Modern Painters

BLOUINARTINFO.COM JUNE/JULY 2016 MODERN PAINTERS 109TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT: MARCUS LEITH AND ANNET GELINK GALLERY; PETER TIJHUIS, NIK CHRISTENSEN AND GALERIE GABRIEL ROLT; RUUD VAN EMPEL AND FLATLAND GALLERY; STERLING RUBY STUDIO AND SPRUETH MAGERS;STUART SHAVE/MODERN ART; IBID. GALLERY; HENRY TRUMBLE; GUNTER LEPKOWSKI, ADRIANA LARA, AND KRAUPA-TUSKANY ZEIDLER; PAVEL PEPPER``````STEIN AND KEWENIG``````Depicting men engaged in various sexual acts,Hiorns’s new large-scale paintings are formallycrude and stark. Rendered by pouring skin-colored paints on sheets of white plastic, thebiomorphic figures appear only half human,and they may be, as the two foam-producingsculptures and the video in the adjacent galleryexplain. The video defines vCJD, a form of madcow disease that affectspeople and leads todementia, while the foampieces produce a risingsubstance that eventuallycollapses—sheddinglight on the abstract,eroding figures caught inthe act of self-generatinglife. —PAUL LASTER``````Painting representational imagery with sumiink on paper, Christensen alters our viewof his subjects by filtering scenes through thelens of photo-editing software. The artistpaints lush landscapes and people occupyingthem in his large-scale pieces, which arefixed directly to the gallery walls, but all is notright with what we see. As a glitch on aDVD causes a movie tobreak apart, Christensenpixelates and geomet-rically fragments sectionsof his scenes to createdynamic images thatare both mysteriouschronicles and compellingcompositions. —PL Modern Triumph, 2015. The Extinction of Neon``````Maria TaniguchiIbid. // February 12–April 9``````The conceit of Ruby’s“Garment and Textile Archive2008–2016” is thatwhenever he makes newart, unique clothes alsoget produced—the canvasponchos and trouser-shirt combos all lookingappropriately spattered andchemically stained.Yet the display doesn’tdistinguish between outfits worn as studio workwear, those made from recycled artworks,and the ones manufactured purely to satisfy hiscommercial instinct for merchandising—arange of laundry bags designed by the artistbeing the tawdriest example. —GABRIEL COXHEAD``````Herms are a type of ancientGreek statue—elongatedbusts whose heads or torsosrest on tall, obelisk-like pillars.Tuazon’s contemporary takeexpands on this macho,fetishistic theme with upright,battered wooden beamshalf-sheathed in plaster orconcrete, while attachedobjects—from buckets andcups to dribbly melted candle clumps—implybody parts. Adding to the atmosphere ofsexualized display are Reines’s poems—notjust in their subject matter but in how they’represented, either nakedly nailed or furtivelysecreted within crevices. —GC``````The minuscule, hand-painted brickworkdesign that covers theentirety of Taniguchi’shuge, door-shapedcanvases represents astaggering feat oflabor. The pattern’s sharp outlines and somberblack infills suggest a set of minimalist/meditative ideas to do with time, process, andrepetition—the last at both a microcosmicand a macrocosmic scale, with the brick motifand the paintings themselves functioning asthe basic units in each case. Amid theregularity, there are occasional whimsicalelements—glitchy misalignments, oddlyunmatched gray tones—providing relief. —GC``````Nik ChristensenGalerie Gabriel Rolt // January 30–March 12``````With his postcard-size needlepoint works andfound Polaroids of masturbating men, Reinkerevisits the parallels between an artist’s “creativeact” and la petite mort (“the little death”), orthe moment of orgasm. Themes of self-exposurecontinue in two films that mix archival footagewith video diaries and poetic or psychoanalyticvoice-over. They screen in a room lined withdrippy ink inscriptions on paper (“Semen is thepiss of dreams,” “Asper-gery Sphinx”), whilein another back room,a selection of olderfilms, characteristic ofReinke’s self-effacingstyle, lightens the load.—ARIELLE BIER``````A master of digital manipulation and illusion,Van Empel here turns the lens on himself withstill lifes made up of elements from his past.Photographing his toys, battlefield drawings,self-portraits, souvenirs of travel, and collectionof rocks and shells, he constructs inventoriesof personal objects that tell new storiesthrough their arrangement and manipulation.Animals and babies informaldehyde and belljars comment on the wayswe preserve the past,while rocks Photoshoppedso they contain hints ofhuman faces suggestghosts that continue toStill Life - Sketchbooks, 2015. haunt his life today. —PL``````For “The Interesting Theory Club,” Lara hascreated a “meeting room” arranged with frumpyleather couches and a fake window. Vienneseporcelain plates and ashtrays sit on cardstockboxes that are scattered among Moroccan rugslying on the ground, while a Formica counter-top and the pages from children’s coloringbooks of Aztec icons are mounted on the walls.Lara crowdsources anon-ymous “theories” andtranslates them into graphicpermutations of abstractshapes, which are printedon or embedded in theobjects she produces—aliteral visualization ofthought with form, left opento hypothetical debate. —AB``````In his paintings, Pepperstein takes abstractforms developed by the Suprematists for anintergalactic ride, combined here with thesculpture The Flying Ammonite, 2015, a yellowseashell hoisted high on stilts, and a room ofillustrations on paper of fantastical charactersand animals. With a childlikecuriosity, Peppersteinimagines black holes asmonuments to StephenHawking, the color yellow,a giant DNA spiral, and thejourneys of astronauts orimmortal humans encasedin crystals who inhabit aparallel universe the futurewill ordain. —AB``````Interesting Theory #35, 2016.``````Still from Anthology of AmericanFolk Song, 2004.``````Ariana Reines &Oscar TuazonModern Art // February 25–April 9``````Pavel PeppersteinKewenig // January 23–April 16``````BERLIN``````Steve ReinkeIsabella Bortolozzi // March 15–April 9REVIEWS IN BRIEF AMSTERDAM // LONDON // BERLINAMSTERDAM``````Roger HiornsAnnet Gelink Gallery // January 22–March 12``````LONDON``````Sterling RubySprüth Magers // March 11–April 9``````Ruud van EmpelFlatland Gallery // March 13–April 30``````Adriana LaraKraupa-Tuskany Zeidler // February 27–April 9``````Untitled, 2016.``````Installation view of “Maria Taniguchi,” 2016.``````PA, 2016.``````500 Apron W:Patches (#4522.0001), 2011.``````The Flying Ammonite,2015.