If these five recent graduates of the MFA program at S.A.I.C. are representative of their generation, it looks like Millennial artists born in the 1990’s are conservative in a variety of ways. All five are painters who accept the convention of the flat, rectangular support. The canvas has not been punctured, draped, folded, or stretched into an unusual shape - and it is covered with paint rather than a collage of tchotchkes and knickknacks None of them challenge the viewer’s patience with repetitive, tedious banality and none of them take chances by pouring or dripping paint across the surface. All of them exhibit tight control over what they are doing. Perhaps too tight. All five are pulling attention into themselves - so their paintings point directly at their own anxious hearts. There’s no idealism here; no thrilling exploration of form , the natural world, or human history. There’s no reliance or innovation on art theory. There’s no assertion of identity regarding ethnicity or gender or sexual preference These paintings are all about young artists working hard to make a place for themselves in the world. They have a tough road ahead and they know it. All of this work is smart, well crafted, and full of their inner strength. But it’s not especially enjoyable to look at.
The exception would be the impasto monochromes of Blake Asseby. You might even call them relief sculpture since their hectic, inscribed surfaces resemble slabs of clay marked up by ceramicists. They bear the traces of interacting patterns that are suggestive but ultimately indecipherable. Like free jazz, the effect of all this chaos on me is quite relaxing. Someone else has done all the work of being nervous, so all I have to do is lay back and enjoy how it all seems to all fit together.
The other artists have made more ambitious work: more size, more contrasts, more colors, more ideas. Elaine Rubenoff may be the most conservative: she paints florals. On the scale of a computer screen, her bouquets are quite attractive and suggest as much mystery and sensuality as the surprisingly traditional florals shown last year by Jennifer Packer at the Renaissance Society. But the piece in this show is monumental in scale and far more threatening than inviting. Maura O’Brien is perhaps even more traditional as she reprises the angst ridden world of abstract expressionism from the mid-twentieth century. I feel the energy and the struggle - but not yet the surprising beauty. The small color pencil drawings by Heesu Jeon have got that kind of beauty though it’s challenged by the wacky, circular figuration of Manga comic books. That beauty disappears, however, in the single, larger oil painting of his on display.
Herman Aguirre is the most ambitious, and apparently the most currently successful artist in the show. One of his portraits caught my eye at last year's Art Expo. It had both gravitas and beauty – a rare combination in contemporary art. His two pieces in this show are less impressive. There’s a large , lugubrious floral that seems to belong in an Ivan Albright funeral home. And there’s a dark, heavy multi-figure work that feels like the muddy aftermath of a deadly tsunami. The artist is horrified by our world - yet still, careful attention has been paid to size, movement, and pattern.
Overall, this show of five young artists is more promising than any other MFA show I’ve seen. Possibly the gallerist who selected them saw it as a good business opportunity - but it's also a generous contribution to the artworld. At least, that's how it appears to me.
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Here is Alan Pocaro's review of the show
