Subversive Energies in Orange County
Deutsche Bank
presents the 2006 California Biennial
"New American Art" is
the name of a trend that’s been making itself felt on the art market for
some time now. Once again, art from the United States is creating an
international uproar. This already became apparent at the last Art
Basel; now, the British mega-collector Charles
Saatchi is laying his bet on the young American scene: starting on
October 6, over 80 new acquisitions by 30 American artists from the
collection will be on show at London’s Royal
Academy in USA
TODAY. The fact that the exhibition is nearly concurrent with the
London Frieze Art Fair is
something that enhances the media effect, of course, making it a magnet
for international collectors.
Brian
Fahlstrom, A Blossoming / Distant Impassionedness, 2005;
Collection
of the Saatchi Gallery, London;
courtesy
Marc Foxx, Los Angeles; Foto: Robert Wedemeyer
Particularly
the American West Coast is considered to be a creative laboratory for
fresh talent. And a good opportunity for discovering new artists and
positions can be found right here – at the California
Biennial, sponsored once again by Deutsche
Bank. The show was established in 1984; since that time, it has
developed into one of the most renowned art exhibitions internationally.
It takes place at two locations: the Orange
County Museum of Art in Newport Beach and the Orange
Lounge in Costa Mesa, which has been presenting artists working in the
new media of computer, video, and internet since 2004. From October 1 to
December 31, the comprehensive show will be presenting California’s most
interesting young artists.
Shannon
Ebner, USA, 2003,
from the
series "Dead Democracy Letters", 2002-06;
courtesy
of the artist and Wallspace Gallery, New York
For
the past two years, the three curators Elizabeth Armstrong, Karen Moss,
and Rita Gonzalez have been visiting the studios of promising artists.
Their selection – more than 150 works by 31 artists and artists’ groups –
concentrates on works reflecting current trends on the West Coast scene.
The spectrum of the 2006 California Biennial ranges from installation,
wall drawing, and paper works to performance and film. Some of the main
themes are an investigation into the current political and social
situation, pop culture, urban topography, and questions of cultural and
personal identity.
The photographer Hank
Willis Thomas, for instance, investigates the connections between
slavery, the identity of African American men, and the corporate branding
of global firms. His series Branded features logos that are not
worn on T-shirts or baseball caps, but are burned into the skin.
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Hank Willis Thomas, Branded Head,
2003;
David Alan Grier
Collection, Los Angeles
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In Branded Head, the Nike
logo appears like a self-chosen stigma on the shaven head of an African
American man. The brandings evoke a return of the symbols burned into the
skin of slaves to identify them as the property of their owners.
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Pearl C. Hsiung, Tidal Wretch,
courtesy
the artist und Max Wigram Gallery, London
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Some of the works at the Biennial testify to a rekindled
interest in absurd humor or surreal stagings, such as the metallic
paintings of the Taiwanese-American artist Pearl
C. Hsiung, which arrange together body parts, fire-spewing volcanoes,
cacti, and huge crystals to form psychedelic tableaus. Brian
Fahlstrom, whose work can also be seen at USA TODAY, lures the
visitor into dark, almost abstract landscapes that seem like a cross
between fairy-tale land and nightmare. But performance groups such as My
Barbarian, whose campy mix of rock, cabaret, absurd costumes, and
trashy choreographies in galleries like Peres
Projects have delighted visitors, can also be seen at the 2006
California Biennial.
My
Barbarian, The Hiker, the Watery Princess and
the
Demon in Dragon Canyon, Utah (2006),
from
Silver Minds, Photo by My Barbarian
Like the
other artists in the show, she belongs to a generation that has been just
as influenced by the debates over gender roles and new technology as it
has by the mass-media imagery of films, TV, computer games, and
advertising. And this is more than welcome to the makers of the Biennial,
because it is precisely the subversive energy of the young scene in the
multicultural melting pot of California – together with the impulses it
lends to international artmaking activity – that is supposed to be the
show’s focus. And for Charles Saatchi, there will certainly be a number of
interesting things to discover at the 2006 California Biennial.
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