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Rieck and Monoghan and the beautiful people @ Hamiltonian

September 23, 2010

Rieck being interviewed

Hamiltonian Gallery had the chi-chi crowd last Saturday night for its opening for James Rieck and Jonathan Monaghan. As if to prove the point, an extensively-groomed young woman was interviewing the artists for video. That just makes you feel that you’re in the presence of importance, somehow.

Monoghan's polar bear

Rieck’s work is inspired by literary references, in this case Beowulf and JRR Tolkien. The large-scale paintings are done primarily in shades of gray and beige and surface texture that seems to be created by sand. They do look aged and faded, with bits of high definition for contrast, like a hooker’s stiletto boot emerging from a medieval robe.

According to the gallery show sheet, “Monaghan’s work ultimately is about indifference and loss, which is illustrated by integrating corporate iconography into pseudo-religious landscapes.” Huh? The work itself is at times arresting and his execution of both the photos and videos is flawless, but honestly, I didn’t see the indifference and loss. But that's just me.

Moon over 14th and U

As I left, I walked past the nearby alley where I got a whiff of the quickly disappearing pre-fabulosity old 14th Street – a big old whiff of Eau D’Allee – urine/ MacDonald’s grease/ doggy do. Don’t it make you nostalgic?

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