Pictorial: Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven @ The Renaissance Society

"Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven’s artistic output includes...painting, drawing, collage, computer animation, installation, and zines.[...]Her illustrational technique favors hard-edged flat planes in a neon RGB palette,[...]She appropriates text from a range of discourses, including philosophy, science, poetry, theology.[...]The Renaissance Society will present four new bodies of work, including numerous new works on paper;[...]an interactive computer animation; and a related series of computer generated prints.[...]The new work will be supplemented with selections of work from throughout her career."[1]























Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven
In A Saturnian World
September 25 – December 18, 2011
The Renaissance Society
Bergman Gallery
Cobb Hall 418
5811 S. Ellis Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60637

[1] http://www.renaissancesociety.org

See also Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven interviewed by The Renaissance Society Associate Curator Hamza Walker:

http://vimeo.com/29728607

- Paul Germanos

Review: Rinus Van de Velde @ Monique Meloche

Immediately, the exhibition suggests a visual precedent: the work of Raymond Pettibon. The young artist (aged 27 years) is familiar with, but not overly fatigued by, the reference. And rather than rejecting the comparison outright, he strives in English to suggest a nuanced distinction between himself and the Black Flag conspirator. "Pettibon," says Rinus, "really is more of a painter."


Above: Rinus Van de Velde, candid.

Rinus Van de Velde draws. And where Pettibon is often found dripping in his wet work, Van de Velde's charcoal and papers are dry.  So, it seems at first easy to nod in agreement with Rinus' self-assessment. But, Pettibon is (usually) remarkable in his use of line, while in contrast Van de Velde produces value studies almost exclusively through skillful shading and blending. The former artist is actually the more "graphic" of the two.



Van de Velde, if not a painter, is deeply connected to the illusion of volume at which painters once aimed; especially noteworthy is the concomitant use of chiaroscuro. Yet again, though he begins with two-dimensional (digital) source material, Van de Velde is manifestly preoccupied with the rendition of a three-dimensional presence in a two-dimensional space. Towards that end, like a "real" painter, Van de Velde relies upon gradients and not linear work, e.g., cross-hatching or outlining, in order to suggest a given form. It's easy to believe that he began his training as a sculptor.



All of this omits the text. Rinus is given pause when asked about Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer. "I'll need to think about that," he responds. Kruger in particular seems good to mention as she furiously packs (virtually) all of the space between her images with text; like Van de Velde, both women (Kruger and Holzer) "write" directly upon architectural surfaces.



Returning to the beginning, it's the indication of the artist's own hand which not only draws Van de Velde close to Pettibon but which also distances him from Kruger's bold italic, and Holzer's electric, font. There's his hatching: in the writing. Different than any of them, Van de Velde's textual "ground" manifests as a fantastic sort of "stream of consciousness" monologue which, maybe akin to Joyce's "commodius vicus of recirculation," really goes nowhere.

Whether there is (ever) a progression towards meaning, this artist's "found" JPEG reinterpretations are buoyed along in a manner which is pleasing to behold...

Rinus Van de Velde in:
Dear David Johnson,
April 2 – May 14, 2011
moniquemeloche
2154 W. Division
Chicago IL 60622
http://moniquemeloche.com

- Paul Germanos

Review: Carla Arocha & Stephane Schraenen @ Monique Meloche

Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" is well-loved in Chicago.  Its polished, stainless steel skin reflects not only the City skyline but also those spectators near to the curvilinear work, thus providing equal opportunity for civic pride and public vanity--assuming that they are distinguishable.[1]


Above: Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate"

In a similar manner, for the purpose of examining their own reflections, patrons (including the author) drew close to the mirror-like surfaces contained within four pieces of statuary on display at the opening of Carla Arocha and Stephane Schraenen's show "As if" at Monique Meloche Gallery.


Above: Carla Arocha and Stephane Schraenen's "Untitled (gold)" which, on a different scale, would fit quite nicely into Chicago's skyline.  See MvdR's 1971 IBM Building,[2] which Ira J. Bach called, "superbly proportioned."[3]

It was a human response, likely engendered by the scale and proportion (59 x 20 x 12 inches in every case) of the art.[4]  The bright, acrylic sheets filling each sculpture were said to have been laser-cut; the monolithic cabinets holding that acrylic were said to have been fastidiously constructed from synthetic board painted with automobile enamel.  But, contrary to the orchestrated precision which characterized the process of the artworks' fabrication, it was that random, casual, and natural reaction of the audience which provided the color--according to the (reflected) dress of the attendee.  What seemed at first proper to judge as a minimal and nearly monochromatic presentation of regular, geometric forms was enlivened by the entry of the crowd.


Above: Carla Arocha and Stephane Schraenen's "Untitled (lines)"

Visual art is "alive" when it's seen, in real time and space, by an engaged party.  And, generally, it's fatal to understanding to imagine that artworks (any cultural products) exist only in the vacuum of "white cube" gallery and museum spaces.  Hopefully, internet viewership and academic practice--being abstracted from reality--will not wholly displace the pursuit of direct experience and the practice of personal contemplation.  How much color is in Arocha and Schraenen's show? as much or as little color as is in the environment in which it's displayed.  Light, clothing, paint on the walls: The pieces are affected by whatever surrounds them.


Above: Carla Arocha and Stephane Schraenen's"Untitled (bubbles)"

On perception: The gallery's front window and front wall (facing Division) have been treated with precisely-cut vinyl tape, so that two concentric ring patterns are held on planes parallel to one another, separated by a distance of roughly two meters.  As viewed from the sidewalk and/or street, a "moire" effect appears in a striking manner.  The high contrast of the black and white, figure and ground, is boldly graphic.  But the piece is truly three-dimensional (sculpture) as its appreciation depends upon spatial relationships.  It's from this installation that the show takes its title; and it's probably the most effective use of the storefront to date.


Above: Carla Arocha and Stephane Schraenen's "As if"

The whole show--installation, statuary, and four photographic prints--seems very much more expansive than it is, thanks to good placement and light.

[1] Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" is curvilinear in shape--but contains within its surface the reflections of many rectilinear shapes as a result of the context in which it has been placed.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/330_North_Wabash
Above: Mies van der Rohe's 1971 IBM Building at 330 N. Wabash

[3] "Chicago's Famous Buildings" Third Edition, ed. Ira J. Bach (1965, 1969; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980) 95-96.

[4] If the scale and the proportion (but not the shape) of Arocha & Schraenen's statuary relates to the human body, in the context of Chicago the shape and proportion (if not the scale) of that statuary relates to the City's Modern architecture.

Carla Arocha & Stephane Schraenen
"As if"
September 16 – November 6, 2010
Tuesday – Saturday, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
Closed Sunday and Monday
Monique Meloche Gallery
2154 W. Division (@ Leavitt)
Chicago, IL 60622
http://moniquemeloche.com

See also: Lauren Weinberg's Time Out Chicago review of Carla Arocha & Stephane Schraenen,
http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/art-design/90016/carla-arocha-and-stephane-schraenen-at-monique-meloche-art-story

- Paul Germanos