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Monday, March 16, 2009

NYC visit



Went to NYC this weekend to see the final day of Peter Doig's joint shows at Gavin Brown's enterprise and Michael Werner Gallery and to have dinner with some friends. It was a beautiful day to walk around the city and I'd have to say I really like Doig's new work (however not necessarily better than early stuff). Mostly made up of Trinidadian scenes his new paintings display soft bleeding surfaces with washes of color and occasional geometric grids denoting buildings. As a friend said to me, its nice to see such an accomplished artist change and do new things. I would agree. Also nothing seems forced here. There was an honesty and straight-fowardness throughout both shows. The idea of remembering a place still exists in the work but unlike his other paintings Doig is making paintings about a place he currently resides. I should have asked him about this when I met him at Michael Werner.
Yeah he was there! See the great photo I took of him impersonating a man dressed as bat in front of "Man Dressed as Bat". Doig was a super nice guy with a humble demeanor. I asked him about ping pong and his film club in Trinidad and then trying to play it cool I said good-bye. I really wish I'd (and should've) unloaded question after question but a few other folks in the gallery began to move in and "I didn't want to be that guy."



4 comments:

the fourth samba said...

Yo I saw that show too. I liked both of the moth man joints but wasn't too into that rock one. The little paintings weren't my steez either, but the moth guys were illests!

Thanks for going out of your way to come to Providence!

peace homes,

ruustah

the fourth samba said...

YO that's him!!! I saw the post came here to comment, went back and was like "Dang, that guy looks like Doig, went back to read the entire post and lo and behold!
I heard that he spun a party at a residency playing all dub and reggae, love this dude. Apparently he and my man Ofili are homies. Keeps getting better. You're right though, I still like his older things, but these have dope promises.

Word,

roosteringly

Mark Dixon said...

Chris Ofili and Doig both live in Trinidad. I'm not sure but I think they went to art school together.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/arts/design/13gall.html

This Times review favors Ofili's work and really comes at Doig hard..."settled-in vision of someone who has been where he is perhaps a little too long to see it freshly."
Really? Don't know if I agree. I would like to see what comes next.

the fourth samba said...

Word. Yeah I read about them living in Trinidad here (also check out the piece that they did together):

http://www.bombsite.com/issues/101/articles/2949

I dig both of their stuff and their relationship brings a massive freshness to things