The current exhibition at MOCA is popular, attracting busloads full of high school students, most regular gallery goers and some new explorers it seems. It's popular and safe enough for the public schools, but, among the three artists represented,Cosima von Bonin, Matthew Monahan and Gordon Matta Clark there's some interesting rule breaking and boundary testing going on. The most elegant and most punk rock (industrial) award has to go to the historical representative, Gordon Matta Clark, (shown above) whose works, many of them carved out of and through existing houses and buildings created a precedent in the art world that cut roads for current artists, like Tatsu Nishi. His work ties closely to other environmental and conceptual artists in MOCA's permanent collection like Smithson, Oppenheim and Kuseth, particularly in the 'note taking as art' component.
Meanwhile, Matthew Monahan is an enigmatic artist, and his work is doing something profound, even though he could easily be cast in to a 'new wave Picasso' genre that wouldn't do him service. His work, sculptures, made largely from drawn on paper and household building materials like sheetrock and spray foam, are intelligently and sensitively crafted. They maintain a gritty edge. The armature for the grit seems to be a combination of the classical form and psychedelic drugs. Everyone I saw, including myself walked into the room and their pupils dilated, opening to this work which was raw and powerful on a formal level, and in terms of the profundity of the distorted human form. It was both humbling and formidable. This young? artist is making a big splash now and I imagine he'll continue to be an important and valued influence. There's an art school element here that's been developed past its limits.
Finally Cosima von Bonin, represented by Freidrich Petzel Gallery in New York was the third artist on view.
The work was multimedia and reeked a bit to me of Mike Kelley, only more adolescent, stuck even more in a state of arrested development, with the exception of the wall pieces, which were sewn together bits of fabric and colored stitching that made drawings on the fabric. The formalist in me loved these works not because they were formal or because they were hanging on the wall as paintings would, but because they were so well balanced. I've seen sewn up paintings before, but these satisfied me.
