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| ABOUT TRaC |
Accel Visual Arts TRaC Spring 2006
"Welcome Home" Ricardo Mejias Sara Meltzer Gallery's new, renovated penthouse space on West 26th Street is not the only thing that's changed this season; two new artists--Lee Boroson and Neil Goldberg--have been added to the gallery's program along with two new codirectors to the gallery's staff. To celebrate, Sara Meltzer has showcased its artists and 4500-square-foot home in an exhibition aptly titled "Welcome Home." Featuring new work by the gallery's sixteen artists (Jan Albers, Roger Andersson, Andrea Bowers, Margarita Cabrera, Jeremy Dickinson, Moyna Flannigan, Peter Friedl, Emily Joyce, Nina Katchadourian, Jason Middlebrook, Shannan Plumb, Daniela Steinfeld, Jude Tallichet, Type A, and newcomers Boroson and Goldberg) "Welcome Home" offers much to see. From Flannigan's oil painting to Tallichet's cast bronze, from Joyce's mixed-media collage to Friedl's computer animation, the array of media seems chaotic yet festive--and natural for a gallery that began showing artists of international identity a decade ago as a salon. Greeting visitors in the reception room is Katchadourian's vinyl banner "Grnad Opening." No need to look twice--the misspelling is intentional, a comical first impression indeed. This piece is an exact copy of a banner the artist spotted on a deli in her Brooklyn neighborhood, and it serves as a warm welcome for anyone new or familiar with the program. Boroson usually explores architecture and science through sculpture and installation, but his contribution to the show is a digital C-print titled Firmament. Full of life and expression, this piece includes vibrant, dazzling colors and spherical shapes that clash together, reminiscent of thousands of tiny soap bubbles blown effortlessly into a white sky. The piece illustrates a sort of opening, an expanse of beauty that can only be compared to the opening of the gates of heavens, hence the title. Goldberg also detours from his usual media with his photograph Missing the Train. This piece shows a woman's slightly blurred face, eyes closed and cheekbones pronounced by shadows. The photograph is split into a grid of nine squares. The subject's expression is one of exhaustion and contradicts the strict division of the image, a tension that brings the viewer closer to the subject of the art. Installed near Missing the Train is Middlebrook's Fallen Elm Bench, a simple structure echoing the form of a fallen tree. This piece coincidentally continues the public transit theme: Its tiled texture recalls the stylizations of subway mosaics and is colorful and soothing the eye. "Welcome Home" has successfully inaugurated Sara Meltzer Gallery's new location, expanded stable of artists, and new additions to the directional staff. With plans for a program of events spanning film screenings, performances, and roundtable discussions, it seems that the gallery will bring in a fresh public audience. With so much variety in media and concept, this show offers something for everyone and proves that change is not always a bad thing.
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Neil Goldberg, Missing the Train, 2003–05, collaged digital photograph, 50 x 60 inches.
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