chelsea, june 2007 - some interesting solo shows

Tom Meacham, at Oliver Kamm, through July 13th - these paintings are not really paintings....... the one on the left is some kind of print, maybe an inkjet print, directly onto canvas, and the one one the right is black tape on canvas. There is a table of knives, like a street stand, I'm not sure what that is about. Oliver Kamm is consistently interesting.

Oh, surprise, I just did a search of this blog to find any previous Oliver Kamm mentions here, and it turns out I talked about Tom Meacham's O. Kamm show back in 11/2005. Weird. Looking at those pictures of the 2005 show, on the gallery's website, makes me think that maybe if the 2007 me could travel back in time and see that 2005 show I might like it even more than I did at the time. Maybe I am not getting Tom Meacham fully. Maybe the 2009 me would like this 2007 show more than the 2007 me. I need to spend more time at the next Tom Meacham show, really try to get it, and catch up with myself. If nothing else, this blog is maybe good for me to try to keep track of and figure out what I'm interested in, and why.

Earlier this year I enjoyed the Michael Rodriguez show at Oliver Kamm.


Liz Markus, at ZieherSmith, through July 27th - they're sort of ominous, apocalyptic, tie-dye-ish, rohrshachs... of hippies. Stain painting, poured painting, folded painting (it must be folded at some point, right?)... I see in these rorschachs lots of 50's/60's painting references together with the 60's/70's cultural references, all of which are included together within this Cold War/Vietnam time-frame. Seeing the same hippie face in every rohrshach is too much though.


Alison Fox, at ATM, through July 6th - lots of nice small abstract paintings, hung salon style throughout the space, with some of the gallery walls covered by sheets of cork (not really cork, a cork wallpaper). It seemed like they were full of nods and references, like little tributes to technique, but maybe that is my imagination. I think the cork thing contributed to that.. the idea of putting up postcards of your favorite paintings.


David Noonan, at Foxy Production, through July 6th - The floor was covered with a big mat, not tatami, but something like tatami... smelled good. The subdued palette, smell, and central "screen" sculpture all made me think of Japan stuff... plus one of the images was vaguely like something from a Mifune samurai movie (even thought it wasn't at all). The images are all black and white screenprinted photographs, or maybe film-stills... there was definitely a cinematic feel.

That screen sculpture mentioned above consists of a group of flat cut-out screenprinted figures - like the Clockwork Orange gang, but they also could be mimes, or clowns, or street performers.