Mission Accomplished -- Uncertain Times
Cult Classics, Not Best Sellers - Keith Boadwee / Patrick Rock / Peter Nelson
Between Market and a little below Cesar Chavez there are few inscrutable items to behold. If you follow to parallel lines to the end of the universe it’s said the two will never meet. Travel down Valencia or Mission far enough and you’ll find a fork in the road and Queens Nails Annex where Keith Boadwee, Patrick Rock and Peter Nelson had a show.
On the face of it (before you get to see the other end) one is greeted with a frosted window. No shopping from the street at this location anymore folks or is it just what they're selling this month?
If you’re not the type that thinks Jackson Pollack and other Ab-Exes are overrated you may be convinced by this sausage hang. Boadwee a visiting professor at SFAI has put together a show of photos, video, collage and sculpture using gay porn, naked self portraiture, painting and a tree stump with some other shit stuck into it to create a hybrid between sculpture and installation piece. ...And that is just the front room!
As you delve further back into the “second chamber” you’re greeted by a twelve foot long chocolate log cake slathered in whitish frosting jutting from the wall opposite a video of the business end of a balloon expelling air to the camera. The analogies are easy to draw but the steady looping video is actually the most hypnotic element of the show. I was enjoying it until a friend came up from behind and grabbed my shoulder to exclaim cheekily “don’t you just want to fuck it!” Not what I was thinking but it seems like Boadwee’s work is destined to elicit this kind of reaction so keep those grins coming.
In 1995 Boadwee shit on fifty canvases post-paint enema while in LA and later vomited ingested pigment. MOCA LA showed multi-colored pictures of his bung. I'm guessing that's like exhibiting C-prints of your paintbrush.
Compared to his previous work the humorous movie poster collages using gay porn are technically speaking a bit of a let down. The tree stump sculpture also bedecked with porn mags, penis / butt portraits and flat acrylic painting with the text “butt holes” painted on it push you out of the room not because the content creates a spectacle but because the overall finish throws a blanket of dullness over everything. Not sure if that is the intent though. What did Piero Manzoni do after he canned his own shit in 1961? After Chris Burden had someone shoot him in the arm in 1971 he at least figured he could have himself crucified to the back of a Volkswagen.
After you grow tired of one artist unsubtle yet ironic railings against the vagaries of modern art enter chamber number three where Patrick Rock and Peter Nelson had their work. Patrick Rock’s photo collage drawings and other “escatica” are relatively more approachable considering what comes before. The running self-portrait in this work is an invidious Pagliacci clown or grave stones with words I can no longer recall. In one favorite the clown is framed by two whales jumping from a pool with something like “you are magic” as the text. Funny stuff… that’s about all you can say after struggling through the crowd and attempting to get a half-assed (no pun intended) look at the work. Despite that you get the impression that there isn’t a lot of “happy talk”. Elements of commercialism, ambivalence, sex and scatology filtered throughout.
Also there opening night was Peter Nelson whose concept is making and serving everclear using a mobile distillery Kentucky style. According to the release the distilling of spirits in a Toyota Pickup and serving it at an art opening deals with craft and ritual. But to that point presentation is everything and even though I could have used a good strong drink I decided not to bother.
The Continuing Existence of Things I Do Not Understand – Paul Ulrich
The Eleanor Harwood gallery pursues another transcendent angle this month featuring artist and sometimes Sneaker designer Paul Ulrich. His work entitled as a show “The Continuing Existence of Things I Do Not Understand” is a collection of meticulously drawn portraits rendered in light orangy gouache and collages that use masking tape, graphite and inks ranging from dark greys to red-browns.
While the palette is not entirely appetizing it effectively alludes to memory and abstract yet opaque spiritual representations. The portrait drawings could work at any size but the collages create have a menacing presence that is also intimate, frightening if they were any larger. One exception is “We are Born Like This “ which is a stochastic yet symmetrical application of quarter inch shards of masking tape surrounded by a turtle shell shaped frame of inked scales or feathers that is very inviting.
The gouache portraits render images of family members with a quieter intimacy that balances on the edge of visual perception. These very light colored drawings appear to reference people from the past, their countenances fading into oblivion once their children and children’s children pass on too.
In keeping with this immensely successful wordless communication nothing more need be said other than that this is an indescribably satisfying show. See it before it closes!
Something New Under the SOMA Sun… but when - Waiting for Godot on Minna St?
You may not know it yet from the website but Catherine Clark Gallery is opening soon on Minna street between 3rd and 4th. Keep an eye out for this.
After checking out the fantastic Tony Ourseler Oracles at Paule Anglims Gallery again last first Thursday I thought I would have a look at the happenings at the new spot. Well, it’s still closed. Apart from the impromptu preview following the SFMOMA Modern Ball we’re not sure when it’s going to open at this point. Maybe next month…
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Queens Nails Annex is located below Cesar Chavez a couple doors north of an excellent taqueria
http://www.eleanorharwood.com/Paul_Urich.html
Eleanor Harwood Gallery is a block east of Garfield Square if you’re looking for a place to practice your soccer kicks.
http://www.queensnailsannex.com
Catherine Clark Gallery is conveniently located downtown near the St Regis Hotel across from SFMOMA.
http://www.cclarkgallery.com/artists.html
