Wangechi Mutu will never experience the heated backlash that Kara Walker experienced. No one will call Mutu the “patsy of the white art establishment,” accuse her of selling fellow black artists down the river, or launch a letter-writing campaign to keep her artwork from being shown. There are good reasons for this: unlike Walker, the Kenyan-born Mutu does not share the slavery lineage of African-American artists and she does not make work with a lucid historical context. Yet Mutu’s work is often as disturbing as Walker’s, reconfiguring sexualized representations of women and creating visceral collages that appear more pornographic than critical. Continue reading for the complete DailyServing article by Catherine Wagley.

Article by Catherine Wagley for DailyServing – Photo Credit: Robert Wedemeyer

“Eat Drink Swan Man”, 2008 Watercolor and collage on paper Overall dimensions 43″ x 63″ (nine parts) Courtesy of Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects.

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Videomaker Sadie Benning began making films at age sixteen with her Fisher-Price Pixelvision toy camera, a gift from her avant-garde filmmaker father. In her early videos from the 1990s, she retreated to the comfort of her bedroom to film intensely personal single channel videos exploring the themes of emerging sexuality and lesbianism. Experimental filmmakers like Benning loved the black and white grainy images and box frame of the Pixelvision, despite it’s failure on the general market. These videos were referred to as “Pixelvision” videos, and the artist was seen as a pioneer of “Pixelvision”. In 1993, her videos appeared at the Whitney Biennial. In 2007, the Wexner Center organized “Sadie Benning: Suspended Animation,” which was her first museum retrospective.

Now showing at Toronto’s Power Plant is Benning’s 2006 video, Play Pause, directed in collaboration with Solveig Nelson. This two screen video installation is made from hundreds of Benning’s drawings which follow anonymous urban figures through public and private city spaces. Throughout the course of a day, the characters move through a city resembling Chicago, engaging in quotidian city activity which then leads to drinking and dancing at night. The video ends at the airport at dawn with a security guard scanning bags and two people having sex on the wing of the plane as it takes off. Play Pause is similar to Benning’s earlier work in that it follows characters as they go about the process of defining themselves and their sexuality.

In addition to her film and video practice, Benning is a former member and co-founder of the band Le Tigre.

This week marks the beginning of the 2008 New York art fairs (complete list). The most notable of them, The Armory Show, features 150 of the world’s top contemporary art galleries showcasing the latest in today’s artwork. The show historically dates to 1913, where the first International Art Fair took place in New York’s 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets. The vintage fair marked the first time in history that an American audience caught a glimpse at “Modern” art, which was predominately being made in Europe at the time. The Bridge Art Fair New York (which will take place in Chelsea) is an independent expose that runs in Berlin, London, and Miami simultaneously with the other fairs in those cities. Bridge is popular among up-and-coming art buyers, because they strive to cost-effectively sell the works of both established and emerging artists. Pulse: New York offers an alternative to the typical art fair. While approximately sixty galleries will be exhibiting their best artists and works, a number of performances, installations, multimedia and happenings are also scheduled as part of the “Impulse” segment where the winning artist receives a $1500 cash prize. Frere Independent, a not-for-profit arts organization whose mission is to provide artist awareness has organized two special additions to this year’s fair agenda: DiVA, which is the first fair dedicated to digital and video artwork and Pool Art Fair, a “meeting ground” for collectors, dealers, and the general public to view works by emerging artists who have yet to gain gallery representation which will take place in the rooms of the infamous Hotel Chelsea.

Most of the fair festivities commence on Thursday, March 27th and will continue until Sunday, March 30th.

For his first show with Freight +Volume in New York, Canadian artist Kim Dorland will be presenting several new paintings in the exhibition “North,” in which he explores placing figures in various surroundings. Born in Alberta, Dorland draws his imagery from his native landscape in large-scale representations of a forgotten mid-century suburbia and its surroundings, ennobling the banal. His settings are as much the subject of his canvas as are Edward Hopper’s peripheral locales. Dorland’s strong compositions are punctuated by a high chroma palette and executed in a non-traditional media mix of oil, acrylic, and spray paint. His immediate and confident brushwork, along with the use of thick impasto combine to depict the familiar in a vibrant and unexpected way.

Dorland received his B.F.A. from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver and his M.F.A. from York University in Toronto. He has had several solo exhibitions, having shown at Angell Gallery in Toronto and Kasia Kay Art Projects in Chicago. “North” will open on April 5 and will be Dorland’s first exhibition in New York.

Pocket Room has recently opened in Antwerp. Why new galleries continue to open, while the local art market continues to shrink, is anyone’s guess. Maybe it’s the image of success postulated by the other new galleries that spur them on. Let’s hope it’s the pure love of art that has inspired Pocket Room to open their doors. To kick start this new gallery, they have turned to an elder statesman of the Antwerp art scene, Guy Rombouts.

