2000s, such as Henry Flynt’s 1979 documentary series of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s SAMO tags or Jimmy De Sana’s 1970 and 1980 documentation of the East Village punk and sex scene, the exhibition seems to seek to return to a grittier New York. Overall, there is a focus on documentary within the older works, bringing a loss of interest in durational investigations to light in todays New York art scene. The only exception are the moving photographs of Deana Lawson, shot over a number of years by correction officials at a prison in upstate New York, documenting same family’s visits.

Another constant in the exhibition is a focus on collections such as Nancy Shavers presentation of found objects or the tabletop sculptural installation by Liene Bosquê. Made out of hundreds of souvenir architectural miniatures the artist recreates an urban grid made purely out of kitsch objects. A more literal manifestation of a collection can be seen in the installation by the husband-and-wife duo Marco Romeny and Alisa Grifo called KIOSK.

One entire gallery of the old school building is dedicated to figurative sculptures. Tony Matelli’s male and female nude people are juxtaposed with more amorphous and indigenous works by Jeffrey Gibson as well as free interpretations of figurative sculptures such as Hayley Silverman’s noodle bowls. The landscapes created within each bowl are filled with various little figures, they are oddly grotesque and fall in line with a prevalence of kitsch notable in other works.   

Overall, the exhibition successfully gives a vast overview of the evolution of New York’s contemporary art scene, yet it is disappointingly shallow at times and fails to create a true impact on its visitors. Most works are easily consumed and do not reflect the struggle and tension that is involved in becoming an artist in New York.

Greater New York will be on view until March 16, 2016 at MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY. It will accompanied by a series of performances and video screenings. Photographs and text by Adriana Pauly. Click here to see more photos of the survey.  

[ART REVIEW] Kamil Franko At New Release Gallery

by Adam Lehrer

I went to Paris for the first time when I was 16-years-old on a student trip. It was my first time in Europe, and the whole time I was in something of a transcendental lull. I was already heavily into art, music and history, and I remember the whole time being taken into a state that wasn’t quite awake but certainly wasn’t sedated either. I did the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. I ate baguettes and drank booze for the first time. It was one of those experiences when the reality lines up perfectly with your imagination and a specific tranquil state is elicited. And then, I was on the subway when all of a sudden my eyes burst with tears and I fell to the floor violently ripped out of the bliss. I later found out that the police used tear gas to stop a thief. This is all coming to mind as I am looking at the formidable paintings by Copenhagen-based artist Kamil Franko at the opening of his show ‘Love and Violence’ at Erin Goldberger’s new gallery New Release Gallery. Franko’s paintings appear to be marked by tranquility as they are moments of sharp violence.

The lovely and brilliant Goldberger is best known amongst the New York art world as director of Bill Powers’s Half Gallery. The opening was packed with young art kids in a way that I haven’t seen in New York in years. It feels like Goldberger found the perfect time and the perfect Chinatown location to open a downtown gallery that could serve as a new Ground Zero for the new generation of artists in the city.

Kamil Franko’s work, while paying heed to the traditions of great painters, has a style that feels explosive and fresh. Franko piles paint on top of one another forming a thick and physical void separating the viewer from the imagery. The imagery contained within those paintings is at times both tranquil and violent. “I don’t think it’s about being between good and evil,” says Franko. “I think it’s a borderland between two polarities.”

Franko’s paintings are as much about creation as they are about destruction, and that dichotomy lives within his technique as much as it shows within his content. “I added paint carefully in creating the canvas, and at the same time I demolish it or remove it,” he says. “The motif is in the method. For example, I took a drone as a symbol for some destructive elements with an ominous presence of both beauty and ugliness.”

Franko is, for lack of a better term, a “painter’s painter.” He created the works contained with ‘Love and Violence’ during a period of isolation he underwent for three months in Budapest. He wasn’t even creating these paintings for the sake of a show, as there was no such show to be making them for. He literally paints just to paint. How many artists are like that are out there these days? Goldberger then contacted him via email to discuss putting together a show for her brand spanking new gallery. Franko credits that isolation with propelling his work forward. “After three weeks you’re asking yourself what the fuck are you doing here,” he says. “When you are alone in your head it seems to calibrate clearer ideas. You can focus when not disturbed by your environment.”

Franko’s work, at times both dark and hopeful, speaks to a bright future for art and proves a most appropriate show to open Goldberger’s new gallery. The time is right for a young gallerist to show off work by young artists, and I think I can speak for all of the young art community of New York when I say, “We are ready for this.”


