exhibit reviews:
Bernie
Reid,
Analogue Books
Edinburgh, UK
by Rea Cris
Joshua
Petker, The
Shooting Gallery
San Francisco, CA
by Tonya Warner
The
Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, New
Langton Arts
San Francisco, CA
by Tonya Warner
Chris
Yormick, White Walls
San Francisco, CA
by Tonya Warner
t.s.
Beall , Castlefield
Gallery
Manchester, UK
by Rea Cris
book reviews:
Strapless
by
Deborah Davis
Tarcher/Penguin, 2003
by Catherine Kaleel
Chris Yormick: Sea
a Man About a Dog
White Walls Gallery
San Francisco, CA
13 January – 3 February 2007
Review by Tonya Warner
Chris Yormick’s work, easily recognized for his distinctive ‘dude
and dog’ figures, has, for the past couple of years, incorporated
collaged bits of antique materials; with “Sea a Man About a Dog,”
he has taken these paintings to a new level of invented nostalgia. This
is, of course, a nostalgia for an age in which he (and his audience) did
not live – namely the 1950s. What these images cull up is not necessarily
a desire to return to the past, but the appeal of historical mythos, imbued
with a sense of mystery; the past appears as something both completely
alien and yet an obvious precursor to today. And so, in “Sea a Man
About a Dog” (another of Yormick’s endearing puns) there is
a strange mix of the old with current pop culture – for instance,
an old bike tire, rope, lights, and repurposed wood spell out the exclamation
“oh snap,” bringing a sense of juvenile streetwise humor.
This contemporary reinvention of the past can also be found in his signature
figures themselves, who sit somewhere between old cartoons and contemporary
graffiti. In the latest works, these figures sit atop an interplay of
layers of collage and paint, sometimes bordered by a patch of solid colour,
which effectively not only flattens the image but unifies the various
elements by denying the primacy of the figures. The pictures mostly incorporate
news clippings in German and French, seemingly selected for either visual
effect or use as a pun. What he creates is a tapestry of traces of history
which give us no further understanding of our past or ourselves, rather,
they become alternatively visual references to a penchant for invented
nostalgia or act as purely aesthetic devices. For, despite his use of
old materials, there comes into play the issue of the period eye –
the fact that this art still looks very contemporary. What marks these
pieces apart from collages done at the time when the materials were new
is the way the images interact with layers of often semitransparent paint,
as well as the colour scheme of tan, dark blue, and rust (and of course
the references to graffiti culture). “Party’s Over”
particularly references even earlier cubist works with its addition of
a floating wine bottle and candlestick – quotations that act in
the same vein as the newspaper clippings. Despite these references to
the past, art historical and otherwise, these works retain a distinctive
“Yormick” look that is telling of his place and time. And
yet, despite the fact that these pieces are all variations on a similar
theme with recurring figures, there is a nice visual variety to this show
that keeps the viewer hungry for more.