Mikael Kennedy, untitled polaroid (image courtesy of the artist's website)
Mikael Kennedy: Between Wolf and Dog
Clic Gallery and Bookstore
June 7-July 9, 2012
255 Centre Street
New York, New York
The polaroids of Mikael Kennedy are an ethereal beast. Although the sun-drenched Glass House series by James Welling immediately comes to mind, Kennedy’s work emphasizes human presence. The title of the show derives from a French phrase that refers to the time right after sunset, “the hour between dog and wolf” (L’heure entre chien et loupe). Kennedy extracts morsels of primal instincts from his friends and their surroundings, which are often rural and tinged with the oh-so-trendy sepia tone. His strong compositions in the awkward square frame, however, make Kennedy’s photographs worth an investigation.
Mikael Kennedy, untitled polaroid (image courtesy of the artist's website)
Susan Giles, Untitled Model #4, Paper (ceiling mounted), 2010, 12.5 x 9.5 x 25" (image courtesy of the artist's website)
Fake Empire, curated by Lee Stoetzel
Mixed Greens
June 8-July 6
531 West 26th Street
New York, New York
The five artists included in this exhibition refuse to take architecture at face value regardless of its cultural significance. Susan Giles, for example, melds monuments like the Taj Mahal and Sydney Opera House into paper sculptures. They are often hung upside-down from the ceiling like stalactites in Socrates’s cave, implying how easily these intricate structures are overlooked. Rob Carter’s video, Stone on Stone (2009), reconstructs the Sainte-Marie de La Tourette monastery by Le Corbusier and the unfinished Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine with stop-motion paper details. The monuments are built from the ground up and super imposed over one another. Although the design of the buildings couldn’t be more dissimilar, Carter encourages the viewer to observe structural successes and mutations in this architectural mash-up. Images by Olivo Barbieri, Lee Stoetzel, and Dionisio Gonzalez are also included in the exhibition. Through hyperbole, these artists “question our absurd exploitation of important historic sites.” They allow us to view such sites as invigorated sculptural objects rather than trophies to be exalted.
Lee Stoetzel, McMansion 3, 2005, Lambda print, 20” x 54,” ed of 3 (image courtesy of the artist's website)
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