Scott Stulen @ ebersmoore gallery in New City
When I took this assignment I checked out the artist's website and was quite pleased. Looked like very cool work, particularly the installation-based stuff. I was then admittedly dismayed to discover what was primarily a painting show. Instead of lamenting my lot in print, I picked my fave painting and the one sculpture most in tune with my larger reading of the work (two sculptures in the show were my two fave pieces). And that's all good, but had I more space to reflect, I may have been more critical. One bone follows.
On my recent trip to NYC, I made a game of counting how many PBR references I could find in the work during my walk through Chelsea. I could have added "incidents of vinyl." Now, I've enjoyed many a PBR and listened to many a record in my day, but c'mon! The two works below from the above reviewed would have scored in my game:
Now, I didn't notice Mr. Owl's title till later (Hipster Owl ironically hates U), and maybe it leavens my annoyance with this type of work, but not much.
I get it, I really do. This is my era as well. But cannot we collectively grow beyond this sort of pop-culture-infused... everything???? When are we gonna get over this crap?
I think it's valid to ask if I should have mentioned these concerns in my review, which I didn't really do, explicitly at least. I think no, primarily because it was such a short piece and if I was going to get in to this type of criticism, on an extended level, I would have needed more space. Now, I haven't taken much space here to do it, but I imagine the ration of shit I would get for saying anything "negative" without fully backing it up--see my Emmett Kerrigan fiasco below and I think I backed that up pretty well. Plus the work I picked to discuss was quality stuff; that tree was pretty badass, I just hope it didn't have anything to with Charlie Brown, which, in retrospect, it might have.
Merry Christmas.
