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Posts Tagged ‘art’
Julia Sinelnikova at Life Cafe 983
THE VIEW FROM THE BAR
Julia Sinelnikova
Life Café Bushwick, Artist of the Month
December 2011
John Sunderland
I have been fortunate in my life to live in some beautiful places, and then I came to Bushwick; which to my mind has to be one of the ugliest places on the planet, why else would the artists of the street try to paint it out?
And here this month we have someone who sees beauty where, in daylight at least I see only the beast.
I have been in two minds about Julia’s show. To be honest I think the exhibition on the right hand side of the wall, is truly worthy of comment, but not so the three large paintings on the left, which don’t appear to belong in the company of the rest.
Sunsets and reflected light from natural and unnatural sources transform Bushwick from dusk to dawn; then it becomes a place of mystery, Chirico shadows and possible threat. But high on the rooftops above the streets the greatest show on earth is still playing.
Rather than go for the obvious iconic view of Manhattan set against a flame red sky, Julia looks closer and sees beauty in the momentary passing of light above the shadow blocks of Bushwick, and reminds us that nature gives us a fresh start every morning and wipes the slate clean every night.
It’s not easy to capture fleeting moments, and equally it takes a special skill to capture fleeting moods as the artist does so well with her interiors, where she shows us glimpses of transitory loft-life. We may want to know more but we never shall.
The one piece that really does it for me in this show is, “On the Brink”. This is a painting you could live with, it would always draw you to it; there would always be questions, never a dull moment. It could be a canvas that in the end could drive you mad.
Julia has captured here two people standing together, their naked feet in the moving water. That’s all we know, apart from the delicious fact that this is a moment set to pass and unfold. Quite how- we shall have to wait and see. Time for another glass!
Posted on December 5th, 2011 by Life Cafe |
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Tags: 983, art, art life, artlife, Bushwick, Events, John Sunderland, Kathy Life, Life Cafe, Life Cafe 983
Rachel Echanique @ Life Cafe 983
Exhibition Review
Raquel Echanique
Life Café Bushwick
8th – 20th November 2011
The View from the Bar
 Rachel Echanique By John Sunderland
I always think first impressions count. The first impression I had when seeing this exhibit was; there are five screaming women in the bar that weren’t here yesterday!
It ‘s a bit of a shock actually, like having all your ex-wives show up at brunch and start up on you again!
However relax, once seated at the bar and looking back, you see that the your personal connection has nothing to do with it, these females are not screaming- they are exploding, exploding with energy which is unraveling before your eyes.
The focus of each painting is the mouth. The mouths of the subjects are wide-open and crazy with joy, ecstasy or fear, or all three; it’s up to the viewer. Secondary impressions come, the image of the girl in the strobe-lit disco, a still frame from a riot scene in a magazine; the moment your wife gave birth.
Those images fade along with a catalogue of others; then your brain says, hang on these aren’t faces, they are moments when whiplashes of paint, the flashes of blades of color and line, the un-coiling of springs, conspired momentarily to form faces of women unknown.
Raquel Echanique is the latest artist from the HART950 Gallery; my last review of was about drawing; Echanique is a painter, with a sure-hand mastery over what she wants the brush to do; it is she who blows up on the canvas in these works, and the results are sheer energy in the form of controlled explosions. And after you have taken them in, you realize that the motion has not stopped, the explosion continues to expand.
Somewhere in the artist’s mind the moments before each frozen frame exist, and somewhere beyond, her whiplash brushes conjure up other
moments of joy, ecstasy or fear, as they coil and thrash on into the future.
Nick Greenwald-Augustnots
Nick Greenwald. AUGUSTNOTS.
A Review
 UNTITLED 5
By John Sunderland
A pencil is a tool for the brain and drawing is a process of synthesis, a personally based balance of mapping and reactive emotion. In Nick Greenwald’s hands, drawing instruments become tools of discovery. What we get to share are the graphic results of his searching.
Although the works on the Café wall this week are multi-media in execution – photo prints over-laid by marks, tears, burns, paint, collage, scratched and scorched – they’re all drawings.
For subject matter, if you want to call a person’s attention, use the human face as your muse. Here Nick uses faces like maps that he is both trying to read and explore at the same time. We are sensitive to our faces and read the faces of others all the time, so it’s fascinating when an artist explores the surface, even if, as in these images, the subjects are pretty much devoid of expression. But Nick’s not making portraits; I don’t see him attempting to go deeper into the mind of the subject at all. Rather, the works are about surface and effects and what he can do with them.
