Joe Ovelman [detail of installation]

Oliver Kamm's 5BE is another gallery which is a part of the new life on 27th Street. I was there the night of the opening of the current group show, mostly hanging out in the back gallery where the work of Joe Oveman and Tom Meacham can be spotted for the next couple of weeks. The large and lively crowd at the reception is my only excuse for having to limit my comments at least for now to the work of these two artists.

Ovelman's piece is actually described in the check list as an 8 x 11 inch color photograph with the slightly ungainly title, "James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett show: 'I know as Malcolm X once put it . . . The most segregated hour in American life is high noon on Sunday'". Since the huge wheat-pasted piece shown in detail above doesn't appear on that paper at all, and Joe is out of the country right now, I have to assume that it must have been intended to serve primarily as the environment for the much smaller image mounted on the wall to the right: That photograph displays the text of the title hand-drawn on the back of two identical old tombstones planted in a cemetery. I think I understand what's going on here.

Tom Meacham The Real McCoy 2006 acrylic on canvas and wood sculpture 90" x 60" x (not indicated) [installation view]

The meaning of Tom Meacham's piece is perhaps a bit more obscure, but after looking at the press release which accompanied his gallery show last fall, I'm thinking he probably wouldn't have a problem with my adjective. I have to say however that I do like what I see.