David Ebony, “Exhibition Reviews,” Art in America, April 2016

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Lari Pittman:Capricho #6,2015,Cel Vinyl andlacquer spray ongessocd canvasmounted onrvood panel, 96by 86 inches; atGladstone.

ofrock-and-roll fashion. Across the room a disconcerting suiteof seven photos from the same year, Boddys (Bodies), showedlumpy human-size forms swathed in stockinglike material andpositioned in abandoned industrial locations. The only piece inthe exhibition staged outside Klauke's studio-where the artisthas continued to shoot most ofhis theatrical photographictableaux-it suggests personal trauma and historical tragedy.

Mter Boddys, Klauke made himself into a sculptural objectof transformation. In the leftmost photograph of the black-and-white triptych lllusion (1972), the artist, who has fashionedfor himself elongated rubber teats, straddles an upright mirrorso that it vertically bisects him. The gesture (laden with Laca-nian symbolism) obscures his penis. The other two pictures inthe work present the artist in the same position wearing a nudebodysuit with a crotch opening, creating the illusion of avagina.

This experiment appears to have been the gateway to a lotof fun. In the remaining works, almost all lush Lambda colorprints, Klauke embraces cabaret, glitter rock and proto-punkfashions. He accessorizes with props that play on clich6 andwholly original fetish fantasies. In the triptych Thansformer(7973),he sports phallic tusks attached to his nipples via aharness; a pink eye mask; and a blood-red stole and matchingleather outfit consisting of a cropped jacket, pants and heeledplatform boots. Ral (Red, 1974) combines some of the previ-ously mentioned garments and devices in one decadent tableau.Klauke is seen wearing the red leather outfit and nipple-tuskharness; attached to the pants, and stretching up above thewaisdine, is a white fabric piece featuring a "vagina" with rudi-mentary lips and an oddly erotic protrusion around the navelarea. In the final frame, Klauke holds a multicolored pinecone-shaped object to the makeshift vagira.

Forty years after Lippard's analysis of body art, feminismhas thoroughly revised its position toward art that uses thesexualized body as a means of critique. Klauke's early pieces,mining the masquerade of seduction and gender performance,reveal themselves as part of a vital legacy that extends from'70s feminist performance to queer and drag performance tocontemporary work that critiques the sex industry.

-Wendyry'ogel

LARI PITTMANGladstoneWith the intensity and drive of a visionary Los Angeles painterLari Pittman has been honing a forceful and idiosyncraticapproach to picture-making for more than three decades. Hisquasi-abstract imagery often harbors acerbic commentaryaddressing hot-button issues like social inequity and sexualidentity. For his recent show at Gladstone, Pittman unveileda new series, "Nuevos Caprichos" (2015)-eight large-scalepaintings on canvas mounted on wood panel that feature thekind of disjointed imagery, fragmented text and vibrant, flatsurfaces for which he is well known. As a series, the works maybe Pittman's most cohesive to date, both visually and themati-cally. In fact, the show at first appeared to comprise a single,multi-panel installation.

Uniform in sizc (96 by 86 inches) and made with refinedbrushstrokes in Cel-Vin14, a type ofpaint favored by cartoon-ists, the works convey an imposing, billboardlike sense ofurgency. Pittman was inspired here by Gova's celebrated etchingsuite "Los Caprichos." Published inL799, Go1,a's 80 satiricaland often grotesque scenes condemn thc hvpocrisv, superstitionand abuses of power rampant in 1Sth-centurv Spanish life.

Pittman's series corresponds to "Los Caprichos" in man1,ways. The palette-muted browns, greens, blues and oranges-is substantially more subdued than that of his prcvious worksand is well suited to Goytr's dark vision. Pittman's wildly dis-torted figurcs sometimes echo the Spaniard's gJrotcsqueries, andhis pristine surfaces resemble prints, their saturated colors andtexture recalling those ofwoodcuts. fhe paintings also explore

themes similar to those of Goya's suite, albeit in Pittman's moreabstract visual language. A uni{,ing motif in the series is thedomino. In Goyas day, the word "domino" meant lord or master.Each of Pittman's panels shows one or more dominoes thatclue the viewer in to the tl-remes of domination that pervade thework. Bands of stylized text in each piece, fragments of linesPittman borrowed from Emily Dickinson poems, address pain,violence and death.

