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13/9/2010

Michael Heizer - Adam Straus

Nohra Haime Gallery, New York

Michael Heizer
Markings

Driven by his explorations of land sites and familiarity with the topography of arid regions, Heizer conveys through markings his concern with the concepts of time, movement, space and emptiness. This is certainly revealed in his paintings of 1978-79 where on a white surface, layers of earth-tone pigment are applied with paint rollers following free-hand vertical lines - gestural and dynamic method. Heizer creates subtle shade variations and intricate broken patterns through overlapping wide slabs of paint in rectangular configurations, changing the pressure he uses to apply the paint. The combination of the whole results in rugged, yet controlled abstractions that have affinities with forms – depressions, nets and ripples – found in the desert landscape.

Like land that has been attacked, the complex rhythms and flickering forms seen in his monochromatic works of 1978 – executed with brown latex – seem to suggest traces left on the earth’s surface by the effects of weathering and erosion.

At the same time, the fragmented strokes may be associated with tracks derived from tractors employed for massive earth moving. This is manifested, for instance, in Untitled (Black and Gold), 1979 where with a roller the artist builds up coarse layers of aluminum powder mixed with oil – a new medium Heizer began to employ in 1979. However, it may be suggested that some patterns take the form of rock drawings and inscriptions made by prehistoric Native Americans, most likely informed by Heizer’s archaeological explorations. With this in mind, the shadowed areas that give the sense of volume may be read as terrain elevations, or ancient ceremonial mounds, which Heizer knew existed throughout the Midwest.

Although the forms in these compositions may spring from Heizer’s recollections of his ventures into the mountains of Mexico, Central America and the deserts of California and Nevada, their non-representational approach allows for endless interpretations. Undeniably, the juxtaposition of positive and negative space that introduce ever-changing suggestions of depth, space and movement, unite to become a topographic map-like landscape viewed from an imagined bird’s eye.

Born in Berkeley, California, in 1944, Michael Heizer emerged in the 1960s as a pioneer of the land art or earth art movement. His work can be seen in major public spaces around the world. Amidst his large-scale earthworks are Double Negative (1969) on the edge of the Virgin River mesa, in Nevada; City (begun in 1970), an enormous complex in the desert of Lincoln County, Nevada, and Effigy Tumuli (1985), a monumental construction created along the Illinois River. Heizer has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and internationally, including the Whitney Museum of American Art (1968 and 1977), the Venice Biennale (1970), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1971), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1984), and the Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy (1997). Selected collections include Basel/Kuntsmuseum, Switzerland; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; Oakland Museum; the City of Seattle; the State of Michigan; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Marty Margulies Collection, Miami; the Menil Collection, Houston and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. LEVITATED MASS, from 1982 can be seen outside the IBM building on Madison and 56th Street, one block away from the gallery. Heizer currently lives in Nevada, where he continues his work on the project City.

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Adam Straus: AIR AND WATER or: Everythings Fine Until Its Not
20th Anniversary Exhibition with the Gallery

'People don't preserve what they don't respect or revere.'
- Thomas L. Friedman, 'Hot Flat, and Crowded'

An exhibition of seascape paintings by Adam Straus, AIR AND WATER or: Everything's Fine Until It's Not, will be on view at Nohra Haime Gallery in New York from September 14 through October 23, 2010. Marking the artist's 20th anniversary with the gallery, the exhibition juxtaposes 21 recent paintings with a seminal work from 2002 depicting an oil spill in the ocean, resulting in a moving statement about man's relationship to the natural world. A fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Amei Wallach, art critic and filmmaker, will accompany the exhibition.

The exhibition title, AIR AND WATER or: Everything's Fine Until It's Not, was inspired by the recent oil spill disaster in the Gulf. Straus began painting the results of oil spills in the early 1990s, and while the recent paintings focus on the sublime in the natural world, a sense that something is wrong seems to linger. The paintings are frequently encased in heavy lead frames, which suggest a toxicity occurring right outside of the picture, and contrast the spirituality of the natural world with the reality of man's seeming indifference to caring for it.

As Amei Wallach notes: 'Adam Straus has painted oil spills for many years. His more recent paintings don't need to spell it out. They are moving, elegiac, almost tragic, as they evoke the transcendent qualities of the nature that is at risk.'

Straus offers a poetic reverence for the most basic elements of the natural world while referencing the idea of a tipping point and exponential change when the environment is trashed to a point where it becomes unredeemable. 'The oil spill was a dramatic reminder that these entities (the oceans and the atmosphere), which we still often mistakenly think of as undamageable, are in fact very vulnerable. 'All of a sudden, these paintings that I'd been working on for two years, mostly for their more spiritual aspect, had a very different feel,' Straus notes. 'Stopping the spill was great, but as someone wrote, 'It was like curing pneumonia in a cancer patient.''

Shelter Island in Fog, 2009, an oil on canvas encased in lead, presents the sheer beauty of the soft, silent and enveloping fog, which also transforms and distorts the seascape. A painting on paper entitled Air & Water: Damaged, 2009, depicts the ocean on a gray day as if it is a damaged photograph. The edges are yellowing and parts of the 'photograph' appear torn, suggesting that something has gone wrong.

The dark blues of the North Fork of Long Island are contrasted with the extraordinary turquoise hues of the Bahamas in Green Turtle Cay, 2009, and Pelican Cay, Bahamas, 2009. While both of the oils on canvas depict an island paradise, their lead frames may suggest something else.

Work by Adam Straus can be found in museum collections as well as corporate and private collections. Born in Miami in 1956, Adam Straus lives on the East End of Long Island.

Image: Untitled (black and gold), 1979, oil, aluminum powder on canvas 111 x 71 3/4 in. 282 x 182.2 cm.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ana Maria de la Ossa at 212-888-3550

RECEPTION: Tuesday, September 14, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Nohra Haime Gallery
730 Fifth Avenue, Suite 701 New York, NY 10019
Hours: Tues-Sat 10am - 6pm. Mon by appointment

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