Jim Drain AIDS-a-delic 2005 mixed media with yarn, fabric and beads 84" x 60" x 40" [I believe Ball Buster is the smaller piece to the rear]
Jim Drain AIDS-a-delic detail
Jim Drain installation view of Sergio (forground) and Big Boy
Jim Drain War Cry 2005 mixed media on paper 21" x 17" detail [of a piece which is part of an assembly/installation in the back gallery]
I'm a little late, but not quite never. Barry did a post last Sunday about Jim Drain's fantastic show, I Wish I Had A Beak, at Green Naftali. I just wanted to show some of the images I managed to take home on our visit the afternoon before.
And I want to add that I was totally relieved to hear that the yarn for these complex pieces doesn't have to be knitted by hand, as Dean Daderko explains in his review, "Magic Mushrooms," in Gay City News.
I'm just glad to see some one using fibers in a 3D manor. I have a quote by Drain stating that 20something artists need to confront their past...YES!
if you like Drain you should check out Michael Mahalchick, a NY-based artist who does similar, less gaudy and frankly better work--in his fabric pieces the relation between the viewer's body and the object, minimalism-style, is much more sensitive, and the heavy-handed psychedleia is at a minimum. it's creepy, suggestive work. he shows at Canada gallery; there's a good review of his last solo show on their website.
We know that. Both of us think Mahalchick is great!
https://jameswagner.com/mt_archives/003988.html
Sometimes a parasite will take shape of that which it uses as a host. I often see "literal theft" as opposed to borrowing or the better suited "appropriation" of culture by young visual artists who assume there is no license to pillage through anything as a source for their lack of grounding. Maybe it's the institutions that have failed the once brilliant visual artists like Ana Mendieta, Group Material, David Wojnarowicz and Paul Thek. Not only have the institutions failed but we should include the State and City funds of which there are none. Support comes not form the Warlhol Foundation or Ford Foundation but the private sector and the corporate tycoons. Is it any wonder we are seeing culture not produced but drained away.