Art review: Justin Bower at Ace Gallery
Scale is critical to Justin Bower's paintings. With roots in the painterly Abstract Expressionism of Willem de Kooning; superficial resemblance to the monstrous photographic self-portraits of Douglas Gordon, his head wrapped in cellophane tape; plus, traces of the electronic color of Ed Paschke's brand of Chicago Imagism and more, Bower's large canvases of isolated heads claim diverse parentage.
Eight large and four smaller paintings at Ace show that, in this instance, bigger really is better. The smaller works get stuck in the instant-impact of one-dimensional graphic design. But at 8 by 7 feet, the big paintings draw you close into their orbit, where the sensuous speed of Bower's brush possesses the lacerating quality of a surgeon's scalpel.
By turns pulling apart and coalescing, they turn into whiplash-worlds of aggravation, fury and fragmentation. These heads hurt.
Like Cubism, which is this work's ultimate ancestor, the paintings haven't quite resolved the negative space between the depicted head and the physical canvas-edge. Bower tries several remedies, including somewhat awkward scaffolding and linear armatures that connect one to the other. The most convincing comes in works such as "Feedback Loop I," in which the head's acid-green contour trails into view, suggesting the tenuous fragility of attachment and disconnection.
-- Christopher Knight
Ace Gallery, 9430 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 858-9090, through Jan. 29. Closed Sundays and Mondays. www.acegallery.net
Photo: Justin Bower, "Feedback Loop I," 2010. Credit: Ace Gallery
"the paintings haven't quite resolved the negative space between the depicted head and the physical canvas-edge."
Seriously? What kind of academic, boring nonsense is a line like this? Why kind art reviews describe the humanity, the visceral reaction to art, rather than analyzing stuff that only Art Center students care about. Utter rubbish.
Posted by: Meg A. Doppler | January 20, 2011 at 07:25 PM
Even then, he would be talking about analytical cubism not resolving the edges, as they used ovals also, but was not negative space. Besides, this would be closer to synthetic, though tenuously at best. And it used the edges very well, better than any other style of art, building up layers of flat planes with color to create form. As Cezanne said, when color is at its richest, form is at its fullest. This is just garrish. Closer to slasher flicks.
Posted by: Donald Frazell | January 21, 2011 at 06:01 PM
Actually, closer to Francis Picabia, a lousy second tier cubist who didnt get it, and turned into one of the founder fathers of the new Academy, with Dali, Balthus, Duchamp and Masson. Kinda a Tron meets Matrix thing. Campy.
art collegaia delenda est
Posted by: Donald Frazell | January 21, 2011 at 06:08 PM
Christopher's criticism regarding the negative space, or dare I say, background, is completely valid. I don't see it as Cubism's problems, or Art Center student's problems, it's a painter's problem.
That said, I'm completely confident Justin will improve on this area in future pieces. Dude knows what he's doing.
Posted by: Steve Kim | January 22, 2011 at 08:06 AM
This reminds me of the 3-d man model kits in the sixties. If you take the model and photograph it while shaking it you might get this effect that would make a great reference for do this type of painting. My theory aside, we don't know how the artist arrived at his giant blurry exploded heads, but I suspect as the critic notes they derive much of their power from their sheer size. A scary image made bigger has more impact. The primal fear of of the looming menace tapped as a visual power source. A instinctual trick often evoked by Madison Avenue and the modern artist to sell the goods.
Posted by: william wray | January 22, 2011 at 01:37 PM
Abstract Expressionism of Willem De Kooning..what nonsense. He was part of the Cobra Movement in Europe. Justin Bower is home grown Amercian..Abstract Expressionism of Robert De Niro Senoir....what happened to Americans understanding themselves? Bower is a new generation of American artists. The best of the best! He should be written up with such excitement..he follows on from the, much overlooked, New York School of the 1960's.
Cubism..what a load of complete nonsense...why are you trying to link Bower with anything other than American Art? He makes Chuck Close's portraits look positively archaic. Justin Bower is the present/future and should be written as such.
Posted by: Joe Pollitt | January 24, 2011 at 05:53 AM
Um, while de Kooning was born Dutch and came here as at almost 20, he was no CoBrA artist. He was 41 when WWII ended and soon began his more mature work. All AbEx types ahd been influenced by surrealism and the large Euro expatrtiate population in NYC during the war. CoBrA were based in Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam, obviously of a much younger group after WWII. Your history makes as much sense as your critique.
Movie and video game inspired fluff.
Posted by: Donald Frazell | January 24, 2011 at 08:22 AM