Jan 15 Sat OK Harris Gallery Elke Albrecht Richard Hanson & Bruce Thurman Opening
Sat Jan 15 2011: OK Harris rounded up five artists for its New Year show, which opened yesterday afternoon as crowds thronged Soho streets. If any wondered what the name of the gallery meant, the answer is nothing except a label for the gallery: it was pulled from the air by the owners when they founded what has long been Soho’s most notable showcase.
We found Elke Albrecht‘s ultra subtle abstracts particularly intriguing, with her rows of four small red and white tiled collages against a grey background and framed, and of eight or nine large white canvases, emanating a palpable aesthetic force from subtle, sotto voce variations. The light grey and white tones of the row of larger canvases proved almost impossible for a small camera to capture with auto white balance and contrast against the white walls of the gallery (click to enlarge for a slightly improved viewing).
At the opposite extreme were the disturbing scenes of incipient gun violence disrupting the domestic lives of Iowa farm workers in Richard Hanson‘s bold watercolors, whose vibrant, realistic textures enhanced compositions which started out as posed photographs acted by himself and his son. As we imagined, Richard, a tall, ruddy cheeked Iowan who teaches art in his home town of 25,000, and paints on a table rather than an easel, confirmed that his own family life and sanguine temperament bore no relation to the intense dramas that sometimes arise from his palette (the theme of this selection was chosen by the gallery) . How did the gallery learn of his work? He sent it in, he said – and got a phone call next day.
Bruce Thurman chose an ingratiating form to work in with his latest compositions in collage binders, mounted in a row on the wall each with one stiff page loose on the metal rings for viewers to turn. The corridor was crowded with friends and well wishers of the sociable artist. Unlike many others, Thurman told us, he does not keep his friends at arms length to preserve his artistic independence or exploit them ruthlessly in the Picasso manner, but draws on his friendships for stimulation and support. His studio is on Wall Street with a window looking out at the New York Stock Exchange.
Ken Norman continues his work after suffering a stroke two years ago with a wall full of ink drawings and four larger works of mixed media on paper hung separately on the facing wall of the major gallery space.
John Thomas presented a striking collection of photographs of crumbling industrial and theater architecture and other relics of a past age which evoke nostalgia for a time when the products we used and spaces we inhabited were intelligible in a hands on way in which material shape and texture and tactile experience were part of work and recreational activity, qualities now increasingly lost as social activity, recreation and work production moves into the virtual realm of the Internet.
Read MoreWe found Elke Albrecht‘s ultra subtle abstracts particularly intriguing, with her rows of four small red and white tiled collages against a grey background and framed, and of eight or nine large white canvases, emanating a palpable aesthetic force from subtle, sotto voce variations. The light grey and white tones of the row of larger canvases proved almost impossible for a small camera to capture with auto white balance and contrast against the white walls of the gallery (click to enlarge for a slightly improved viewing).
At the opposite extreme were the disturbing scenes of incipient gun violence disrupting the domestic lives of Iowa farm workers in Richard Hanson‘s bold watercolors, whose vibrant, realistic textures enhanced compositions which started out as posed photographs acted by himself and his son. As we imagined, Richard, a tall, ruddy cheeked Iowan who teaches art in his home town of 25,000, and paints on a table rather than an easel, confirmed that his own family life and sanguine temperament bore no relation to the intense dramas that sometimes arise from his palette (the theme of this selection was chosen by the gallery) . How did the gallery learn of his work? He sent it in, he said – and got a phone call next day.
Bruce Thurman chose an ingratiating form to work in with his latest compositions in collage binders, mounted in a row on the wall each with one stiff page loose on the metal rings for viewers to turn. The corridor was crowded with friends and well wishers of the sociable artist. Unlike many others, Thurman told us, he does not keep his friends at arms length to preserve his artistic independence or exploit them ruthlessly in the Picasso manner, but draws on his friendships for stimulation and support. His studio is on Wall Street with a window looking out at the New York Stock Exchange.
Ken Norman continues his work after suffering a stroke two years ago with a wall full of ink drawings and four larger works of mixed media on paper hung separately on the facing wall of the major gallery space.
John Thomas presented a striking collection of photographs of crumbling industrial and theater architecture and other relics of a past age which evoke nostalgia for a time when the products we used and spaces we inhabited were intelligible in a hands on way in which material shape and texture and tactile experience were part of work and recreational activity, qualities now increasingly lost as social activity, recreation and work production moves into the virtual realm of the Internet.