One of the most striking works on view, Ca1>richo #6, showson the left a man with an enlarged hcad wearing a yellorv hatthat suggests an African kufi, a blue rope tied tightlv aroundhis neck. His abstracted body, draped in a dashiki-Wpe garmentand with an elongated penis hanging betr,veen his legs, is barell,discernible. Nevertheless, the figure cluite clcarlv represents a

110 APRIL 2OI6 EXHIBITION REVIEV/S

-l

Lari Pittman:Capricho #6,2015,Cel Vinyl andlacquer spray ongessocd canvasmounted onrvood panel, 96by 86 inches; atGladstone.

ofrock-and-roll fashion. Across the room a disconcerting suiteof seven photos from the same year, Boddys (Bodies), showedlumpy human-size forms swathed in stockinglike material andpositioned in abandoned industrial locations. The only piece inthe exhibition staged outside Klauke's studio-where the artisthas continued to shoot most ofhis theatrical photographictableaux-it suggests personal trauma and historical tragedy.

Mter Boddys, Klauke made himself into a sculptural objectof transformation. In the leftmost photograph of the black-and-white triptych lllusion (1972), the artist, who has fashionedfor himself elongated rubber teats, straddles an upright mirrorso that it vertically bisects him. The gesture (laden with Laca-nian symbolism) obscures his penis. The other two pictures inthe work present the artist in the same position wearing a nudebodysuit with a crotch opening, creating the illusion of avagina.

This experiment appears to have been the gateway to a lotof fun. In the remaining works, almost all lush Lambda colorprints, Klauke embraces cabaret, glitter rock and proto-punkfashions. He accessorizes with props that play on clich6 andwholly original fetish fantasies. In the triptych Thansformer(7973),he sports phallic tusks attached to his nipples via aharness; a pink eye mask; and a blood-red stole and matchingleather outfit consisting of a cropped jacket, pants and heeledplatform boots. Ral (Red, 1974) combines some of the previ-ously mentioned garments and devices in one decadent tableau.Klauke is seen wearing the red leather outfit and nipple-tuskharness; attached to the pants, and stretching up above thewaisdine, is a white fabric piece featuring a "vagina" with rudi-mentary lips and an oddly erotic protrusion around the navelarea. In the final frame, Klauke holds a multicolored pinecone-shaped object to the makeshift vagira.

Forty years after Lippard's analysis of body art, feminismhas thoroughly revised its position toward art that uses thesexualized body as a means of critique. Klauke's early pieces,mining the masquerade of seduction and gender performance,reveal themselves as part of a vital legacy that extends from'70s feminist performance to queer and drag performance tocontemporary work that critiques the sex industry.

-Wendyry'ogel

LARI PITTMANGladstoneWith the intensity and drive of a visionary Los Angeles painterLari Pittman has been honing a forceful and idiosyncraticapproach to picture-making for more than three decades. Hisquasi-abstract imagery often harbors acerbic commentaryaddressing hot-button issues like social inequity and sexualidentity. For his recent show at Gladstone, Pittman unveileda new series, "Nuevos Caprichos" (2015)-eight large-scalepaintings on canvas mounted on wood panel that feature thekind of disjointed imagery, fragmented text and vibrant, flatsurfaces for which he is well known. As a series, the works maybe Pittman's most cohesive to date, both visually and themati-cally. In fact, the show at first appeared to comprise a single,multi-panel installation.

