constraction at deitch projects

on wall: ara peterson, untitled, 2008, acrylic on wood, 20 panels: each 96 x 20 x 2 inches, floor: tauba auerbach, untitled, 2008, ceramic tile

constraction

at: deitch projects, 76 grand street, new york

from: june 29, 2008 — august 09, 2008

http://www.deitch.com

constraction, an exhibition of conceptual abstraction curated by kathy grayson, opened at deitch projects on june 29, 2008. while our spring 2008 exhibition substraction, curated by nicola vassell, explored street-inspired action painter abstraction, this sister exhibition complements our survey of new trends in abstraction by comprising the best of conceptual painting and sculpture. many young artists today are reviving strategies in abstraction that have fallen into disuse and reinvigorating them with contemporary concerns. reshuffling the deck of conceptualism and minimalism, they use new technology and fresh sensibilities to further the projects of the last century’s best abstract artists. installation view, ara peterson and tauba auerbach

the artists

tauba auerbach creates paintings of seemingly uniform op-art ink dot fields that at a distance resolve into images

of crumpled paper, and a 50/50 graphic black and white tiled floor whose vigorous pattern seems to deny the fact that it is exactly half black and half white. tauba auerbach, untitled, 2008, acrylic on canvas

joe bradley‘s work is full of dead-pan punning: a clump of tall light brown rectangles is called ‘bread’,

a large blue rectangle on the floor is called ‘mirror.’ in this exhibition he has composed new vinyl wall works that are more than paintings but less than objects.

peter coffin has installed a rotating disk of translucent colors reminiscent of a ‘party disc’ that will spin slowly just

under the gallery skylight; a sort of cheap natural light display that will continually alter the feel of the exhibition.

xylor jane makes intense and repetitive op art paintings based not on sol lewitt-ish geometry or logic, but instead

on her crazy calendars, journals, and personal prime number systems. in the new series created for this exhibition, she charts her near-death experiences.

installation view

mitzi pederson‘s site-specific sculptures takes frumpy materials and boring architecture and harmonize them into

lyrical seemingly lightweight concoctions that rethink the minimal object.

ara peterson‘s sculptures and wall works are laser-cut painted wood slats whose choppy undulations come

from patters generated by his experiments in video. in these, the video data meets the motions of the videos meets the sound waves of the videos all made 3d and painted bright pop colors.

installation view, left: xylor jane, right: ara peterson, above: peter coffin, floor: tauba auerbach

in sync with the playfulness of these artists with respect to their art historical precedents, constraction as a title is meant to suggest not only to conceptual abstraction but also both russian constructivism and the idea of the ‘contraption.’ these new strategies of conceptual abstraction exhibited are all tied to concrete social phenomena, often using the latest technology and in that sense, owe something to constructivism. it is fun and enlightening to see, say, joe bradley’s vinyl parallelograms in the context of kasimir malevich. but as was the case with many russian constructivist sculptures, many of the works in the exhibition owe something to the awkward, wonky-ness of a ‘contraption’ as well. this humbling persistence of handmade-ness is one of the signature elements of these young artists, who don’t take themselves, or their materials, too seriously.

see more photos from the show here