Biennial

The Whitney Biennial is going on. I am always curious to see what the curators choose. There was a lot in the 2010 show that I really liked, and most of the pieces I enjoyed were by artists unfamiliar to me.

Kerry Tribe's film "H.M" is one of the best art films I've seen. It explores memory, veracity, and subjectivity. These are subjects I ponder, and what little reading I've done about philosophy of mind and cognitive science already introduced me to H.M. Tribe's treatment of the topic is multi-layered and ingenious.

I also really liked Lesley Vance's abstract oil paintings, Curtis Mann's distressed photos, Marianne Vitale's "Patron" video, and drawings by Roland Flexner, Storm Tharp, Aurel Schmidt, and Dawn Clements.

It struck me that much of the work that appealed to me was about salvaging and process. There were a lot of pieces of art that employed techniques dependent on chemical reactions and accident. Often accident-based processes are combined with highly controlled renderings in a piece.

Vance's paintings depend upon an old master palette. The source of her color choices was apparent immediately. She salvaged the somber spectrum of the late 1500s. Its impact surprised me. She does something completely removed from representational painting, but by resourcing those colors she creates a strong connection to that body of work.

Curtis Mann uses a type of masking (similar to tie-dye or batik) technique to highlight portions of photographs. The part he masks remains intact while the rest of the photograph is faded. The fading results in interesting patterns. He uses the masking to keep whole elements within a photo (such as a car) or to make a new mark (such as the partial outline of a person where no person appeared in the original photograph).

Roland Flexer manipulates a paper marbleizing technique to make sumi ink drawings. There is little traditional drawing in the process. He tilts, blots, or blows on the wet paper to move the ink. The result resembles a distressed, detailed drawing.

Storm Tharp also utilizes random patterns made by wet ink, but he embellishes this accidental foundation with carefully controlled, highly representational drawing. The contrast is striking.

Both Aurel Schmidt and Dawn Clements make large format, highly detailed drawings. Schmidt creates fantastic creatures composed of everyday materials such as hair, beer cans, cigarette stubs, and cob webs. Clements depicts domestic interiors that are pieced together from life or films. Her work resembles a map of a memory. The pages of drawings are fastened together in a quilt-like pattern in which pieces of the scene make almost a whole image.

Many artists make a habit of complaining about the Biennial. In some ways I feel like a Pollyanna admitting that I really enjoyed this one. I wasn't enthusiastic about everything in the exhibit, but I don't expect to like everything in the show. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the large-format floral ink drawings featured in one room were by an artist I have not admired in the past: Charles Ray.

The show introduced a lot of good art to me, and that is its purpose. Well done.

Jolly

On Earth Day I heard from a friend on Facebook that Origins was giving away free cleanser in exchange for empty cosmetic bottles. I am running low on cleanser and can't afford to replace what I have. So, I pulled an empty bottle of toner out of the recycling bin, and walked over to the Flatiron store.

It was a nice spring day and the door was open. There were about 15 unhappy women in the tiny space. The store just ran out of cleanser.

I was headed to the Upper East Side, so I inquired about stores uptown. A helpful employee gave me the number to the Upper West Side store. A few minutes later I was on a subway car rocketing to 72nd Street.

There was a line at the 85th Street store, but I managed to get one of the last bottles of cleanser. It smells great. I'm looking forward to trying it -- especially after the effort it took to get it.

I felt pleased to have accomplished my little mission and was enjoying my walk over to the east side. Around 84th and Columbus I passed a group of boys sitting outside of a school. One of them looked like an African-American version of Seth Rogen.

"Miss, you look jolly today!" he said with a smile.

It was unclear to me whether he was simply a friendly kid, a cheeky guy perfecting a pick up line, or a student trying to use vocabulary word jolly in a sentence. Regardless, I had to smile as I walked past.

This is my favorite time of year. Chartreuse is one of my favorite colors and it is the top note on nature's palette right now. Everything looks tender and lush.

This year, almost all of the flowering plants are blooming at once. Central Park looks like a film set. One would think a prop department planted blooming hyacinth, tulips, iris, pansies, blue bonnets, lilacs, and wisteria over night. Everywhere my eye fell, there was a touch of floral color.

Although it was a bit off of my path, I went through Shakespeare's Garden, Belvedere Castle, and a some of the Ramble before skirting the Lake.

In addition to the abundant flowers, I saw several robins and noticed a man pushing a medium-sized dog in a wheel chair intended for humans. The shivering animal curled up in the seat looked very sick.

As I walked across the park the sky darkened. I love the contrast between delicate spring green plants bursting with optimism and a menacing stormy sky. The rain fell steadily as I walked around the Lake. I paused under a wisteria covered arbor and watched the drops form designs on the Lake's surface. It seemed like a gift to be in this place at this time.

When the rain eased, I pulled out my umbrella and continued walking until I got to the Whitney Museum. I felt really happy and it must have showed. A man ducking the rain at a construction site around the corner from the museum looked at me quizzically and said, "I'm glad somebody's happy!"

Me too. There have been far too many sad days lately. On this day it was my turn to be happy.