Uniform in sizc (96 by 86 inches) and made with refinedbrushstrokes in Cel-Vin14, a type ofpaint favored by cartoon-ists, the works convey an imposing, billboardlike sense ofurgency. Pittman was inspired here by Gova's celebrated etchingsuite "Los Caprichos." Published inL799, Go1,a's 80 satiricaland often grotesque scenes condemn thc hvpocrisv, superstitionand abuses of power rampant in 1Sth-centurv Spanish life.

Pittman's series corresponds to "Los Caprichos" in man1,ways. The palette-muted browns, greens, blues and oranges-is substantially more subdued than that of his prcvious worksand is well suited to Goytr's dark vision. Pittman's wildly dis-torted figurcs sometimes echo the Spaniard's gJrotcsqueries, andhis pristine surfaces resemble prints, their saturated colors andtexture recalling those ofwoodcuts. fhe paintings also explore

themes similar to those of Goya's suite, albeit in Pittman's moreabstract visual language. A uni{,ing motif in the series is thedomino. In Goyas day, the word "domino" meant lord or master.Each of Pittman's panels shows one or more dominoes thatclue the viewer in to the tl-remes of domination that pervade thework. Bands of stylized text in each piece, fragments of linesPittman borrowed from Emily Dickinson poems, address pain,violence and death.

One of the most striking works on view, Ca1>richo #6, showson the left a man with an enlarged hcad wearing a yellorv hatthat suggests an African kufi, a blue rope tied tightlv aroundhis neck. His abstracted body, draped in a dashiki-Wpe garmentand with an elongated penis hanging betr,veen his legs, is barell,discernible. Nevertheless, the figure cluite clcarlv represents a

110 APRIL 2OI6 EXHIBITION REVIEV/S

hanged man. Bands ofblocky lettering arranged helter-skelteracross the picture plane contain statements like "parm coN-TRAcrs rHE TIME" and "peIx ExpANDs rHE TIME" and otherreferences to violence and suffering.

Another work that enthralls, either despite or because ofits ultraviolent imagery, is Capricho #4,which depicts on theright a large, green birdlike creature wielding a sword with itsbeak. It appears to be in the act of decapitating a wildly dis-torted yellow-headed personage on the far left that seems to bescreaming in agony. Ribbonlike passages of script bear crypticphrases such as "epron GREAT rAIN" and "r.rrB ToMBs."

Pittman, who was shot and seriously wounded by a robberin 1,985, knows firsthand the trauma ofviolence and being neardeath. It's certainly probable that the experience figured intohis desire to create "Nuevos Caprichos,"which echoes the kindofviolence and aggression that turn up in the news every day.In this tighdy organized series, Pittman lends a passionate andpersonal resonance to the theme.

-David trbony

ROB TIALYERSONSolowayRob Halverson presented a focused selection of new works(a112076) in "A11 Repeat," his show at Soloway in Brooklyn.Austere paintings and works on paper depicting vaguelydiagrammatic forms were juxtaposed with photographs andpersonal ephemera. The imagery in the three untitled black-and-white paintings on view appears to have been stenciled orprinted-the process is not entirely clear. Halverson renderedthe schematic imagery with mechanical precision in a stylethat resembles the single-pixel plotting of dot-matrix print-outs. Even the minute wavering of the lines appears calculated.Such careful idiosyncrasies suggest the influence of a lo-fi,mechanical image production method and imbue the workwith an awkward grace.

In each painting Halverson restricted the abstracteddiagrams to a81/z-irch-by-7-foot area (out of a 41/z-foot-videcanvas), and certain figurative elements recur from piece topiece. One work depicts a bubble enclosed by a rectangle withrounded edges-suggestive, perhaps, of some Apple productin profile. The bubble reappears in a second painting, this timeenclosing two black rectangles and an inky splatter. In the thirdpainting, an irregular black form is the ground for the silhou-ette of an ambiguous shape that could be a feather, a frond or asmall, spiraling galaxy. There may be an underlying logic to therepeArd forms, which appear cemented in the gesso. Yet manyof the images are symbols of ephemerality (bubbles, feathers,microscopic electronics and cosmic dust) that seem to drift,double, distort and degrade.

