STRAW
Richard Aldrich, Paul Cowan, Cheryl Donegan, Noam Rappaport, Patricia Treib, Benjamin Valenza
Curated by Erik Lindman
I do not want to prove a point with this exhibition. The selection of works was made primarily by the artists who produced them. I selected the artists based upon their projected affinity with my own attitude towards production. Many of these relationships have personal qualities which may not be visible to anyone but myself.
My experience has revealed a paradoxical relationship between the accessibility of ideas to an audience and the private nature of their relationships. These works may tangentially explicate each other, as well as point towards general themes about art-making today. More important to me, however, is a point I didn't explicitly discuss with any of the artists prior to this exhibition: that of an essential necessity towards the production of art within a framework of self-awareness.
One could say that these compositions aim at the same goals as Barnett Newman's paintings, albeit mindful of the failures of Newman's works. The idea of myth: has painting itself has become the myth? The sublime: does one have to feel terror at the unknowable to access the beautiful, or can one also laugh? Is the success of the search for what to paint contingent upon previous artistic tradition? Does one have to 'start over'?
The title comes from Thomas Aquinas, who in the face of actual religious experience declared of his lifetime of theological theorising, 'All I have written is straw'. The works in this exhibition address the above questions better than I can in words.
Erik Lindman
List of works installed clockwise left to right:
Cheryl Donegan
Crack 12 (Silver Outline)
2010
Spray-paint, plexi-glass, fabric, acrylic and sheet metal mounted on MDF
46 x 61 cm (18 x 24 ins)
Crack 9 (Black and White Gingham)
2010
Spray-paint, plexi-glass and fabric on archival cardboard
28 x 36 cm (11 x 14 1/4 ins)
Benjamin Valenza
Melville blue against copper
2010
Enamel and acid on copper
200 x 100 cm (78 3/4 x 39 1/2 ins)
Paul Cowan
Untitled
2011
Oil on canvas
101.5 x 81.5 cm (40 x 32 ins)
Patricia Trieb
Untitled (Refraction)
2009-2010
Oil on board
38 x 28 cm (15 x 11 ins)
Noam Rappaport
Untitled
2011
Mixed media
63.5 x 49.5 cm (25 x 19 1/2 ins)
Cheryl Donegan
Untitled
2010
Acrylic, metallic tape and collage on MDF
46 x 61 cm (18 x 24 ins)
Patricia Trieb
Untitled (Ochre and Turquoise)
2010
Gouache on paper mounted to linen
39 x 29 cm (15 1/4 x 11 1/4 ins)
Richard Aldrich
Untitled
2005
Oil and wax on panel
49.5 x 36.8 cm (19 1/2 x 14 1/2 ins)
Benjamin Valenza
Aqaba blue against copper
2010
Enamel and acid on copper
200 x 100 cm (78 3/4 x 39 1/2 ins)