Over the last 20 years, as one part of the artist team Rombouts/Droste, he has developed a visually-based alphabet, based on squiggles and color. He recently developed this into a fun Web site entitled “AZART“. This exhibition marks a turn to a more traditional sculpture making practice. Using odds and ends found around the house, it recalls the work of the Belgian artist Rene Hayvaert. The combining of two objects into one sculpture appeared in Belgium in the mid 90’s with the work of Dutch artist Jan Vos.

With his insistence on not gluing, welding, or nailing, Rombouts seeks to leave room for the possibility of life within the sculpture, rather than locking it into a lifeless position. Although this stance does require some balancing, pinching, and clamping, it makes it all the more important that Rombouts is able to find the proper fit for the disparate objects. Works on view include a hammer fitted with a rolled up piece of paper for a handle, cribs turned into cages, and a cane made into a chair. In one of the most poignant works, three table clamps squeeze each other in position, allowing the sculpture to reach for the sky. This piece works as a metaphor for what the Antwerp art world could be. Here each part supports the other, allowing for unlimited potential.

Rombouts has previously shown at Gallerie Tanya Rumpff, Holland and Zeno X, Belgium.

Guy Rombouts at Pocket Room, February 17-April 5th.

The exhibition “Feral” which opened this weekend at the Luggage Store in San Francisco is a collaborative show created by artists Monica Canilao and Swoon. Through the construction of immersible environments, the artists create a domain “populated by wicked women and feral girls.” They use wood, paint, paper, and found materials in the fabrication of their mystical and spontaneous world.

Canilao is interested in the passage of time and the exploration of space, home, community, and life. She uses expendable materials, such as paper and fabric, in the composition of her stitched and interwoven collages and sculptures, finding life and energy in items made by hand. Canilao received her B.F.A. in Illustration from California College of Arts and has exhibited in San Francisco at the Onsix Gallery and 111 Minna Gallery.

Brooklyn-based artist Swoon blends photography, traditional printmaking techniques, portraiture, and figurative drawings in the creation of her worlds, often populated by street people and characters based on her friends and family. Her subjects are realistically rendered and engage in typical pedestrian and urban activity. The inhabitants of this imaginary universe move through a cityscape of bridges, water towers, and fire escapes. Swoon’s brilliant use of positive and negative space gives life to her cut out creatures. Swoon has exhibited at Deitch Projects and MoMA’s P.S.1 in New York, but is best known for integrating her imagery into the city landscape. Inspired by traditional graffiti, she uses the city as her canvas, as well as engaging in street parties, poster campaigns, and billboard alterations. In New York City she has recently placed several hidden peepholes throughout the metropolis where, once stumbled upon, viewers are able to catch a glimpse of a secret and dream-like place. The installation “Feral” will remain at The Luggage Store until April 26, 2008.

Photo: Ken Adlard Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery

And Larry makes three. Over the last month London has had the privilege of hosting new work from three of the father figures of contemporary art. Besides Ed Ruscha and Larry Clark, there was also Lawrence Weiner. Weiner’s exhibition took place at Lisson Gallery, and just ended last week. These guys have inspired generations of younger artists, by continually producing challenging new work over a 30 year career. Weiner’s exhibition came on the heels of his first American retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

This time Weiner focuses on emphasizing his command of the formal concerns of artistic presentation. Visually stunning in the use of vibrant hues, this exhibition also sharpens the sociological implications that have always been present in Weiner’s work. “FIRST MOVE, SECOND MOVE, THIRD MOVE”, suggests that the first move should be to circle the wagons, establishing a protected personal space. Only then, will we be prepared to go out and deal with societal structures. “OFFSIDES”, uses two vertical lines as a formal devise to bracket the text, while not confining it. Thought of in a social context, it establishes opposition. It can refer to expanding to new territories or taken negatively, being on the wrong side.

“FOUND BY CHANCE AFTER ANY GIVEN TIME FOUND ALONE AFTER ANY GIVEN TIME” The operative words here are, “Found” and “Alone”. Found refers to others, while alone stresses the individual. This highlighting of the personal should not be taken in the, “Me Generation”, sense of the word. Larry’s too much of an old hippie for that. Rather, he’s asking us to consider how our personal choices affect society.

Weiner began his career with the pioneering conceptual art dealer, Seth Siegelaub, later he worked for years with Leo Castelli. Currently he works in whatever contexts he finds interesting, while remaining fiercely loyal to those he respects. Demonstrating continuing curiosity, Weiner also has a super cool website, “HOMEPORT“, and all this at 66.

Lawerence Weiner, “OFFSIDES” Lisson Gallery, February 6, – March 15.