Monday, April 20, 2009

Michelle Lopez, The Violent Bear It Away, at Simon Preston Gallery [Review]


Michelle Lopez, Southern Trees/Black September [installation view], 2009. Photo: 16 Miles [more]

Once you get over the shock of seeing a whole tree pushed through a gallery white wall, held precariously by sandbags and rope, it’s Woadsonner (edit) that haunts longest. A repurposing of the sleek, leather car sculpture that appeared in Lopez’s last New York show, at Deitch Project, way back in 2001, its innards spill out of a dilapidated, unpeeled casing. The last piece in the spare show is cast ash that appears first as a plume of smoke, then a head of hair flying through the floor.  Called Self-portrait as Special Mission Project / Akira Revisited and encapsulating the curious, personal melancholia on display throughout, it's enough to make you worry about where she’s been these eight years and how long we'll have to wait for a followup.


Michelle Lopez, Southern Trees/Black September [installation view], 2009. Photo: 16 Miles [more]


Michelle Lopez, Southern Trees/Black September [installation view], 2009. Photo: 16 Miles [more]


Michelle Lopez, Self-portrait as Special Mission Project/Akira Revisited, 2009. Photo: 16 Miles [more]


Michelle Lopez, Woadsonner (edit), 2009. Photo: 16 Miles   [more]

Michelle Lopez, The Violent Bear It Away
Simon Preston Gallery
301 Broome Street
New York, New York
Through May 17, 2009

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