Zarina Hashmi / Admit One Gallery, 529 W. 20 St. / Nov 25

This exhibition primarily consists of small black and white editioned woodcut prints grouped together thematically.  The single departure from this is a series of tiny houses made of cut paper and molded wire tied together with strings.  But the prints hold the real power in this show for offering a conceptual approach coupled with a wonderful sense of materials.  The grand theme in all of this is embodied in the show�s title: Home is a Foreign Place and it appears directly or subtly everywhere within the work.  The most direct series addressing �home� is found in imagery that references the artist�s house in India as rendered in an architectural blue-print format. Less direct themes measure distances or present proximities dealing with home.  The interesting thing is that, whether addressing the artist�s home or measuring the stars, the perspective is always an intimate, personal view as exemplified by these fragile pieces.

Apart from the conceptual or personal content these prints offer themselves as beautiful little visual poems; something approaching Haiku for the eyes.  The forms are reductive whether as obliquely recognizable images or just abstractions. The size format is standardized and each consists of black ink printed on a light tan rice paper. To be sure, they work quite well as functionaries in the themes they produce as groups.  Yet you could lift any one of them out and it would stand quite well on its own.  Individually there is something almost magically indigenous to this work, which may have a great deal to do with the medium.  The woodcut, though capable of refined subtlety, manages here to define a wonderful balance between the crude rendering of forms and the delicacy of the materials.

Hashmi masterfully treads a thin line here: on one side is the overt conceptual nature of the work but on the other is seduction of the medium and materials. The binding tension that lets her walk the walk with elegance and finesse is the intimacy of the two. But even this is kept in check so that the work does not suffer from being too personal.  There is definite point of view being offered here - you see it and are aware of the themes as they are spelled out. But it doesn�t impose limitations to interpreting the work. You might appreciate the themes but are not compelled to do so. Rather you might just prefer to enjoy these pieces for their individuality, the way they are constructed and what they say to you to you personally.

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Natasha Zupan / Folin/Riva Gallery, 529 W. 20 St. / Nov 25

Another artist that, like Zarina Hashmi, combines the conceptual with the material is Natasha Zupan.  But the themes and treatment are entirely different and perhaps more reminiscent of Harmony Hammond�s work (reviewed here last year). Hammond combines feminist themes in her work while being assiduously attentive to materials.  Zupan follows much the same path though the approach differs a bit. The feminism is expansive from a very personal view as evidenced by incorporating clothes such as a wedding dress, intimate apparel, etc., coded with her own body fluids or those from someone close to her. All of this provides a wide range of rich subject matter for analysis, which includes a simple abstract reading of the work. You see the latter handled best when the materials are a conglomerated abstract swirl of fluids, organic or not, resin and fabric.

It is the abstractive qualities that provide the work its real visual power.  Take the wedding dress piece entitled Floored, for example.  Here you have the direct reading of the object and how it is presented as a bit of captured social iconography - draw any number of conclusions about what it means on this basis.  But look again and you find a sculptural form that appears to be carved from marble though it is really fabric and resin. This new view of the piece allows you to appreciate it simply for its sculptural qualities and you can�t help but sense a curious connection between it and the carved fabric in a Michelangelo sculpture. Herein is found the zone in which some measure of visual magic enters the work.

The illusions to marble sculpture or other aspects of sculpture are certainly enough upon which to construct a style, but Zupan expands the gamut of possibilities with the materials in this context.  She uses netting, Persian rugs, fir, hair and silk, combined with resin, wax, oil, pigment and gesso. In some pieces the conceptual presence is prevalent where in others it becomes buried in and altered by the materials.  The point is that, though the work is intimate, it is not necessarily dependent upon the specifically individual dimension. Because of the broadband treatment and varied approaches, these pieces become and varied approaches, these pieces become.

