Omer Fast, 5,000 Feet is the Best (film still) (2011)

Offering a cinematic experience comprised of particularly constructed viewing rooms, Omer Fast’s inaugural exhibition at James Cohan saw the premier of the artist’s three most recent films for a New York audience. On view through this past weekend, the exhibition, which challenged the typical context of the theater, complicates notions of script and reality as well as of documentary and fiction.   (more…)

Robert Smithson, The Machine Taking a Wife (1964), via Rae Wang for Art Observed

Before he began his pioneering work in land art and environmental sculpture in the late 1960’s, and shortly before his untimely death in 1973, Robert Smithson was exploring the quirkier, more colorful ends of the pop art spectrum, pulling from a broad range of figurative and cultural images.  Pornography, textured plastic, machinery and photographs collided in the Pop works, drawing from the often lascivious but always captivating landscape of Times Square, with its sci-fi movie houses, porn shops and street walkers combining to create a fitting commentary on the excess of American consumer culture.

Robert Smithson, Untitled [Zig zag star center, motorcyclist with wings, and microscope with wings] (1964), via Rae Wang for Art Observed

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The Fair’s logo, via VIPArtFair.com

Contemporary art buyers and admirers, many undoubtedly slippered in the comfort of their own homes, logged in for the opening of the VIP Art Fair on Saturday at 8:00AM (EST).  The online Fair was three years in the making, but until Saturday the website consisted of little more than a list of participating galleries and organizations, a brief overview, and a promotional video. Though the galleries had also been publicizing featured works to be offered and screenshots of their virtual booths, those not lucky enough to attend the fair’s opening party were still gripped with curiosity about the kind of experience the site would offer.

Zoomed in on Neo Rauch’s Haus de Lehrers, 2003 (est. over $1 million), via VIP Art Fair

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Roxy Paine, Distillation, 2010. All images courtesy of James Cohan Gallery.

A  large scale installation evoking circulatory systems, arboreal forms, and industrial power-plants has taken over every room in James Cohan Gallery, even the offices. The new work by entitled Distillation, is by New York born artist Roxy Paine, and is part of his Dendroid series. Other works in the series are outdoor sculptures featuring steel tree-like sculptures, including the work Maelstrom, which was exhibited on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art last year. The sculpture begins in the first room, right near the receptionist’s desk, with what looks like an industrial steel tank, complete with valves and pressure gauges. The work extends from this main tank to evoke a variety of conflicting visual cues: internal organs, blood vessels, tree branches, weather vanes, computer mainframes, and of course, the material itself–industrial steel piping. No casting is used to make his works; instead, Paine uses a complex process of soldering and bending the material. Certain areas retain the marks of this process, such as serial numbers, soldering marks, and product names, while other areas are painted red or are highly polished. The sculpture extends throughout the gallery space, extending even into the back offices.

Roxy Paine, Distillation, 2010.

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Bill Viola: Bodies of Light installation view via James Cohan Gallery

Bill Viola: Bodies of Light, an exhibition of the internationally renowned American artist Bill Viola, opened at James Cohan Gallery on October 23, 2009. This retrospective of two decades of Bill Viola’s work features Pneuma, a full-room video/sound installation and several pieces from the artist’s newest series Transfigurations. The exhibition is on view until December 5, 2009.

The Innocents, Bill Viola (2007) via James Cohan Gallery

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From “White Noise,” a group show at the James Cohan Gallery.

The James Cohan Gallery is hosting “White Noise,” a show that incorporates pieces by various artists that focus on silence.  Can one write silence? portray it in art? Is silence merely the absence of sound or an entity in itself? These are among the questions which the performance artists, painters, photographers, installation artists, and video artists of “White Noise” confront, in an exhibition that features an additional four new works specially commissioned for the show.  Nick Cave, Simon Evans, Brendan Fowler, and Fred Tomaselli present exhibition-specific works, alongside those by well-known artists Laurie Anderson, Robert Morris, Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono, and more.

Related links:
James Cohan Gallery : WHITE NOISE
Exhibition of Sounds to be Looked at and Objects to be Heard at James Cohan Gallery [artdaily]

Jack Pierson, “Silence,” at James Cohan Gallery.

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