Adam Lehrer is a writer, journalist, and art and fashion critic based in New York City. On top of being Autre’s fashion and art correspondent, he is also a regular contributor to Forbes Magazine. His unique interests in punk, hip hop, skateboarding and subculture have given him a distinctive, discerning eye and voice in the world of culture, et al. Oh, and he also loves The Sopranos. Follow him on Instagram: @adam102287

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[REVIEW] Bettina WitteVeen "When We Were Soldiers...Once and Young" Art Installation at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

text by Adam Lehrer

German-born artist Bettina WitteVeen, a self-described “Buddhist and pacifist,” believes that war and violence are not the innate genetic traits that we are so often led to believe that they are. On the contrary, she believes that human violence is an aberration of the human spirit. “I’m a very strong believer that we are not actually hard-wired towards war,” says WitteVeen. “I believe we need to understand war to abolish it and that we can.”

WitteVeen’s new public art installation, ‘When We Were Soldiers… once and young,’ features dozens of inflated photographs carefully placed within an abandoned hospital in the Brooklyn Navy Yard that served as an infirmary for soldiers from the Civil War to World War II. The photos, some of which are characterized by natural beauty and others that are marked by brutality and dread, find a fitting spiritual home within the hospital. The abandoned hospital is full of history and ghosts of yore. Even without the photographs it carries a pervasive sense of existential dread. The photographs then provide a vivid illustration as to why this old facility gives you that sense of fear.

The exhibition is broken into two parts. The upstairs part focuses on the soldiers and their physical recoveries, offering vivid details of the ravaging that the human body endures during war: photos of men without limbs, men hanging on barbed wire in the trenches, explosions and more. WitteVeen deliberately avoided shocking imagery, “Because shocking imagery forces people into their fight or flight reflexes,” she says. But despite that notion, there are quite a few brutal images displayed amongst the installation.

Much of the installation has to do with war’s corruption of the human spirit. WitteVeen talked about what she calls the “Bezerker Mode.” She believes this is when the soldier has lost his capacity for patriotism and wanting to honorably defend his country and instead has grown to enjoy the killing and the violence. How does this happen? “This state is generally brought about when a soldier loses a comrade in battle,” she says, “The bezerker state is elicited when the vengeance instinct kicks in.”

Moral degradation in its many forms goes hand in hand with war. Curiously, beautiful images of poppy flowers are shown in the installation. Poppies and opium to WitteVeen are extremely loaded motifs in this scope. “I wanted to contrast the beauty of nature but also show the violence when war collides with nature,” she says. “Opium kills the pain, and it is for the killing of the pain that we go to war, which we then need more opium for.”

The downstairs part of the installation focuses on the persistent mental effects of war, “I wanted to focus on the long-term plights of the citizens,” says WitteVeen. One room is extremely bright, with the centerpiece image featuring a young woman of an undefined era. WitteVeen tells a harrowing story of the girl, who she elects not to give the name of. This girl was raped when she was 12-years-old, and though she found happiness and marriage, the trauma never left her. She developed a light allergy that would eventually lead to her suicide. Though the story is not directly related to war, WitteVeen comments on the use of traumatic violence (such as rape) and its use as a weapon. This brutality completely destroys the individual, and every individual contributes to society.

WitteVeen is not a Christian but she is interested in the idea of the cross as emblematic of sacrifice and redemption, and there are crosses in many of the images and even in WitteVeen’s own sculpture work. One such sculpture features a cross with a decayed human skull in the middle, images shot from the inside of a chapel, on the two sides, a red war image below, and a black abyss on the top. This room serves as a place of contemplation for the viewer.

The final room is “the room of redemption,” says WitteVeen. There are a few violent images, but she also photographed former battlegrounds and shows how nature has over-rooted the violent past. Thus, war can be ended, and it is in our nature to do so. “The wounds are healed,” she says.

There are a lot of ideas in the installation, and they don’t all seem to be immediately related. Throughout the preview of the installation, WitteVeen annotated many of these ideas with her own interpretations of her work. As a viewer, one almost wishes there was more room to create your own idea of the work. When asked if she worries that someone who didn’t have her to annotate the work for him/her might miss the redemptive aspect of the work and take a more nihilist view, WitteVeen says, “Of course not, this is art and not a documentary. But I only know what my intentions were.”

WitteVeen is an optimist and a humanist. It took her five years to put together this installation, and she is clearly excited with the results. There will be an essay that she wrote accompanying the exhibition, and I would suggest reading it. But I would also suggest creating your own conception of the exhibition. We all feel something when it comes to war. Whether or not you believe that war can actually be ended is irrelevant, but WitteVeen’s installation will force you to ponder the notion of war in a way that you might be uncomfortable with. That discomfort is understanding. 

