The New York Times
ART REVIEW: From Young Storytellers, a Playful ToneBy BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO
Published: August 26, 2007, Sunday
What joy there is in this year’s “Aljira Emerge” show in Newark, the eighth installment of the gallery’s annual professional development program for young and emerging artists, mainly from the metropolitan region. It is not the strongest exhibition in recent years, but it is the most delightful visually.
For the first time we have none of the usual moralizing, even in the emphatic treatment of social and political issues that occurs here and there throughout the show. The works by 20 artists, selected by Rocio Aranda-Alvarado, the curator at the Jersey City Museum, is remarkable for its lightness and humor.
The playful tone is set in the entry area with Julie Peppito’s mixed-media sculptures hanging from the ceiling. They are giant, colorful bugs made out of a conglomerate of melted plastic toys and found objects. One is pink-toned, another a bright orange; viewed in passing, they resemble frightening prehistoric creatures.
Next comes a video by Patrick Grenier, titled “The Whitney Museum Searching Cultural Desert for Artists” (2007). Showing a remote-control vehicle navigating desert terrain, it is a metaphor for the periodic hunt by curators for artists to participate in the Whitney Biennial survey of young talent. For artists, it is often a nerve-racking time, representing an opportunity to be recognized, but also to be rejected.
From Mr. Grenier’s video, as well as from other works here, one can draw conclusions as to the attitudes of young artists toward big museums, the art market and the media. They feel excluded, shut out of the scene. The Emerge program provides these artists with a temporary platform; what they make of it is up to them.
Video art is in abundance, though the only thing in that medium as compelling as Mr. Grenier’s work is a piece by Andrew Demirjian. It consists of a pair of video screens, strapped to the backs of car seats, showing a man and a woman having a conversation in a car. Their talk is punctuated with interior monologues, the man and the woman reflecting on each other and on the conversation. It is an imaginative take on the tensions and relations between the sexes.
Many striking works of sculpture are also on display. An artist known as Natsu has built a giant, glistening egg out of plastic beads, which makes a powerful first impression. Hanging in the middle of the exhibition, it inspires awe at its beauty and admiration for the hours of labor that went into its construction.
I have remarked before that a streak of craft is running through contemporary art these days, with many artists making objects by hand using techniques like model-making, knitting and ceramics. It is plainly apparent in this show. In addition to Natsu and Ms. Peppito, there is also Mike Womack, who has constructed a cinder block out of bright orange Cheetos. It is a tongue-in-cheek gesture, but the block is so perfectly made that you can’t help but admire the artist’s oddball brilliance.
Jerry Gant’s sculptures, though plainly constructed, inspire a similar reaction. Using found wood, metal and wire, the artist makes imitation “ghetto blasters,” which he hangs on the wall in groups. The artist has hit upon a winning formula, for the crude materials nicely suggest urbanity and the raw, explosive energy of the music.
Other works are more contemplative, sometimes inviting associations with the trend of narrative and fantasy in contemporary art. I would put videos by Priyanka Dasgupta, Carol Pereira and Elisabeth Smolarz in that category, along with paintings, photographs and drawings by Jenny Polak, Nicole Awai, Jayson Keeling and Alisoun Meehan. They all tell a story.
Ms. Polak’s work, in the grandeur of its conception and its intelligent execution, stands at the pinnacle of the group. She tackles the issue of immigration, making maps and paintings of worksites in the New York City area where illegal immigrants have been found. One cannot help being moved by the plight of these people.
This exhibition is larger than in previous years; Aljira has recently renovated, expanding the galleries into an area previously used for offices. This modest, unadorned institution is quietly growing into a contemporary art powerhouse.
“Aljira Emerge 8,” through Sept. 29, at Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art, 591 Broad Street, Newark.
Information: (973) 622-1600 or
http://www.aljira.org/多くの特筆すべき彫刻（スカルプチャー）作品も展示されている。Natsuとし て知られているアーティストはプラスチックビーズで巨大なキラキラと輝く卵 を 作り上げた。それは強烈な第一印象を与える。展覧会の真ん中に吊り下げ られ たその作品は、その美しさへの畏敬の念、そしてこの創生に注入された 多大な労働時間に対する敬服の念を抱かせる。
私は以前、近年の現代美術に多くのアーティストが模型製作、編み物や陶器 な どの技術を用い手で物体を作るという工芸の傾向が出てきていると述べた こと がある。それはこの展示で明らかに現れている。NatsuやMs. Peppitoに 加え Mike Womackもそうでる。
ーThe New York Times
