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Jennifer Amadeo-Holl at Judi Rotenberg
Post #800 • May 31, 2006, 12:25 PM • 8 Comments
I came across Amadeo-Holl's works at Judi Rotenberg at a time when I'm reading about Guston. They remind me of a similar impulse to let internal urgencies dictate the work, and force whatever odd bits that end up on the canvas to function as paintings, regardless of how disparate they are from one another. The good ones get a handsome mix going of smeared paint, images of animals and human limbs, and white backgrounds. They look good as abstractions, and the figurative elements that seem like they ought to impede their success as such somehow don't. Instead, they evoke incomprehensible but promising narratives, as if translated from another language.
She also painted a series of abstracted floral still lifes that demand comparisons to Zen art in their simplicity and directness. They provided a satisfying counterpoint to the complexity of the larger images.
Jennifer Amadeo-Holl: Chianti Non-Classico, 2006, oil, 51 x 40 inches
Jennifer Amadeo-Holl: Katty Wampus, 2006, oil, 48 x 49 inches
Jennifer Amadeo-Holl: Kiss Me I'm Breakfast, 2006, oil, 32 x 49 inches
Jennifer Amadeo-Holl: Rosetta Esperant, 2006, oil, 54 x 48 inches
Jennifer Amadeo-Holl: The String, 2006, oil, 49 x 48 inches
Jennifer Amadeo-Holl: Ere, 2005, oil, 20 x 20 inches
Jennifer Amadeo-Holl: Aya Baya Bazaar runs through June 3.
2.
May 31, 2006, 7:45 PM
Franklin we just wanted to say hi, and tell you that we miss you.
aly and ceasar
3.
May 31, 2006, 8:23 PM
Hi Franklin,
Newbury street has some nice galleries - a lot of painting and drawing is shown. I like Nelson Gallery.
Enjoy.
4.
May 31, 2006, 8:44 PM
These remind me of the Albert Oehlen paintings that were recently at moca. They seem to be intentionally bad, as if she is trying hard to "F it up", and then attempt to resolve a problem....
"Albert Oehlen's works, often deploying self-consciously ugly color combinations, and inscrutable, half-baked forms and decorative touches, have a seemingly deliberate resemblance to a colorful wad of trash and mud being consumed and compressed by the hydraulic jaws of a garbage truck. Oehlen continuously exaggerates and distorts the traditions of abstract painting, breaking all the rules, in order to find out how those traditions work. The resulting works are so thoroughly and cleverly steeped in an aesthetic of excess and indulgence, that the artist successfully and persuasively communicates a visual picture of breakdown."
taken from:
http://www.broadartfoundation.org/collection/oehlen.html
See more here:
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/albert_oehlen.htm
5.
May 31, 2006, 9:32 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ9_toISK6M&search=basquiat
6.
June 1, 2006, 8:23 AM
These pictures have a background problem. No matter what color it is painted, the picture breaks away from it, leaving it behind as a left-over. Chianti Non-Classico shows the difficulty best, but it is present in all the others too. Severe cropping could yield some better pictures, but they would not be the same. A better strategy might be to simply finish these.
7.
June 1, 2006, 8:40 AM
Jide! Aly! Ceasar! I miss you guys too.
Jordan, Newbury Street was promising. More and more is happening in Boston. They're about to reopen an Institute of Contemporary Art and little rows of galleries seem to be appearing out of nowhere. It's a boom time in Boston.
Nurf, the above paintings are far preferable to the last Oehlens I saw.
Catfish, I pick Rosetta Esperant as the strongest, for the reason you cite. Chianti Non-Classico works for me better than the more cluttered ones, though.
8.
June 1, 2006, 9:03 AM
Rosetta Esperant certainly gave it a shot by putting the background color on some of the objects. But it needs to finish, just like the others.
There is a lot of talent to be seen here. But Kant said, correctly, that when the choice must be made between talent and discipline, choose discipline.
1.
onajide
May 31, 2006, 5:46 PM
Franklin, the more you post the more I miss your presence, even though we didn't see each other as often as I would have liked however, I do enjoy getting a peek at something new. We miss you my friend. :-)