Franklin Evans Super Sized Pastiche Royale

Colorful work and characters on Thursday Art Night
Colorful work and characters on Thursday Art Night
Close detail of work by Franklin Evans
Close detail of work by Franklin Evans

The studio is where it’s at – that’s ground zero where the artist’s thought process and experimentation explode into fruition. Now what if you take that investigation into the gallery interior and set it free all over? AF walked into the solo exhibition of Franklin Evans for paintingassupermodellast June 5th to witness the full color explosion come to life. Maybe there was no Gisele Bundchen or Chanel Iman aka Super Models present but art was definitely making itself known in Super Sized doses.

Based on the 1993 Yves-Alain Bois book Painting As Model and his essays on Matisse, Mondrian, and Newman that Evans covered every surface of the gallery with paintings, collages, digital prints on canvas / paper / silk, photographic sculptures, floor works and sculpture vitrines that laid bare his studio process into an art installation. The patchwork formed by squares of various images, patterns and notes evoke a visual quilt that informs yet in its multiplicity kept the elusive and abstract thought of his artistic process still a secret. Evans exposed a lot yet reveals nothing singular about his artistic process. This proves that art is never distilled into a simple idea because it is a complex network of ideas made cohesive by the creative prowess and investigative process.

Artist Franklin Evans
Artist Franklin Evans
Art fans come to pay homage during Art Night
Art fans come to pay homage during Art Night

There are elements of Matisse, Mondrian and Newman who are all masters of color forms. Evans took those cues and made his own visual landscape of color that is a modern matrix grid projected in large scale. It is allowing us to flip through his art journal but we get a wallop of everything thrown our way. Quite clever and ambitious but it does so with a concise and controlled manner that kept one engaged instead of overwhelmed. It is a super sized artistic skill that Evans managed to pull off and pass with flying colors.

The show reflects today’s seismic shift in information as bits and pieces to be processed in a millisecond. Welcome to the age of fast information at your fingertips, held by your electronic devices laden with apps, attention spans that are spastic and that instant gratification of the now. Evans may have demonstrated a visual pastiche of the artistic model in the process but it is also a commentary on how we digest and process said visual information. The art world may have gone digital and tech savvy but it is still quantified by what the eyes capture. The visual cues might have evolved but the manner of viewing art remains the same. One still has to look in order to be informed in a variety of ways. Look all you want because what you choose to see either the tiny gem or the super sized version is entirely up to you. Anyway, as it stands in the art world, you’d better WORK!!!

 

Franklin Evans: paintingassupermodel / On View: June 5 – August 1, 2014

Gallery Hours: Tuesday  Saturday (10 am to 6 pm) & by appointment

Ameringer McEnery Yohe. 525 West 2nd Street. NYC, NY 10011

 

Art Review by: Oscar A. Laluyan

Select Art Images from Ameringer McEnery Yohe courtesy of the artist

Photography by: Max Noy Photo

Studio Installation Image of Franklin Evans Photo by Tom Powel
Studio Installation Image of Franklin Evans Photo by Tom Powel
In Full Color Installation at Ameringer McEnery Yohr
In Full Color Installation at Ameringer McEnery Yohr
Art comes to life off the wall and those who came to see it
Art comes to life off the wall and those who came to see it
Franklin Evans Studio Installation Photo by Tom Powel
Franklin Evans Studio Installation Photo by Tom Powel
Ameringer McEnery Yohe presents the work of Frank_in Evans
Ameringer McEnery Yohe presents the work of Franklin Evans

 

 

 

Avatar photo

Oscar Laluyan

Oscar A. Laluyan is a critic, curator and an art writer for several online publications, . He has worked in a museum and at an art gallery founded by a former architect of Richard Meier's firm. His passion for contemporary art is reflected and directed to seeing the future.

No Comments Yet

Comments are closed

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial