A few personal highlights from shows in and near Boston:
Ursula von Rydingsvard, Ocean Floor, 1996, cedar, graphite, and intestines
(Photo courtesy of the Artist and Galerie Lelong. Photograph by Andy Ryan)
Ursula von Rydingsvard
Andy Goldsworthy
Kysa Johnson
deCordova Museum
Lincoln MA
From the museum’s intro to Ursula von Rydingsvard:
Ursula von Rydingsvard works on a monumental scale. For over thirty years, she has worked with red cedar, a soft and fragrant wood. Using both carving and construction techniques she painstakingly cuts, assembles, and glues the cedar beams which have been shaped by a circular saw. In a final, unifying action, von Rydingsvard rubs the sharply textured, exposed surfaces with graphite powder to create works of enormous grandeur and stirring intimacy.
This scale and the range of works in von Rydingsvard’s show are both in the extreme, and for many that is reason enough to see the exhibition. Technically and logistically the work is a bit mind-boggling, no question. But some go beyond the awe factor and deliver a powerful, complete experience. The ones that work best for me are more complex than just carved and whittled wood, often including organic substances such as skins, intestines and cut glass. The tension in and between the disparate materials has a more dynamic tension. Ocean Floor, pictured above, is both enormous and yet fetish-like. That fetish writ large is also evident in a wood structure wrapped in resinated intestines. Memoraable. von Rydingsvard’s drawings are also very strong.
Engagingly fetish-like and oversized: Intestines stitched and stretched over wood
Drawing by von Rydingsvard
Cut glass structure, on the museum roof
As popularized and adored as Andy Goldsworthy has become, who can’t still find something endearing about his work? This is especially true while he is in the process of doing a new installation and homage to New England called Snow House, for the sculpture park at the deCordova. The current exhibit is just a prequel to the upcoming construction but there are some worthwhile moments of Goldsworthian playfulness on display. I particularly responded to the photographs of his large snowballs, laced inside with stones or with sticks, and then “placed” in unexpected urban settings. Each is documented as the melting leaves a pile of telltale “bones” behind. Of particular note for me were the “drawings” Goldsworthy did using dirty Manhattan snowballs left to melt on a piece of heavy paper. The lines left behind are like watercolor wet on wet—organic and exquisitely edged and toned.
One of Goldsworthy’s Manhattan Snow Ball drawings
Kysa Johnson‘s work is new to me, but her large scale mural in the Wall Works show was extraordinary. Taking a photograph of a polluted river as her starting point, Johnson has used white pencil on a dark background to reconstruct a new view of the same image. Her version is additionally embedded with the molecular symbols for the pollutants that have been found in the river, giving her beautifully rendered image a hauntingly dark and ominous layer as well. Amazing piece of work.
Kysa Johnson
Detailed views of Johnson’s mural
Nancy Natale, on view at
Arden Gallery
129 Newbury Street
Boston
Nancy is a friend of mine, and her new work is muscular, visceral and sharp. (Nancy’s advocate Joanne Mattera has referred to this series as “the love child of Lee Bontecou and El Anatsui” which is high praise IMHO.) These new pieces have energy and a beguiling charm, and Arden Gallery is an excellent place for her to show.
Some Fell Among Thorns, by Nancy Natale, Arden Gallery
Paintings Drawings & Sculpture
Victoria Munroe Fine Art
Victoria Munroe Gallery
161 Newbury Street
Boston
Two pieces by Chuck Holtzman
I’m a long time fan of the work of Chuck Holtzman, and Munroe has some beauties on view in the back room. (The MFA had a large Holtzman drawing on view a few years ago which was also a stunner.)
Carol Gove is also well represented in this show with a selection of her meticulous collages.
I first saw some of von Rydingsvard’s work about 10 years ago and was bowled over. Recently, I saw a documentary about her (it might have been on vernissagetv). I find her work deeply thought-provoking.
Goldsworthy . . . I’ve gone out of my way to see his work.
Thank you for the intro to the other artists whose work I don’t know but will plan to look up.
What surprised me with this show was the scale of von Rydingsvard’s work. It is a more abstract scale shift than the old 60’s pop art of Claes Oldenburg. The Ocean Floor imaged at the top is really quite spectacular.
Thanks for your comments. As always, insightful.