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Robert Harms / David Beitzel, 102 Prince St., / Nov 25

Let�s get the obvious out the way first.  While these paintings clearly reference flowers they nevertheless hold up as straightforward abstract paintings.  Yes, they are reminiscent of Abstract Expression but these are not Ab-Ex paintings and Joan Mitchell was a friend and an influence on this artist.  But Mitchell may have been more of an intermediary influence for actually passing on yet another artist�s influence; one that had influenced her own work.  But I�m getting ahead of myself now.Start with walking into this show and simply immersing yourself in the magical color and terrific paint handling.  You smell these paintings, that characteristic sour linseed oil smell that announces that oil paint is present.  The color bombasts your eye defining form and edges up very closely to becoming form.  A huge help to the color is the way in which the paint is applied.  It is scumbled, smeared and otherwise lathered on but Harms modulates this expertly so that it doesn�t conflict with the color.  Each supports the other through a common tension that is held in balance.As to subject matter, this work seems familiar but that does not stem from Ab Ex or Joan Mitchell.  Rather Monet�s late Giverny paintings are what come to mind.  Harms doesn�t employ Monet�s shattered bits of impressionist color; his strokes are much broader.  But the connection to the Giverny work is still there.  Look at the abstraction and how it evokes the floral subject matter.

Monet most likely did not intentionally paint abstractions; at least not from a contemporary perspective. Even so, those paintings did approach pure abstraction. For his part, Harms may or not be actively striving for figuration, but his paintings edge up to figuration precisely as Monet�s do to abstraction.  The difference is that each approaches the same territory from the opposite direction.Joan Mitchell had a home that either bordered or was quite near Giverny.  Some questions emerge such as how much she was influenced by Monet and was that passed on to Harms?  Was the influence direct or indirect?  Was there any influence at all?  Though the speculation is amusing, in the end it hardly matters.  These are solidly Harms paintings despite influences old or new, direct or indirect.Robert Harms� work is very radical stuff these days despite not slicing up cows or using elephant dung as medium.  How so?  Because his paintings are so out of synch with what is expected as radical.  Harms maintains a healthy disregard for currently fashionable ideas whether as to medium, style or subject matter.  His pursuit of a singular vision as expressed in the traditional feel of these oil paintings is as true and courageous act of individual radicalism as can be imagined.

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Gudrun Mertes-Frady / Rosenberg + Kaufman, 115 Wooster St. / Nov 18

We profiled this artist�s paintings in our second issue from June 1999.  Her previous show at Rosenberg + Kaufman was in April of that year, the month before we began publication.  We were determined not to miss the boat with this exhibition and the results, now as then, are rewarding.Mertes-Frady continues to mine the grid for its painterly potential and comes back with a range of rich possibilities. Any artist facing the grid, especially when the forms are uniformly sized squares, is forced to confront the challenge of rigidly imposed order.  The grid, like the color gray, has a power that is simultaneously overwhelming and subtle. Some artists are content to just go with it as the primary force. Not so Mertes-Frady.  She constantly battles the grid through her application of paint and use of color.  The effect is one in which, though the grid is always present, it is never allowed focus  literally or as subject.Another interesting aspect of these paintings is the way in which process comes into play.  Mertes-Frady makes great use of process, but only in service of the paint and not the other way around.  The paint is rhythmically built up and squeegeed in multiple layers then scraped back.  The effect is more one in which color and form is revealed rather than actively painted.  In lesser hands the process could end up dominating the work; even becoming it�s raison d�etre. But this artist is a painter first and foremost, with a very healthy respect and keen understanding of what paint is capable of while also in command of her process.These paintings contain and balance two general distinctions and one or the other tends to dominate an individual painting.  The first is a sense of motion especially in the manner that paint smears off in the same direction across all the squares of the grid.  The viewer has the sensation of either speeding past an object or the latter speeding past the viewer. Mertes-Frady, in effect, seems to be telling the viewer to forget the object and to look at motion itself as subject matter. The other distinction regards a different view of motion that is highly dependent upon focus.  Here spatial movement is inward and outward rather than across. In these paintings the forward forms tend to float on top or, everything including the grid, dissolves into background and painterly surface.

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Christine Hiebert / Wynn Kramarsky, 560 Broadway, Suite 507A / Nov 11

Perhaps the first point of entry for this work is to see them as landscapes; not literally but in what they initially suggest.  This is especially true of the large horizontal pieces.  Take another step in this direction and the intensely gestural lines scattered across the paper make them reminiscent of epic battle scenes.  Again it�s the essence of the experience not the actual thing.  Before you realize it, you�ve been pulled into and engaged by the work. The references may or may not remain, but the dynamic nature of these drawings holds your focus.