Despite their apparent refinement, the paintings deviatefrom Halverson's otherwise exacting technical approach insubtle but important ways. Light brushstrokes bristle on thegessoed surfaces, and small, fragile inconsistencies in the paintgive texture to the images. The material imperfections evidentin the works, as well as in the two drawings that look like

details from the paintings hanging nearby, reveal the conscien-tious stylization of Halversoris plotter-hand.

Two other works introduced non sequiturs-an unframeddiptych o{ 5-by-7 photos depicting seedpods in windowscreens, and an irreverent and gross little mud-ball sculpturecontaining hair and nail clippings that sat high on the gallerytfuse box. These works are sappy and humanizing and fail toachieve the same alluring mystification of the other works inthe show.

"Al1 Repeat," the exhibitioris title, appeared as the sole texton the press release, where the words were spelled out in capsalong a vertical axis.That composition recurs in a poster-sizework on paper.The self-reflexive repetition ofthe phrase asa label, explanation, work, etc., tended to confuse rather thanelucidate. Like the paintings, which, by convention, the pressrelease is meant to clarify, the language acts like a machineawaiting user input. "A11 Repeat" is a mantra for the worksin the show. The tide phrase may offer an incantation for thedo-and-do-again of artistic practice, which requires the carefulperformance of workaday tasks: maintaining the studio, prim-ing the canvas, rendering precise lines. Instead ofdrudgery,"repeat,"in this context, suggests care, focus and refinement.

-Sam Korman

KATHERIND BRADFORI)CanadaOften litde more than daubs and smears, the miniature figurespopulating the textured expanses of Katherine Bradford's recentpaintings seem as though they might at any moment melt backinto the once-formless substance that constitutes them. Thesensation is not without meaning in the context of her subjectmatter: swimmers in various kinds ofwaters, from poundingocean waves to tranquil night-lit pools. The paintings plumb avenerable theme-that of the bather, beloved of C6zanne andRenoir. Accordingly, alongside the feeling of sensuous immer-

Rob I Ialverson:LIntitled,2016,solidified paint onc:rnvas, 8,1 bv 58inches; at Solow:ry

EXHIBITION RtrVIEWS ART IN AMERICA 111

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Lari Pittman:Capricho #6,2015,Cel Vinyl andlacquer spray ongessocd canvasmounted onrvood panel, 96by 86 inches; atGladstone.

ofrock-and-roll fashion. Across the room a disconcerting suiteof seven photos from the same year, Boddys (Bodies), showedlumpy human-size forms swathed in stockinglike material andpositioned in abandoned industrial locations. The only piece inthe exhibition staged outside Klauke's studio-where the artisthas continued to shoot most ofhis theatrical photographictableaux-it suggests personal trauma and historical tragedy.

Mter Boddys, Klauke made himself into a sculptural objectof transformation. In the leftmost photograph of the black-and-white triptych lllusion (1972), the artist, who has fashionedfor himself elongated rubber teats, straddles an upright mirrorso that it vertically bisects him. The gesture (laden with Laca-nian symbolism) obscures his penis. The other two pictures inthe work present the artist in the same position wearing a nudebodysuit with a crotch opening, creating the illusion of avagina.

This experiment appears to have been the gateway to a lotof fun. In the remaining works, almost all lush Lambda colorprints, Klauke embraces cabaret, glitter rock and proto-punkfashions. He accessorizes with props that play on clich6 andwholly original fetish fantasies. In the triptych Thansformer(7973),he sports phallic tusks attached to his nipples via aharness; a pink eye mask; and a blood-red stole and matchingleather outfit consisting of a cropped jacket, pants and heeledplatform boots. Ral (Red, 1974) combines some of the previ-ously mentioned garments and devices in one decadent tableau.Klauke is seen wearing the red leather outfit and nipple-tuskharness; attached to the pants, and stretching up above thewaisdine, is a white fabric piece featuring a "vagina" with rudi-mentary lips and an oddly erotic protrusion around the navelarea. In the final frame, Klauke holds a multicolored pinecone-shaped object to the makeshift vagira.

