1. Morag Keil, Potpourri at Cubitt Gallery, London
Consisting of a single video that was also available online, positioning a visit to the space as nearly redundant. snippets of dialog from a celeb sex tape rehearsed in mundane settings who’s filming seemed alternately meticulous and distracted. HD/SD. Choices. A strobe light held on a moving motorcycle.  This video somehow unsettled me more than anything I’ve seen recently on /b/. The title ‘Potpourri’ recalling the proximity of media culture to scented toilets.

2. Raymond Pettibon, Human Wave at SPACE, London
In a year filled with vacuous formalism masquerading as network kitsch, this show of the artist’s lesser known videos was a breath of punk smog. The degraded quality of the VHS originals seemed to ridicule the current vogue for early digital crap as an after­effect. Kim and Thurston rating and smashing records. Quasi­religious ceremonies filled with howling. Perfectly installed with a collection of random office chairs as seating.

3. Georgie Nettell at Project Native Informant, London
A show that was aggressively indifferent to itself. Variations of serialised works, printed on canvass in colour schemes to match the galleries’ textures.  Sections of the drywall theatrically removed as if to say, ‘work is here’. Everywhere a palpable urge to go on. Nowhere any horizon to meet.

4. Megan Rooney, Everything’s the same this is my dream at Baustelle Schaustelle, Essen
The weirdest show I saw this year achieved an uneasy levity. A bronze cheetah borrowed from Europe’s largest brothel was both present and depicted in scores of tender watercolors. A wall text rendered in faux­ teenage girl handwriting described a moment in said club suspended between enlightenment and existential crisis. Plato’s cave redecorated.

5. Bea Schlingellhof, Onaboat at AP News, Zurich
The glass exterior walls of this shopping mall-­located gallery were covered by blue­washed posters emblazoned with ‘TOD’, German for death. Inside people smoked vigorously, pursued some racist books and watched a film on Jacques Cousteau. The artist produced a pointed discourse about gender and exploration that evaded localization in an object, or terra firma.

See top 5’s from other NY Arts contributors here. Paul’s past work can be found here.

The post Paul Kneale’s Top 5 Exhibitions of 2013 appeared first on NY Arts Magazine.

To this day his art and his music remain inextricably intertwined. We got in touch with Maxxx as he was on tour with his band Deep Space for the summer. Based out of Austin Texas, the psych rock group describes themselves as being, “created in the wee hours of acid trips and séances within the desert lands of Austin TX.” Give their work a listen and you will certainly see why. Grimy, dirty guitar licks and solid drumming are immersed in a darkly soupy sonic mash of bass and extra terrestrial synth. It all seems to perfectly envelop the lyrics, which are echoing out to us from the far side of an unfathomable void. Deep Space is a perfectly literal band name, which seems refreshingly honest in this day and age. Maxxx is listed as contributing guitar and sonic alchemy.

Not that the camera had been forgotten, he still carries it with him on tour, but these days Maxxx is pretty excited about his paintings. The musical references throughout his work always seem to be at the forefront, either gleaning ideas from exciting song lyrics or actually utilizing the inherent history and beauty of out-moded forms of musical devices such as tapes and records as supports for his painting.  He states, “For me, analog media, like cassette tapes and 8 tracks, have an aesthetic beauty that an mp3 doesn’t possess and never will.

We caught up with Maxxx for a few quick questions in between shows while he was recently on the road with Deep Space. Here’s a section we found particularly enlightening in relation to his work:

NY Arts: Which artistic venture do you consider your main creative outlet, music or visual art?
Maxxx Von Wilmann: I see it as a kind of bricolage, I make music and my conceptual art practice in tandem. As for this moment I’m on tour with Deep Space writing this from Salt Lake City, so today, music, but I draw and take photos along the way.

NYA: Do you connect with any other musicians who make visual art as well? If so, who are your favorites?
MVW: Christian Marclay, I like his cyanotype cassette tapes and the collaged records … man I wish I had thought of that! Michael Borremans is a great blues guitarist, and in my mind is doing the best work out there in paintings or video. I saw a show of Alex Brown’s at Feature Inc. last November, he was the guitar player of Gorilla Biscuits. Raymond Pettibon as well, but I don’t know how much he plays music any more. Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO…the list goes on.

NYA: If you could create the album art for any musical group other than your own, who would it be for and why? ­
MVW: This is an impossible question. There are so many bands in history and present that I would love to be involved with. Brian Eno, My Bloody Valentine­; the sounds they create are like soundscapes, really atmospheric and painterly. Also, Neil Young or Van Halen.

That last part about sums it all up. Even the music Maxxx finds himself drawn to represents itself visually. Music and visual art have always been the same for Maxxx and his talent has flowed seamlessly between the two. We hope that never changes.

maxwillmann.com

The post Sonic & Visual Bricolage: The Work of Maxxx Von Wilmann appeared first on NY Arts Magazine.

This exhibition is based around the massive Warhol painting Double Hamburger.

Featured: John Ahearn, Mike Bouchet, Peter Coffin, Anne Collier, Mark Flood, Guyton\Walker, Rachel Harrison, Alex Katz, Nate Lowman, Ari Marcopoulos, Tony Matelli, Sam Moyer, Joyce Pensato, Raymond Pettibon, Larry Rivers, Andy Warhol and Martin Wong

Double Hamburger Deluxe
November 14, 2013 – December 21, 2013
Marlborough Chelsea
545 West 25th Street
New York City
marlboroughchelsea.com

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