“Street Level” and Ranjani Shettar at ICA

Plus David Claerbout at MIT





















From my review of the exhibits “Street Level” and “Momentum 10: Ranjani Shettar” at the ICA and “David Claerbout” at MIT's List Visual Arts Center:

“People look at an oil painting and admire the use of brushstrokes to convey meaning. People look at a graffiti painting and admire the use of a drainpipe to gain access.” That according to infamous British graffiti artist Banksy — probably our most popular living artist after QVC huckster Thomas Kinkade.

In a world that seems ever more synthetic and controlling, street art poses as a guerrilla force pushing back. Its rascally, outlaw, bad-boy cool feels free, real. Our postmodern (or maybe early post-postmodern) art world suffers from its own artificiality complex. So it mines urban style for authenticity, for energy, for street cred. Which brings us to “Street Level,” the fun, hip new exhibit organized by Duke University’s Nasher Museum and now up at the Institute of Contemporary Art, with work by Mark Bradford, William Cordova, and Robin Rhode.

Read the rest here.

“Street Level: Mark Bradford, William Cordova and Robin Rhode,” and “Momentum 10: Ranjani Shettar,” Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Blvd., Boston, March 19 to July 13, 2008.
“David Claerbout,” MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St., Cambridge, Feb. 8 to April 6, 2008.

Pictured from top to bottom: William Cordova, “Oradores, Oradores, Oradores (p’a Audrea Jones, Ana Maria Rodriguez y Betsy Tregar),” (2007-08); Robin Rhode, “Untitled Dream Houses; and Ranjani Shettar, “Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles.” 2007-08. Photos of Cordova and Shettar works by John Kennard. And David Claerbout, "The Stack," 2002.