Forty years after Lippard's analysis of body art, feminismhas thoroughly revised its position toward art that uses thesexualized body as a means of critique. Klauke's early pieces,mining the masquerade of seduction and gender performance,reveal themselves as part of a vital legacy that extends from'70s feminist performance to queer and drag performance tocontemporary work that critiques the sex industry.

-Wendyry'ogel

LARI PITTMANGladstoneWith the intensity and drive of a visionary Los Angeles painterLari Pittman has been honing a forceful and idiosyncraticapproach to picture-making for more than three decades. Hisquasi-abstract imagery often harbors acerbic commentaryaddressing hot-button issues like social inequity and sexualidentity. For his recent show at Gladstone, Pittman unveileda new series, "Nuevos Caprichos" (2015)-eight large-scalepaintings on canvas mounted on wood panel that feature thekind of disjointed imagery, fragmented text and vibrant, flatsurfaces for which he is well known. As a series, the works maybe Pittman's most cohesive to date, both visually and themati-cally. In fact, the show at first appeared to comprise a single,multi-panel installation.

Uniform in sizc (96 by 86 inches) and made with refinedbrushstrokes in Cel-Vin14, a type ofpaint favored by cartoon-ists, the works convey an imposing, billboardlike sense ofurgency. Pittman was inspired here by Gova's celebrated etchingsuite "Los Caprichos." Published inL799, Go1,a's 80 satiricaland often grotesque scenes condemn thc hvpocrisv, superstitionand abuses of power rampant in 1Sth-centurv Spanish life.

Pittman's series corresponds to "Los Caprichos" in man1,ways. The palette-muted browns, greens, blues and oranges-is substantially more subdued than that of his prcvious worksand is well suited to Goytr's dark vision. Pittman's wildly dis-torted figurcs sometimes echo the Spaniard's gJrotcsqueries, andhis pristine surfaces resemble prints, their saturated colors andtexture recalling those ofwoodcuts. fhe paintings also explore

themes similar to those of Goya's suite, albeit in Pittman's moreabstract visual language. A uni{,ing motif in the series is thedomino. In Goyas day, the word "domino" meant lord or master.Each of Pittman's panels shows one or more dominoes thatclue the viewer in to the tl-remes of domination that pervade thework. Bands of stylized text in each piece, fragments of linesPittman borrowed from Emily Dickinson poems, address pain,violence and death.

One of the most striking works on view, Ca1>richo #6, showson the left a man with an enlarged hcad wearing a yellorv hatthat suggests an African kufi, a blue rope tied tightlv aroundhis neck. His abstracted body, draped in a dashiki-Wpe garmentand with an elongated penis hanging betr,veen his legs, is barell,discernible. Nevertheless, the figure cluite clcarlv represents a

110 APRIL 2OI6 EXHIBITION REVIEV/S

-l

Lari Pittman:Capricho #6,2015,Cel Vinyl andlacquer spray ongessocd canvasmounted onrvood panel, 96by 86 inches; atGladstone.

ofrock-and-roll fashion. Across the room a disconcerting suiteof seven photos from the same year, Boddys (Bodies), showedlumpy human-size forms swathed in stockinglike material andpositioned in abandoned industrial locations. The only piece inthe exhibition staged outside Klauke's studio-where the artisthas continued to shoot most ofhis theatrical photographictableaux-it suggests personal trauma and historical tragedy.

Mter Boddys, Klauke made himself into a sculptural objectof transformation. In the leftmost photograph of the black-and-white triptych lllusion (1972), the artist, who has fashionedfor himself elongated rubber teats, straddles an upright mirrorso that it vertically bisects him. The gesture (laden with Laca-nian symbolism) obscures his penis. The other two pictures inthe work present the artist in the same position wearing a nudebodysuit with a crotch opening, creating the illusion of avagina.

This experiment appears to have been the gateway to a lotof fun. In the remaining works, almost all lush Lambda colorprints, Klauke embraces cabaret, glitter rock and proto-punkfashions. He accessorizes with props that play on clich6 andwholly original fetish fantasies. In the triptych Thansformer(7973),he sports phallic tusks attached to his nipples via aharness; a pink eye mask; and a blood-red stole and matchingleather outfit consisting of a cropped jacket, pants and heeledplatform boots. Ral (Red, 1974) combines some of the previ-ously mentioned garments and devices in one decadent tableau.Klauke is seen wearing the red leather outfit and nipple-tuskharness; attached to the pants, and stretching up above thewaisdine, is a white fabric piece featuring a "vagina" with rudi-mentary lips and an oddly erotic protrusion around the navelarea. In the final frame, Klauke holds a multicolored pinecone-shaped object to the makeshift vagira.

Forty years after Lippard's analysis of body art, feminismhas thoroughly revised its position toward art that uses thesexualized body as a means of critique. Klauke's early pieces,mining the masquerade of seduction and gender performance,reveal themselves as part of a vital legacy that extends from'70s feminist performance to queer and drag performance tocontemporary work that critiques the sex industry.

-Wendyry'ogel

LARI PITTMANGladstoneWith the intensity and drive of a visionary Los Angeles painterLari Pittman has been honing a forceful and idiosyncraticapproach to picture-making for more than three decades. Hisquasi-abstract imagery often harbors acerbic commentaryaddressing hot-button issues like social inequity and sexualidentity. For his recent show at Gladstone, Pittman unveileda new series, "Nuevos Caprichos" (2015)-eight large-scalepaintings on canvas mounted on wood panel that feature thekind of disjointed imagery, fragmented text and vibrant, flatsurfaces for which he is well known. As a series, the works maybe Pittman's most cohesive to date, both visually and themati-cally. In fact, the show at first appeared to comprise a single,multi-panel installation.

Uniform in sizc (96 by 86 inches) and made with refinedbrushstrokes in Cel-Vin14, a type ofpaint favored by cartoon-ists, the works convey an imposing, billboardlike sense ofurgency. Pittman was inspired here by Gova's celebrated etchingsuite "Los Caprichos." Published inL799, Go1,a's 80 satiricaland often grotesque scenes condemn thc hvpocrisv, superstitionand abuses of power rampant in 1Sth-centurv Spanish life.

Pittman's series corresponds to "Los Caprichos" in man1,ways. The palette-muted browns, greens, blues and oranges-is substantially more subdued than that of his prcvious worksand is well suited to Goytr's dark vision. Pittman's wildly dis-torted figurcs sometimes echo the Spaniard's gJrotcsqueries, andhis pristine surfaces resemble prints, their saturated colors andtexture recalling those ofwoodcuts. fhe paintings also explore

themes similar to those of Goya's suite, albeit in Pittman's moreabstract visual language. A uni{,ing motif in the series is thedomino. In Goyas day, the word "domino" meant lord or master.Each of Pittman's panels shows one or more dominoes thatclue the viewer in to the tl-remes of domination that pervade thework. Bands of stylized text in each piece, fragments of linesPittman borrowed from Emily Dickinson poems, address pain,violence and death.

One of the most striking works on view, Ca1>richo #6, showson the left a man with an enlarged hcad wearing a yellorv hatthat suggests an African kufi, a blue rope tied tightlv aroundhis neck. His abstracted body, draped in a dashiki-Wpe garmentand with an elongated penis hanging betr,veen his legs, is barell,discernible. Nevertheless, the figure cluite clcarlv represents a

110 APRIL 2OI6 EXHIBITION REVIEV/S