What’s to enjoy in this exhibition is a sense of the artist’s undiluted love of drawing. I bet he draws in his sleep, and during the day hangs out in art stores drooling over pencils, pens and markers. It’s on that level, the enjoyment of drawing as discovery that we share in his journey.
And thank goodness someone is still drawing; all art begins with drawing. This age has largely turned its back on drawing as the most essential medium of expression and communication. Today we have come to rely more and more on digitized tools to process the making of marks and thereby interrupt the natural human synthesis; from brain, through mind, to hand, to eye, to brain and mind of another.
 Nick Greenwald-AUGUSTNOTS There is nothing digitized here. Here is a man in love with making marks of his own, turning over the leaves of the jungle with his pencil. And, if he doesn’t give up on the search, he’s well on his way to becoming a maestro of his medium.
Come and enjoy another dish of brain-food and another terrific exhibit from the stable of emergent talent that is Hart Gallery 950.
From October 26 – November 3, 2011, at Life Café 983, Bushwick, Brooklyn
Posted on October 27th, 2011 by Life Cafe |
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Tags: 950hart, 983, art, art life, artlife, Augustnots, brooklyn, Bushwick, Events, Life Cafe, Life Cafe 983, Nick Greenwald
Art Life-Matt Brennan
Art Life
Matt Brennan
October 16 through October 23, 2011
 THE SHOW Review by John Sunderland
Matt Brennan’s 9 illustrated pieces, artist #2 in the Gallery950 line-up for October and November at Life Café 983, Bushwick.
My first impression of Matt Brennan’s exhibit was, “Look! Some chap is skate boarding up our wall!” That’s what you see first, skateboards minus wheels. And if that’s all you see, this show could be a yawn and something you might not investigate further. That would be a shame because Matt’s unique pieces are gems, the product of a fervent concentrated obsessive energy and inward seeking intelligence; well worth giving time to.
Apart from two of the six pieces, “Ghost” and “Lightning bolt,” which are somehow left of stage, the other seven pieces, all hung vertically, require close attention, very close attention.
 THE GRIGLEYSMITH Four of the pieces are on white board and the artwork is linear and incredibly detailed. Each of these has a theme and a suggestive title: “Cog,” “Navigator,” “Old One,” and my personal favorite title, “Astrosludge.” To arrive at the connection with the title, if there is one, is like looking at a tangle of fine string and wondering if it really makes a knot.
 NAVIGATOR The other pieces, executed on boards minus skate wheels are in color and display the same intensity. But these designs are broader with figurative elements as though the boards have been tattooed by an expert accomplished at placing the design exactly where he wants it.
I am not going to attempt to explain the meaning of each piece with titles like “Grigleysmith” and “Possessed Lion.” The interpretation is up to the observer (and I reckon over a couple of beers, you’ll have several).
 ASTROSLUDGE
All in all, do take the time, peer over the heads of the diners this weekend and have a closer look. You will be greatly rewarded for your effort.
Chalk Talk – Menu Picture Riddle
I thought this was as surreal as you can get, an Abacus with eggs?
Easy does it with the sums!
BRAIN FOOD AND MENTAL DESSERT
An exhibition of 12 of the best Life Cafe Menu Picture Riddles from the past year by John Sunderland, Artist and Mental Tease, who promises:
“All will be stripped away to reveal the answers and the ideas behind the images.”
July 1 through July 31, 2010
Life Cafe 983, Bushwick Brooklyn
Opening Party Tuesday, July 6, 7 pm -10pm
(*all original works and prints to order for sale)
Life Cafe East Village – Riddle Raffle June 21
Life Cafe 983 Riddle Raffle June 18- June 25
Life Cafe 983 Riddle Raffle June 11 – June 18
East Village Riddle Raffle JUNE 4 – JUNE 11
Answer: Beef it up!
Artists’ comment by John Sunderland.
There’s something about the way that cattle seem to look at the world, with complete complacency and acceptance. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see
a cow drifting by, chewing the cud, suspended irrationally in the sky, as though it was the most normal way for a cow to get about.
The thing about surreal illustrations is that they have to be well executed, this image is not quite there. I would like to try it again as a painting and take more time over it. I have alway had trouble with cows!
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