Chelsea gallery crawl: Mindy Shapero, Nigel Cooke
Mindy Shapero: "The Infinite Truths of Flatterland" at CRG Gallery
I wish I wrote down all of the titles of Shapero's work, because the titles are as important as the work itself. Shapero's work is part of a constructed fantasy world with a crazy mythology, much like the early work of Matthew Ritchie, which was also stuffed with wild cosmologies and loopy fantastical eco-systems. But Shapero's work has a wide-open lightness, and a spunky Do-It-Yourself craftiness that severely contrasts with Ritchie's claustrophobic, macho, and diagrammatic Dungeons and Dragons mythologies.
The infinite truths of flatterland (sleeping with the sounds up to eye level, wide open)
wood, ceramic mosaic, paper mache, acrylic, foam, epoxy, acrylic, and gold leaf
49 X 37 X 27 inches
The infinite truths of flatterland (hugging air till it hurts,and spinning out into other dimensions
acrylic on aluminum, celluclay, and foam,
40 X 55 X 60 inches
(almost every color and silver leaf) Ghosthead guide that will bring you to the Ghosthead god, you can only visualize the guide when you have entered a Monsterhead, and you first have to be serene enough to be able to even see the Monsterheads before you can wear one.
acrylic and silver leaf on paper
84 X 84 inches
(black and yellow and blue and red and sliver leaf) Ghosthead guide that will bring you to the Ghosthead god, you can only visualize the guide when you have entered a Monsterhead, and you first have to be serene enough to be able to even see the Monsterheads before you can wear one.
acrylic and silver leaf on paper
84 X 84 inches
The moment all the universes opened up to more,
simultaneously right before they disappear into thin air.
2006; wood, masonite, epoxy, acrylic, and acrylic coated paper
40 X 25 X 25 inches
(detail)
The one eye that saw everything before it was sent to the circle traps, it rotates in order to maintain all secrets but once it stops they begin to slip out
acrylic and silver leaf on paper
84 X 84 inches
The infinite truths of flatterland (hugging air till it hurts,and spinning out into other dimensions
acrylic on aluminum, celluclay, and foam
40 X 55 X 60 inches
The infinite truths of flatterland (inside the black thing there remains everything, perpetually without motion)
wood, foam, acrylic on paper, glass mosaic
76 X 97 X 65 inches
(detail)
(yellow and other colors and copper leaf on paper) Ghosthead guide that will bring you to the Ghosthead god, you can only visualize the guide when you have entered a Monsterhead, and you first have to be serene enough to be able to even see the Monsterheads before you can wear one.
acrylic and copper leaf on paper
84 x 84 inches
The infinite truths of flatterland (one thousand miles of whats that always lead to here)
mdf, acrlylic, paper mache
40 X 48 X 96 inches
(detail)
Nigel Cooke at Andrea Rosen
When I first saw Nigel Cooke's paintings, I was blown away. His work was new and fresh and exhileratingly beautiful. He made massive paintings of imposing and largely vacant walls. The walls are plain and stuccoed, and they look like part of some run-down factory from the future. The bottom of the paintings (and the bottom of the walls) are festooned with grafitti, and crammed with delicately painted debris, plants, pebbles, cracks, and... severed heads. Just click on this link or this link for examples.
When I heard he had a new show, I was extremely happy - until I saw the work. There's no doubt that he can paint, but the new work follows the tropes of countless modernist painters without adding anything fresh. However, it's amazing that he took such a drastic risk, and I applaud his initative. I may not like his new work, but anyone who is willing to make such a drastic departure from what they've done before gets my support. I hope he does great things next time.
(detail)