Bettina WitteVeen "When We Were Soldiers... once and young" will be on view until October 24, 2015 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital in Brooklyn. Text and images by Adam Lehrer

Adam Lehrer is a writer, journalist, and art and fashion critic based in New York City. On top of being Autre’s fashion and art correspondent, he is also a regular contributor to Forbes Magazine. His unique interests in punk, hip hop, skateboarding and subculture have given him a distinctive, discerning eye and voice in the world of culture, et al. Oh, and he also loves The Sopranos. Follow him on Instagram: @adam102287

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[ART REVIEW] Wolfgang Tillmans "PCR" At David Zwirner In New York

text by Adam Lehrer

Multi-disciplinary artist and photographer Wolfgang Tillmans got signed to David Zwirner and has been living in New York for a month up until his current exhibition. By all accounts, he seems to be having a fucking blast. He’s been out at clubs, DJing Fire Island parties, and making a ton of art, according to a David Zwirner employee. But judging from his massive new David Zwirner exhibit, PCR (aka polymerase chain reaction), Joie de Vivre is a quality propelling the essence that makes Tillmans’s work fantastic. To him, people going out to dance, party, and express themselves is the ultimate form of protest.

“What I love about music more than anything is that by all measures, music is useless,” he says at a press preview of the exhibit. “This exhibition has an insistence on clubbing and playing. Take Glastonbury Festival for example, in some sense it’s very political, and in another sense it’s five days of absolute nonsense and fun. That is connected. “

Fun and politics need not be separate within Tillmans’s visual language. On the contrary, the two concepts are parallel to one another, a notion exemplified in the work displayed at PCR. The exhibit reads as a comprehensive look into the major themes that define his work: political progress, the exuberance of the nightclub, the power of music, and universal progress.

Numerous photographs line the walls of Zwirner depicting various artists and activists. The surroundings they exist within are different but their message is inherently similar. There are familiar faces from American pop culture like Patti Smith and MC Ride of Death Grips, artists that use their massive platforms to unleash their messages of revolution unto the world. But there are also activists that don’t have the platform that a media figure has, but nevertheless engage in protest whether they believe they are or not. The nightclub, to Tillmans, is a “sanctuary of free expression.” “Many of the photographs depict men having fun at gay clubs in Russia,” says Tillmans. “There are only two gay clubs in Moscow, and these places are the only places that these people can go and fully express themselves.

Despite Tillman’s exuberant outlook on life, he is a diligent curator, and was involved with every aspect in the development of this show. “He’s extremely thorough,” says David Zwirner Special Projects coordinator and artist Young Sun Han. “When he first came to Zwirner he gave us a presentation with a rundown of his entire career.”

Tillmans has always engaged with the curatorial aspect of his exhibitions as another form of expression, and not a burden. Within the PCR exhibit, every angle at which the work is displayed is meticulously thought out, even with some of the photographs that hang 15 feet in the air above the normal line of sight. “My mother always gets angry,” says Tillmans with a grin, “Why do you need to put it all the way up there?”

A table installation in the gallery’s back room, TSC (Time Mirrored), combines photographs of architecture and telescopes with statements considering the massiveness of time, and a sculpture, I Refuse to be Your Enemy, consists of black paper laid out along several tables. These structures act as a kind of element to focus the attention on, as a reprieve from the visual stimuli. These structures allow the viewer to consider the messages relayed from the content within the imagery.

The final item of the gallery is a brand new video piece, entitled Instrument. In the video, you see human figures dancing in the shadow in the right screen, while a man gyrating needlessly appears with his back to the screen on the left. While the video seems to be message-less, In Tillmans’s view there is never any expression that is left devoid of subtext. “The politics are never far out,” says Tillmans. There is sexuality in Tillmans’s work, but it is not racy or even sexual. It’s more about freedom. “I always want to show sexuality but never show sex or any one idea of sexual identity,” he says. “I just want people to achieve comfort with their bodies.”

PCR appears to emphasize living as the ultimate means of expression. Not just the idea of breathing and having a pulse, but to live life to the fullest of your own definition of the term. We as a people can set an example for generations to come by living how we wanted to live. That is how society will continue its journey forward.

See more photos from the opening here. Wolfgang Tillmans "Polymerase Chain Reaction" will be on view until October 24, 2015, at David Zwirner gallery, 525 and 533 West 19th Street in New York.

