Tag Archives: Matthew Marks

SUELLEN ROCCA

As opposed to the other Pop Art environs of the 1960s and early 1970s, Chicago did not hesitate to get its hands dirty. Variously pugnacious, puerile, scatological, graphic, exotic, comical, and absurd, Chicago Imagist artwork sought a very different version of “popular” from the detached cool of New York (and to a certain extent London and Los Angeles), a notion hip-deep in the street-corner muck of a working class city with crazy dreams and high ideals…

In contrast to their wild subject matter, [the Chicago Imagists] utilized an aesthetic that was often tightly crafted and stunningly beautiful. That tension, between whip-smart expressive sensibility and a pristine finish, became one of the movements hallmarks, and it gave an engine to one of America’s most highly personal enclaves of artistic personalities. — John Corbett*

Suellen Rocca—a pioneer of the Hairy Who school of Chicago Imagists—died last week. She was a longtime curator and educator at Elmhurst College, west of the city.

*John Corbett, “Chicago Imagist Art—Vintage Grit Pop,” in Painthing on the Möve: Chicago Imagists 1966–1973/Albert Oehlen (London: Thomas Dane Gallery; Chicago: Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2011), 7.

Suellen Rocca, from top: Bare Shouldered Beauty, 1965, oil on canvas; Bare Shouldered Beauty and the Pink Creature, 1965, oil on canvas, left panel of two; Dream Fish Two, 1997, graphite and pencil on paper; Da Hairy Who Foyer–For Ya Prince, 1967–1968, screenprint in blue and red on black paper; Neatest Garbage, 1982, graphite and colored pencil on paper; Rocca with Curly Head, 1967, photograph by Bob Kotalik, Chicago Sun-Times, courtesy of Pentimenti Productions; Dancing Curls, 1968, pen and black ink and pastel, over traces of graphite, on wove paper; Don’t, 1981, graphite and colored pencil on paper; Ring Girl, 1965. Images courtesy and © the artist’s estate, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Matthew Marks Gallery.

VIJA CELMINS IN CONVERSATION

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In conjunction with her Met Breuer retrospective, Vija Celmins will join curator Ian Alteveer for a public conversation at the Met Fifth Avenue.

AN EVENING WITH VIJA CELMINS

Thursday, October 10, at 6:30 pm.

Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 Fifth Avenue (83rd Street entrance), New York City.

See Susan Tallman on Celmins.

Vija Celmins, from top: the artist at Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles, 2002, photograph courtesy and © Sidney B. Felsen; To Fix the Image in Memory, 1977–1982, stones and painted bronze, eleven pairs; Night Sky #15, 2000–2001, oil on canvas; Japanese Book, 2007–2010, oil on canvas; Untitled (Moon Surface #1), 1969, graphite on acrylic ground on paper; Heater, 1964, oil on canvas; Shell, 2009–2010, oil on canvas; Suspended Plane, 1966, oil on canvas; Vase, oil on canvas; Lamp #1, 1964, oil on canvas; Envelope, 1964, oil on canvas; Untitled (Ocean), 1977, graphite on acrylic ground on paper. Images courtesy and © the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery.

FELIX AND FRIEZE LOS ANGELES

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Sales are good, tickets are selling out, events are full, and the sun is shining—although a brief shower is forecast for midday Sunday—so the inaugural edition of Frieze Los Angeles should be followed by many more.

We hope Felix returns, too. Co-founded by Morán Morán brothers Al and Mills and collector Dean Valentine, it’s an intimate fair headquartered in Hollywood.

FELIX

Through Sunday, February 17.

Hollywood Roosevelt

7000 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles.

An Arthur Jafa edition of Name That Tune has been added to today’s Frieze Talks, and the fair will close on Sunday with Miranda July and Maggie Nelson in conversation.

When you’re out on the Paramount studio backlot in the Frieze Projects section, stop by the Sqirl/Acid-Free space for Sqirl Away to-go items from the Los Feliz restaurant as well as a selection of art books and periodicals, including Liz Craft’s …my life in the sunshine—published by DoPe Press—and the new print issue of PARIS LA.

FRIEZE LOS ANGELES

Through Sunday, February 17.

Paramount Pictures Studios

5515 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles.

From top: Ken Price, Return to LA, 1990, courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks (Frieze Los Angeles); Florian Morlat, collage, courtesy of the artist and The Pit (Frieze Los Angeles); Jessi Reaves installation at Felix, courtesy the artist and Bridget Donahue, New York; Kristen Morgin, Jennifer Aniston’s Used Book Sale (detail), ceramic, courtesy the artist and Marc Selwyn Fine Art (Felix); David Hockney, Peter Showering, 1976, C print, courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks (Frieze Los Angeles); Nan Goldin, Blue, 2016, courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman (Frieze Los Angeles).

RETURN OF THE HAIRY WHO

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“Neither a movement nor a style, Hairy Who was simply the name six Chicago artists chose when they decided that the best way to find success as individuals was to join forces and exhibit together.

“In 1966, Jim Falconer, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Suellen Rocca, and Karl Wirsum—all recent graduates of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago—began mounting, as the Hairy Who, unconventional displays of bright, bold graphic work at the Hyde Park Art Center. Over a period of four years, they transformed the art landscape of Chicago, injecting their new and unique voices into the city’s rising national and international profile.”*

The first comprehensive Hairy Who exhibition is now on view at the Art Institute.

HAIRY WHO? 1966–1969*

Through January 6.

Art Institute, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

From top:

Art Green, Consider the Options, Examine the Facts, Apply the Logic (originally titled The Undeniable Logician), 1965, Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, © Art Green.

Dan Nadel, The Collected Hairy Who Publications, 1966–1969 (New York: Matthew Marks, 2015); image credit: Matthew Marks.

Below: Suellen Rocca, Bare Shouldered Beauty and the Pink Creature (detail), 1965, Art Institute of Chicago © Suellen Rocca.

POSITIONER

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POSITIONER—a new group show at Matthew Marks featuring work by Lena Henke, Ravi Jackson, Julien Nguyen, Julia Phillips, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya focused on the depiction of the individual—is now on view.

“Representation, figuration, and portraiture all carry with them implications of power, visibility, and identity. The artists in this exhibition, working in a broad range of media, expand upon and push against these histories, suggesting more inclusive and critically-engaged ways forward.”*

“The title of the exhibition is borrowed from Phillips, whose work often alludes to the unseen nature of institutionalized discrimination.”*

POSITIONER*

Through December 22.

Matthew Marks

1062 North Orange Grove, and

7818 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood.

See “Death Deluxe,” a portfolio by Item Idem, with photographs by Brian Oldham and Paul Mpagi Sepuya, PARIS LA 16 (2018).

Julia Phillips, Fixator (#2), 2017; partially glazed ceramic, screws, metal structure, and partially glazed ceramic tiles.

Ravi Jackson, Untitled, 2017; acrylic on paper and wood, ceramic tile, and Formica

Julien Nguyen, Capricorn Rising, 2018; oil and tempera on wood panel.

Lena Henke, Die Kommenden II, 2018; rubber, foam, pigment, reclaimed wood, metal, and mesh.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Darkroom Mirror (_2100135), 2017; archival pigment print.

Images courtesy the artists and Matthew Marks.