Gallery Crawl

Here’s what I saw on Friday that I thought was worth it:

Luigi Ghirri at the Aperture Foundation
Humble photographs mostly from the 70s that are surprising and poetic. His work often looks like a created set or still life, but they’re clearly found. Above Modena (1973)

Karen Heagle at I-20
Although she may be known for her more pulpy imagery, I was attracted to a series of still lifes with vultures. Her painting process was vigorous and the poetry was all there. Unfortunately, this show closed on December 6.

Kay Rosen at Yvon Lambert
Text-based wall paintings and small format works. She plays with language, reading vs.seeing and graphics. Why I’m not jumping up and down, I don’t know. I think I like a little more human touch.

Joyce Pensato at Friedrich Petzel – Now this is may be too much human touch. Very visceral portraits of cartoony-monsters. I like how she did one right on the wall. That’s brave. Makes me want to.

I liked Jason Karolak’s paintings at Massimo Audiello because they feel both human and mathematical. Also, I was interested in the selection of work at Mitchell-Innes and Nash that included the work of Cady Noland, Matt Mullican, Frances Stark and Amanda Ross-Ho. But, the fact that three of these artists were in this year’s Whitney Biennial makes me feel that my taste is being taught.