EXHIBITIONS For his new show Dark Day, David S. Allee derived the name and its theme from the manner in which he captured the images. In much of his earlier work, he photographed locations at night with intense artificial light and extremely long exposures, catching unreal landscapes in a nether time somewhere between night and day. For Dark Day, he did the opposite. The images for this series were shot on bright sunny days, using tiny apertures and the highest shutter speeds possible, with exposures reaching 1/10,000th of a second. This work captures the texture of the sun's brightest reflections by letting as little light as possible into the camera, enabling us to see something we wouldn't normally be able to see-a kind of dog-whistle light that leaves everything
else in the photographs underexposed and dark. In this series, the light re-imagines many different structures and places in the cityscape. In 4:02PM, for example, the sun's intense reflection on an aboveground subway car filled with commuters re-imagines this everyday scene with an unusual opacity and unexpected starkness. Additionally, a number of the images are of glass office buildings, which capture and provide the bursts of blinding light that move and flash across the skyline throughout a sunny day. The light doesn't penetrate them, nor does it illuminate- for our purposes anyway- the veiled things that go on inside the subjects here; such places as the World Financial Center and the headquarters of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and other banking giants.
INDOOR/OUTDOOR will be comprised of works from the grand arc of George Rickey’s career, including some of his most recognizable imagery, his boldest variations, as well as some of his most delicate kinetic creations. Rickey turned to sculpture in earnest when he was in his early forties – late by most standards – but his opus is deep thanks both the artist’s longevity and his tireless work ethic. George Rickey died in 2002 at the age of 96, and had only stopped creating sculpture about a year before his death. Though he is per-
haps most well known for his bladed “line” sculptures, Rickey’s work varied greatly over the span of six decades. At the start, Rickey’s work resembled Calder’s catenary systems, though those early mobiles soon evolved into the finely balanced sculptures, “little machines” as Rickey called them – swaying, rocking, and twisting – that gave Rickey his renown. Along with the quintessential blades, Rickey used rotors, squares, triangles, and trapezoids. With this show the 16th of the artist at this gallery - the impressive career of George Rickey endures.
Through a series of eleven paintings, Robin Williams’ first solo exhibition, Rescue Party, reveals a surreal world inhabited by adolescents of ambiguous gender that are on the brink of discovery or revelation. Each painting has a distinct narrative but with no specific conclusion. There is a sense of pause in each work which heightens the sense of the impending chance for change. Williams is able to achieve this surreal timelessness through her painting techniques. While at once employing traditional painting methods, she is also experimental and intuitive. Her use of color, light, texture and composition are all used to explore painting as a medium and to link this to the conceptual content within each work. Represented through her adolescent subjects, Williams examines the internal phase of development that takes place during young
adulthood. These youths inhabit a liminal state of being; they are often stranded, Hopperesque figures, posing in their costumes, hoping their visage will evince an inner truth. Each of her characters is seeking a sense of identity, safety, and well-being. Some choose to wait for rescue, while others willfully adopt a persona hoping it will lead them toward salvation. In Rescue Party (see right) many possess this stare but there is also hope in this distant gaze. This painting, which pulls from art historical references such as Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa, transforms the raft into a kiddie pool and although it is staged in a banal vacancy of surrounding and gesture, there is a sense of hope and possibility. Each of Williams’ subjects is searching for meaning: seeking an answer and they will endeavor in the absurd until it is revealed.
David Allee Morgan Lehman Chelsea [through Feb 19]
David S. Allee: (top) 4:02PM, Chromogenic print, 40”x60”, ed. 3; (bot) 3:46PM, Chromogenic print, 60”x80”, ed. 3. Both from Dark Days series.
George Rickey Maxwell Davidson Midtown [through Feb 12]
George Rickey, Etoile I, 1958, stainless steel, copper, and brass, 26” x 64” x 64”.
Robin Williams P.P.O.W. Chelsea [through Feb 26]
Robin Williams: (top) Swoon at the Waterpump 2010, oil on canvas, 40”x60”; (bot) Rescue Party, 2010, oil on canvas, 80”x90”.
Exhibitions
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