Adam Lehrer is a writer, journalist, and art and fashion critic based in New York City. On top of being Autre’s fashion and art correspondent, he is also a regular contributor to Forbes Magazine. His unique interests in punk, hip hop, skateboarding and subculture have given him a distinctive, discerning eye and voice in the world of culture, et al. Oh, and he also loves The Sopranos. Follow him on Instagram: @adam102287

FOLLOW AUTRE ON INSTAGRAM TO STAY  IN TOUCH: @AUTREMAGAZINE

[ART REVIEW] Katherine Bernhardt "Pablo and Efrain" At Venus Over Manhattan

I find myself drawn towards artist Katharine Bernhardt’s work in spite of an inner resistance I feel towards work that could be described as “cute” in the most basic of ways. While I love some of the goofier performance artists doing kitschy work in the Midwest like Jaimie Warren, the aesthetic of cute is not something that I gravitate towards. So sue me, I’m affected (becoming a black clad heavily tattooed art writer was probably the only way for an untalented art geek to get girls). But Bernhardt’s work is made more wondrous by her demonstration of mathematics. Within her paintings, no matter how silly the imagery, there are real patterns and proportions made of a vivacious color field grid locking her imagery into place. It places the work in the middle of the war between our animal instincts and rational thinking (isn’t it weird that the part of our brain that sees things as “cute” is actually our inner apex predators identifying things as weak, but it’s our rationale that decided it’s ok that it’s weak, precious even, hence “cute”). Her word is a visually rich and fun tug of war.

Bernhardt’s new show, Pablo and Efrain, opened up last night at Venus Over Manhattan. Bernhardt’s imagery is often directly correlated to the imagery that she is absorbing and the objects that she is using: “Every residency that I’ve done, wherever I am, sub-consciously the imagery of the landscape always makes its way into my work.” During the creation of these new works, Bernhardt was in her beloved Puerto Rico. Therefore, much of the imagery living within the canvases reflects the colorful landscape of the island: sharks, various fruits, turtles, tropical birds and more blend seamlessly with some of Bernhardt’s fascination in mundane objects like cigarettes and sharpies. It’s like the imagery comes from a very unconscious and fluid aspect of her creative mind, while the planning and sequencing of the imagery on the canvas is totally mathematic and precise. With a huge mish-mash of imagery, she still manages to avoid overloading the viewer with sensory. Instead, it’s just a blast to look at her work.

Her interest in patterning also manifests in her fascination with the weaving traditions of the rural Berber women of Morocco. As such, Bernhardt lined the floors of the gallery with coffee bags sourced from Puerto Rico. The bags not only were nice and soft to walk on, but also helped make clear the influences that went into the show: the imagery of Puerto Rico and the precise lines needed to weave such bags

The show’s title, Pablo and Efrain, is an ode to the twin Puerto Rican artists behind the Poncilli Creacion, who Bernhardt met on her most recent trip to Puerto Rico. True to her unpretentious, self-effacing, and effortlessly charming manner, Bernhardt admits she knew nothing of the artists before meeting them. Only that she was completely taken with them when she did. “They’re just really fun and hilarious to be around,” she says while cracking herself up.

Bernhardt was at the opening with her family and son and having a great time. When Norwegian artist Bjaarne Melgaard was admiring one of her paintings, Bernhardt covertly snapped a photo of the intimidating fashionable artist. Unlike so many artists (and writers, admittedly) she adopts no pose. She just loves making art, and it shows in her work. Despite the lackadaisical attitude though, she is a real master of craft. That willingness to marry imagery that could be deemed silly with real technique makes for a unique viewing experience. “I just make the art, I let you guys come up with your own ideas about it,” she says. 

Katherine Bernhardt "Pablo and Efrain" will be on view at Venus Over Manhattan until October 24, 2015. Click here to see more photos. Text and photographs by Adam Lehrer.

Adam Lehrer is a writer, journalist, and art and fashion critic based in New York City. On top of being Autre’s fashion and art correspondent, he is also a regular contributor to Forbes Magazine. His unique interests in punk, hip hop, skateboarding and subculture have given him a distinctive, discerning eye and voice in the world of culture, et al. Oh, and he also loves The Sopranos. Follow him on Instagram: @adam102287

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Five Of The Most Interesting Pieces from the David Zwirner/Paddle 8 Benefit Auction Organized by Marcel Dzama for 826NYC

Digital auctioneer Paddle 8, an agency that combines the high-octane excitement of an auction house with today’s most advanced technology, offered a dizzying selection of pieces last night at David Zwirner. Offering pieces by some of our favorite artists including Richard Prince, Chris Ofili, Oscar Murillo, Raymond Pettibon, Dustin Yellin, Dave Eggers, Enoc Perez, Suzan Frecon, and many more, A Benefit Auction for 826NYC drew a crowd of both powerful collectors looking to build on their collections as well as art students and lovers just looking for a reason to see a vast array of beautiful work.