There is both simplicity and complexity to these pieces and plenty of them to make the case.  Hiebert is unique and rather courageous in her choice of materials.  All the drawings consist of charcoal and rabbit skin glue on paper - a decidedly delicate medium.  To an extent this defines the simplicity.  But some of the complexity occurs through these same materials as found in the immediacy and intimacy they invite.  Look at what the artist does with them, the way in which so much virgin paper is left intact.  Then there is her use of erasure and smearing as a subtle undercurrent and response to the dynamic lines.  These contain cloud-like forms that only become present if you give the work the time it requires.

Hiebert works the same ground that another artist, Beatrice Caracciolo (reviewed here last may  see the Archives), does, especially with regard to gestural line.  But Hiebert is more minimal and the range of her materials is narrower.  Variation within the work is found strictly in the way her lines are applied, their quantity and the small to huge sizes of the work.  Is it enough to hold your interest?  With the amount of work presented here more variation would be welcome as familiarity begins to settle in and the work distinguishes itself less as a result.

But perhaps that is the point.  A viewer may be compelled to rush through this show and lose the subtle variations and distinctions.  But another viewer, according them the time and attention they demand, may just as well get tangled in their multiple webs of meaning.  Such entrapment could be a very rewarding experience.

Ray Parker / Joan Washburn, 20 West 57 St / November 10

Okay folks, it rarely gets as good as this and if you are at all interested in the excellence of abstract painting you owe it to yourself see this show. According to the brochure essay by William Agee, these paintings were created by Parker (1922 - 1990) over a period of seven years beginning in 1958.  Further: �The Simple Paintings were widely acclaimed when Parker first created them, but for years after they were largely invisible, part of a hidden history of painting in the later 1950s, one that we are only now uncovering through a process more like classical archaeology than modern art history.�  All of which makes this show that much more of a special and unique experience.

Parker is masterful in combining reductive elements while imbuing them with a lively sensuality.  In and of themselves, the forms are clumsy, coarse and heavy. A first impression is that they are reminiscent of primitive monolithic sculpture. But then the magic happens, beginning with the delicious color that fleshes out the forms. It is both dense and stark on the primed-only backgrounds. A closer look reveals the incredibly rich depth it possesses and you nearly feel compelled to taste it. The color conspires to cut loose the weighted density of the forms and opens the work to other meanings.

The next bit of magic is found in the placement of the forms and the spaces between them. Parker stacks his forms precariously or like architecture. At other times they are juxtaposed in such ways that they seem to nuzzle up against each other. In some of the paintings the dense forms seem to be set loose in motion; to be dancing or flying.  As with the color, the artist�s handling of the forms challenges our expectations of them.  In a wonderful triptych, the three canvases present what might be described as �planks� of color. The color in two of the panels is dense while in the third; a transparent alizarin contains its own multiple forms. Each panel takes on anthropomorphic qualities in that they seem almost like personages.  Their monolithic character and dimensions additionally contribute to this.

Parker is, what might be called, a paint sculptor. He carves out or molds his forms with the dense paint and then breathes life into them with the color, placement of the forms, paint handling and through his magnificent treatment of the edges.  His ultimate coup is to accomplish all this with very reductive work.  These are Simple Paintings; but only superficially, and one can�t help but believe that the artist intended some irony in the designation.  Give them time and you find so much more complexity proffered.

The last word about this show is how well it demonstrates the power of painting as a medium.  After 40 some years these pieces look as fresh and  contemporary as if painted just last week and you walk in expecting to smell fresh paint. It is the strength of their content and ability to delight the senses that renders them timeless and eternally fresh.  By comparison, a show of Armani suits at the Guggenheim or Damien Hirst et al look decidedly superfluous.  40 years hence the latter will most likely be forgotten or exist as minor footnotes to art history.  Ray Parker�s paintings, on the other hand, will continue to challenge and delight us 40 years from now and beyond.

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