BE THERE
Summer Show 2006Presented by Baumgartner Gallery July 21, 2006- August 31, 2006Marisa Baumgartner, Rainer Ganahl, Logan Grider, Andrew Masullo, Marci McGuffie, Schandra SinghBaumgartner Gallery is pleased to announce a summer group show featuring the work of artists Marisa Baumgartner, Rainer Ganahl, Logan Grider, Andrew Masullo, Marci MacGuffie and Schandra Singh.Marisa Baumgartner’s photographic work employs a distancing technique, placing a screen between the subject and the viewer as a psychological apparatus – in this case, the photograph is taken through a car windshield. Her images are largely about photography itself, an attempt at deconstructing abstraction in an art historical context and painterly manner via the camera. Embracing the new medium of the digital, they are an investigation into where photography places itself in art today. Rainer Ganahl’s video is part of a series of "kick readings" he initiated with several books by Sigmund Freud in 2001. This particular piece was not only inspired by the 2006 World Cup in Germany but also by a certain infamous Austrian/German tradition of destroying books in the first part of the 20th century work. In this work, Ganahl irreverently kicks Peter Handke’s novel ‘The goalie’s anxiety at the penalty kick’, along the cobblestoned streets of an unnamed Austrian town until it tears and disintegrates, ending in tatters in the artist’s hands. Logan Grider’s paintings are motivated by his personal daily experiences. The paintings are representative of short stories which have been filtered from his life through the process of painting. The figure as a literal representation of a figure is usually absent, and in its place are invented machines, broken boats, piles of waste etc that convey the symbolic meaning of the absent figure. The painting process is slow and open to constant change. It is primarily additive, as evidenced by the surface of the final image. The changes made to the painting during the course of its creation take form through erasures, collage and patch jobs. Andrew Masullo’s small and colorful abstract oil paintings are appealing in their brightness and simplicity – however, on closer inspection, one can see that these paintings are an exploration of the creative process itself. Beneath the bold child-like shapes and primary colors, the viewer can make out the faint outlines of previous designs that have subsequently been painted over, suggesting a “painterly trial and error” (Ken Johnson, Art in America). Marci MacGuffie’s works on paper bring together opposite forces by reflecting the dynamic between nature and culture, fleeting moments and aspects of the permanent, chaos and order. The artist’s mystical concepts and analytical thoughts converge as she combines disciplined and sporadic working processes. Repeated formations and textures emerge reflecting the similar natural patterns found in widely different circumstances. Chance operation supersedes deliberate design in order to unlock a deeper grasp of transient beauty. Schandra Singh’s work is fueled by the need to foster communication in a time of emotional uncertainty. As an artist whose cultural heritage stems from India and Austria, she uses the mode of storytelling of the Indian miniature painter, juxtaposed with inspirations of neo-expressionism. In a world where we are so often asked to take a side, to know all of the answers, she hopes in her work to challenge the viewer by not didactically presenting one way, but by addressing her fears to express a human condition.
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