In Cellblock I and Cellblock II, curator Robert Hobbs puts together various artists' work (Vito Acconci, Donald Judd, and Sterling Ruby among them) that he has curated before but in a fresh, new way. The exhibition addresses containment, enclosure, and imprisionment (basically all my fears), and it challenges the assumption that all art should be accessible to viewers in a "voilà" kind of way. The show is complex, taking over two separate spaces on the same street, and suggests many layers of reference and thought through the specific (and numerous) works chosen.
Cellblock I, in the main gallery, sets up images that introduce the cell theme in the clean, sparse way that galleries typically display work, while Cellblock II overwhelms the viewer with diagrams, cell images, and videos of jailers, prisoners, and original bad boy James Dean. The overload and detail in Cellblock II seems to flesh out Robert Hobbs' curation concept with stimulation, as it combines historical material with a great number of works in various mediums––wall text, diagrams, videos, sculpture, and collage.
The great thing is Hobbs' goal to stimulate the viewer enough for them to draw their own conclusions. So I can take the brick and motel ceiling-like paintings from Cellblock I and the diagrams and strange prisoner videos from Cellblock II, and think of Uma Thurman buried alive in Kill Bill, mixed with Bottle Rocket's cockamamie burglary plots, and my fear of being in a tiny space underground/jail. The cell in its many shapes and mediums reminds us of the apartment, hospital bed, school desk, doctor's office... The pastel and Day-Glo colors make us want to feel free, but that freedom is boxed in with rigid black lines, or the outlines of bricks. We see various jails but think about our own lives and the spaces that confine us. It's basically a fun association game––or free therapy––depending on how you look at things.
Cellblock I and Cellblock II are on display though February 2, 2013.
ANDREA ROSEN GALLERY
525 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
Map
Cellblock II is located in Andrea Rosen Gallery's expanded space, dedicated to its Gallery 2 program that showcases content-driven, experimental, and historical one-time exhibitions:
544 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
MAP
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Cellblock I, in the main gallery, sets up images that introduce the cell theme in the clean, sparse way that galleries typically display work, while Cellblock II overwhelms the viewer with diagrams, cell images, and videos of jailers, prisoners, and original bad boy James Dean. The overload and detail in Cellblock II seems to flesh out Robert Hobbs' curation concept with stimulation, as it combines historical material with a great number of works in various mediums––wall text, diagrams, videos, sculpture, and collage.
The great thing is Hobbs' goal to stimulate the viewer enough for them to draw their own conclusions. So I can take the brick and motel ceiling-like paintings from Cellblock I and the diagrams and strange prisoner videos from Cellblock II, and think of Uma Thurman buried alive in Kill Bill, mixed with Bottle Rocket's cockamamie burglary plots, and my fear of being in a tiny space underground/jail. The cell in its many shapes and mediums reminds us of the apartment, hospital bed, school desk, doctor's office... The pastel and Day-Glo colors make us want to feel free, but that freedom is boxed in with rigid black lines, or the outlines of bricks. We see various jails but think about our own lives and the spaces that confine us. It's basically a fun association game––or free therapy––depending on how you look at things.
Cellblock I and Cellblock II are on display though February 2, 2013.
ANDREA ROSEN GALLERY
525 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
Map
Cellblock II is located in Andrea Rosen Gallery's expanded space, dedicated to its Gallery 2 program that showcases content-driven, experimental, and historical one-time exhibitions:
544 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
MAP
