Even though Henry didn’t think he would ever work as curator, he believes, “it does make sense that artists do end up curating. I see it as analogous to any other artistic discipline. It just happens that the curators use other people’s work as a medium, the gallery as a substrate. The finished piece is the exhibition.” The curator is kinesthetically involved, connecting the dots for the viewers.

For both curators, art has been used as a point of reference throughout their lives, anchoring their childhoods and subsequent careers. Robert’s father was an artist and a professor of art; making his son’s transition into the art world smoother than most. Henry credits the influence of his mother to lead him in a creative direction. She would take him to the Brooklyn Museum every Saturday, where they took art classes together. “My memories of these moments are quite profound. They were some of the first times I saw my mother as a whole person who could do things other than ‘mom’ things.”

Given their longstanding investment and experience with art from an early age, both curators agree that the origins of their curatorial projects can stem from anywhere, sometimes the farther away from the visual arts the better. Henry interjects, “inspiration can happen anywhere.  The more unconventional, the more compelling the exhibition could be. Getting back to the connect-the-dots metaphor, it’s not so much fun if you’re only connecting dots that are close to one another.”

The gallery presents mainly solo exhibitions, and tends to hearken back to the visual and conceptual principles that both curators share. They use their gallery as a point of exploration, in which the exhibitions function as a continuous string of challenges and experiments. While some shows are conceptually closer to their personal visions, “other shows are farther away. So, rather than a series of curatorial projects Robert Henry Contemporary functions as one continuous curatorial exploration with every show, containing some, but not necessarily all of the ideas in the cluster of interests that Henry and I share.”

Considering the name of their curatorial endeavor, Robert Henry Contemporary, art of the moment is of primary interest. While both curators share much in common, their artistic preferences and interest tend to be quite different. Henry states, “I’m attracted to somewhat minimal work. I also have a tendency towards works on paper, as well as works that are heavily process oriented.” Robert admits he has a great love for Dutch portraiture and landscape paintings of the northern Renaissance. “Rogier van der Weyden, to name one.”

Every show is an amalgamation of Robert and Henry’s personal visions and philosophies, and while this may appear to be a daunting task, the duo isn’t too stressed about it. “I think collaboration often requires compromise by all parties involved. The most successful collaborations are ones where you can see the dialog between the voices, and not simply the lowest common denominator.”

And if you asked these two what they would change about their space if they could, you’d find they’re perfectly satisfied just where they are. Henry states, “I actually don’t like to think about our gallery and our curatorial vision in those terms. Any space can be the most beautiful space in the world if you knew what to do with it. As for a dream artist, this is Brooklyn, after all. There are a lot of artists out there. In that mix is some really exceptional work.”

Robert and Henry are always looking to their next project, anticipating how they can provoke their viewers to ask questions, and engage with their space and the work they believe in. They aren’t slowing down anytime soon. This fall the gallery is anticipating a number of solo shows by artists James Cullinane, Richard Garrison and Noah Loesberg. In December 2013, Robert Henry Contemporary will head to the beach for the Aqua Art Fair in Miami. We have no doubt they will work hard together to bring the heat.

roberthenrycontemporary.com

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Richard Garrison
Richard Garrison, Circular Color Scheme: Christmas Tree Shops, May 16-27, 2013 Pages 1 – 16. “Memorial Day”, 2013. Watercolor, gouache and graphite on paper , 44″ x 44″, Detail

Repackaged is a continuation of Richard Garrison’s analysis of ubiquitous materials, objects and places from the suburban, often consumer related, American landscape, such as Sunday newspaper sale circulars, parking lot colors, product packaging, Disney World and Wal-mart, among others. Garrison’s recontextualization of aspects of consumer culture affords us a new perspective on commonplace objects, places and experiences.

Robert Garrison: Repackaged
October 11 through November 10, 2013
Robert Henry Contemporary
56 Bogart St
Brooklyn
roberthenrycontemporary.com

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James Cullinane’s show Limbus at Robert Henry Contemporary (opening Friday, September 6, 2013) goes to that other place—or maybe keeps us in place as its basic imposition of traps as metaphor works its way into the head of the viewer.

At first, this new series of painted red squares (12”x12”) and rectangles (30”x28”) with a laminated image of an impossible situation, or a hunter’s trap, or snare imposed on the surface reminds me of a type of symbolic thinking. This thinking is developed, enumerated, and ultimately painted by a proliferation of map pins. They are hammered into the panel, ebbing and swaying across the surface of each painting, creating an abstracted layer of cartography. What seems to start as a practical decision to fix the subject to the surface develops into the point of the thing, or A point of the thing, or maybe the escape from the thing?

Whatever the intent, the pins kaleidoscope and undulate across the surface and in so doing reinforce the image. They add to the sense that the image is trapped and buried but they also develop and intensify it. Initially, I was seduced into admiring these paintings as beautiful things, and then after extended viewing, reached this idea that they hinge into something more than themselves. Then, after thinking about what this something could mean for a bit, I was then moved by the painting again. Another trap!

I often think about what I see as a really successful work of art and what it takes to make it. I keep coming back to the time and commitment it takes to make something. The process of making and thinking followed by more making and thinking takes time. The commitment plays a hand as an artist’s willingness to keep working. They are living and working through ideas and failing and repeating this and then repeating this again.

It is one thing to come up with a good idea and another to integrate that idea purposefully, and in a slightly unhinged way within a practice of making. James is perhaps best known for large pounded drawings and installations. They were room-sized labors that felt big, were big, and contained many parts; graphite, sound, speakers, and map pins, to name a few. For me, I get a sense that the labour and intensity of those site-specific installations have benefited from narrowing and focusing down in scale to these little gems of concentrated thinking and making.

By, Ben Pritchard

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Robert Henry Contemporary
Time Times Three
June 12–July 28, 2013
Opening Reception : June 13, 6–9pm
Robert Henry Contemporary, 56 Bogart, Brooklyn NY 11206

All images courtesy of Lindsay Dye

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