buffet 2
Painting by Erin Crowe.
GOLDSMITH’S: MFA 2007 SURVEY AT WHITE BOX AUGUST 29TH – SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2006
by Don Porcella
The new generation of YBA’s (Young British Artists) are emerging in the Chelsea area of Manhattan, New York at White Box Gallery courtesy of Cottelson Advisors and curator Jennifer Thatcher. It is an eclectic mix of 1st year students from the celebrated Goldsmiths College Graduate School in London, England. This college attracts art collectors like Charles Saatchi and boasts famous alumni like Damian Hirst. Overall this years survey has a do-it-yourself attitude and in certain art works one sees the scope and critique of popular culture.
Erin Crowe is painting portraits of powerful male leaders Warren Buffett and Fidel Castro. Due to their smallish size and unflattering poses, these portraits play with our idea of what portraiture is and pose interesting questions about the power of the artist over her subject. Photographs inform these paintings, but Crowe purposefully imbues the portrait with high key colors and visible brushstrokes giving the paintings an expressive and hand made quality.
Sara Gilder’s Baywatch video presents the artist in a swimsuit made popular on the American TV Show Baywatch waiting on the corner of a busy street after a hard rain. Automobile’s periodically drive by, hit the puddles, and cover her repeatedly in dirty rainwater. Uplifting, with its 1980’s soundtrack, Gilder turns an unpleasant moment into pleasure and at the same time presents a sarcastic spoof on beauty and popular American culture.
Ryan O’Connor poses interesting questions through his choice of materials. O’Connor’s cleverly welds found metal brackets together and in the process transforms the found material into a beautiful and interesting nod to modernist sculpture.
The art pieces mentioned in this article along with other works that were on display at White Box can be seen by clicking the following link: GOLDSMITH PHOTOS
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