Proceeds of the auction will benefit 826NYC; a non-profit organization that works to ensure that students aged six to 18 get a strong education in creative writing. Having been bestowed with a love of reading and writing by some amazing teachers myself, the philanthropy behind the auction is one that resonates with me more than most.

Winnipeg-based artist Marcel Dzama organized the event, having been a long supporter of 826NYC; his watercolor and ink paintings portray whimsical worlds each of which tells its own story. Dzama credits the power of storytelling with informing his career in the art: “When I was a kid, my parents bought me a Fisher-Price Camera for Christmas,” he said in an interview with Paddle8, “I made films to entertain my sister.”

You didn’t need to bid on anything to get the most out of the show, however. It was presented as a group exhibition, but with names so big in the art world that it’d be hard imagining getting these artists together in any other setting. Here are five of the most interesting pieces shown at A Benefit Auction for 826NYC. But believe, there are many more that would make your jaw drop.

Mamma Andersson, ‘Abstint’ (current bid $3,500)

Using triptych and paper, Swedish artist Mamma Andersson’s ‘Abstint’ was an example of the artist’s ability to portray landscapes that amount more to a feeling and mood than any specific location. Andersson is interested in Sweden’s clash of beautiful nature and industrialization, exploring how the two exist together. In ‘Abstint,’ we see rather bourgeois homes looking familiar, but in a world isolated from all that is outside of it. Bid here. 

Sue De Beer ‘Untitled’ (current bid $2,450)

New York-based artist Sue De Beer’s ‘Untitled” has previously been seen on the cover of fashion and culture magazine Flaunt and exhibited by Marianne Boesky Gallery. De Beer often uses photography, video, installation, and sculpture to explore the idea of time and memory, but in ‘Untitled’ we see a beautiful woman with her eyed blacked out surrounded by infrared light. The piece seems to suggest blocked self-perception. It is a striking image. Bid here.

Marcel Dzama and Spike Jonze ‘It is Time to Dance Again’ (current bid $2,800)

Marcel Dzama seems to be a favorite amongst prestige filmmakers: Gus Van Zandt, Bennet Miller, and none other than Spike Jonze are amongst his major collectors. Jonze interviewed Dzama for his book ‘Even the Ghost of the Past,’ and the two remained friends. Now, they are making art together. The pairing makes sense: within Dzama’s art and Jonze’s films exist an irreverent quality that offsets the human truths that exist within the work. In ‘It is Time to Dance Again,’ we see two costumed men lift a plainly dressed woman up cheerleader-style, while two creatures dance by both sides. Bid here. 

Oscar Murillo ‘game play #1’ (current bid $15,000)

London-based Columbian painter Oscar Murillo was the subject of a not positive New York Magazine piece last year, arguing that he has been a victim of the hype-driven contemporary art machine. He has also been called a “modern day Basquiat.” With so much contextualizing surrounding the artist, it’s easy to forget just how freaking talented Murillo actually is. His work, often made with broomsticks and haphazard found materials, breathes magnetic force into otherwise mundane imagery. ‘game play #1’ is an example of his singular technique. Piling various colors of oil onto newsprint and pasted onto paper, the work doesn’t look like much at first glance. But when you are breaths away, you see patterns and forming that is utterly fascinating. Murillo’s success is warranted. He’s one of the modern day greats. Bid here. 

Enoc Perez ‘Untitled’ (current bid $4,000)

New York-based Puerto Rican artist (and good friend of Autre) Enoc Perez has a choice piece at the auction. The untitled piece deconstructs a sexually charged portrait of a beautiful woman’s face with splashes of brown and orange color. Perez has an uncanny ability to transport lowbrow images of erotica to a new arena of highbrow aesthetics. And he always does it with a wink and a smirk. Bid here. 

The exhibition and auction will run until July 31, 2015 at David Zwirner Gallery in New York and you can bid online here. text by Adam Lehrer. Follow Autre on Instagram: @AUTREMAGAZINE

Work.place Looks Into the Lives of Portland Artists

Work.place, a website curated and facilitated by photographer Carlie Armstrong, is an amazing, intimate peak into the inner lives of Portland, Oregon's working artists and creators. In a wonderful exploration of "the creative process and the places that contain them" this documentary style website is very easy to get wonderfully lost in. Filled to the brim with a rugged, DIY ethos, Work.place is a collection of exposés of artists unabashed by their eccentricies, their contorted concentrated faces, their clutter, their cats, their unfinished works, and the secrets behind what they do – and just as well the photographs by Carlie Armstrong are incredible.

Text by Oliver Maxwell Kupper