Back to General Criticism
I have been reviewing art shows for 17 years, and I have come across many great ones... David Hockney, Velasquez, Mondrian, Wifredo Lam, Ansel Adams, etc. and many great-ones-to-be: Ross Palmer Beecher, Jacob Lawrence, Jack Vetriano, Catriona Fraser, Sally Mann, and others.
Yet, in the work of Laurence Amos, I am truly astounded by the skill and honest creativity (as well as razor-sharp observation skills) of this superlative artist - add him to the list! (You pick which list). Imagine if you can, walking into a small shop in the Midwest and seeing the naive paintings of Grandma Moses and saying, "hey, I like that!" and buying it for a pittance. This is the greedy capitalistic feeling I get when I view the bold colors from the fugitive magic markers, liquid crayons and other junk media which he uses to give us some of the best work showing in D.C. this year.
Who is this guy? Well, he is not a Corcoran graduate, and he will probably be ignored by the Venice Biennale and the Whitney, etc. Yet, Mr. Amos is the true essence of an artist who is fueled by the same fires which consumed Picasso and Goya and which fed Vermeer, Rockwell, and Kahlo: He paints/draws what motivates him: the world/landscape/environment around him! I cannot say enough good things about this guy (whom I hope to meet and shake his hand and say: Sir, I Goddamn admire you!). Amos, who is untrained, has been doing art for the last ten years and has been generally ignored by everyone in the D.C./VA/MD area where he lives.
He has been "discovered" by the Athenaeum in Alexandria, who is "thrilled" to have given Amos his first true art exhibition (I bet you that he will be HIGHLY sought after by the high power DC art galleries after this debut - here comes Baumgartner, Parrish, Okuda, Fraser, Lassman, Gallery K, Hemphill, Anton and others - An artist's dream come true and then New York in the horizon!!!). What does he paint/draw? His streets are overflowing with people and scenes and scenarios and tragedy and comedy and more wit. He creates satirical "streetscapes" which make our urban landscape seem like a volatile mind of PC/incorrectness. Does that make sense? I hope not! With titles like "Embassy Row" (where we find the "Lady Divers School of Cultured Ladies and Young Misses," and a sign above a supermarket reads "Caribbean Foods" in bold letters and then underneath in smaller letters "Some American Foods Too," appeal to the Republican in all of us. Yet, a newspaper's headline shouts "America Invades Iceland" in one piece while a sign outside a gay bar warn us "Marines Not Welcome." How do you interpret this guy??? He is almost too honest for his own good. This exhibition is worth a visit - go pay homage to a master.
The Athenaeum is located at 201 Prince Street in Old Town Alexandria and can be reached at (703) 548-0035; the exhibition runs until November 17, 1996. One last thing about Amos - he needs to switch to archival quality materials! In a few years the markers will fade, the colors will gray.... He is too good for that.
While in Alexandria this October, walk a couple of blocks to the Torpedo Factory and go into the Target Gallery. There is a superb show there! A great selection of editorial/political cartoon drawings by 20 or so cartoon artists/illustrators from various newspapers around the country. The show is quite educating and truly more interesting than most so called "high" art hanging in the area this month. This is the work of talented and creative artists who are able to distill the essence of an issue down to (in most cases) one simple image.
I noticed that many pieces were heavily slanted anti-Republican (is Rush right?); yet I particularly liked Roman Genn's "Perot" and Rick Parker's "Bubba and Butt-Head." Conspicuously absent from the show were any female (as far as I could tell by names) cartoonists - why? This is a superb show which hopefully will become an annual Target Gallery event! This city- supported gallery has really improved since Miriam Fagan joined it and her subtle influences can be felt in this selection; let's do this show again!
The Target is inside the Torpedo Factory at 105 N. Union Street in Alexandria, (703) 549-6877.
Finally, there is a powerful show in Georgetown this month - At the Hemphill Gallery there is the work of a Corcoran graduate - who because of that school's track record of junk artists I was ready to dislike - instead, what I found was the brooding work of a photographer who creates Dantesque, Stygian images (a I sounding like Artspeak?) which tap into some scary part of our brain - the same part which likes X-files and the movie Brazil. He starts by using a large format camera and the photograph a television or video image.
He then takes the result into the darkroom world (which Mapplethorpe avoided) and using a well honed set of photographic abilities, he begins experimenting with some rather weird techniques {he wraps his enlarger in plastic or pellucid (I've been waiting 25 years - since I read ERB - to use that word! - it means... aw heck; look it up in the dictionary!) materials such as pantyhose or stockings to influence the final image}. This is an honest photographer and his work reflects superior skills and artistic integrity. He is in that same ethical league with Mann, Fraser, Adams and Alvarez Bravo. Go see this photographer. Hemphill is at 1027 33rd St, N.W. in Georgetown, (202) 342- 5610; the show runs until Oct. 26, 1996.