Lucas Moran at Buia

Lucas Moran

Lucas Moran - Detail

Splashy spontaneity vies with nerdy control (e.g., outlining splashes) in these large-ish paintings--the untitled one above is 76 x 84 inches. The graffiti influence isn't on the surface of the work but in its guts. At times the paintings appear to be the product of group activity--this decentered, authorless quality isn't a flaw but what gives the art its poMo frisson. The air of total random street accident is hard to achieve, and the work vacillates between sense and meaninglessness in a good way. Every inch of every canvas receives some surface consideration--it might be good to see some spaces where absolutely nothing is happening. Exhibition details at ArtCal. Through October 20.

Carsten Nicolai

Just noticed that Carsten Nicolai is showing at Pace Wildenstein (see ArtCal Zine review).
I wrote about him for Very magazine in '00--that review has been online for a while. Looking forward to the show--sure it will be insanely rigorous.

Update: Saw the exhibit. Considerable mileage exists between the work I covered and what's at Pace. The street edge, such as it was, is missing--this was very uptown. The music component made the trip worthwhile; subtle almost to the point of inaudibility, the white noise hissing in the Irwin/Turrell-like "mist room" and the fried pacemaker pulses pinging between the bombastic mirrored concavities in Room 2 brought the slightly subverting influence of the ear to the inevitable eye-dominating museum style installations.