Zoë Mendelson, Matali Crasset, and Jean-Pierre Bertrand
I liked Zoë Mendelson’s small collages at galerie schleicher + lange, although I wasn’t as crazy about the larger drawing on paper and “collage objects.” They have an intimate, playful, puzzle-like quality (particularly due to the use of “craft materials” … the odd pom pom and the like…) and staring at them is a cross between trying to figure out a rebus and appreciating the simple repetition of certain shapes in various parts of the image. My only complaint is that the drawings are always backed by a sheet of white paper with other media glued on it and I think it would be interesting for the layering process to go both ways (ie more drawing on top of collaged elements, etc.) I don’t think having a stable “backdrop” of somerset (?) makes much sense with the internal logic of the images.
Otherwise, I pretty much hated everything at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac… Fashion shows? Buy your painting on a string? Gag me… The only redeeming feature was a video, Living Wood, by Matali Cresset that reminded me of a sketch for an Urban Development project by Magdalena Abakanowicz that I saw a number of years ago. Growing, plant-like utopian architecture…. nice (on the other hand, her sculptures were bad)! There’s also a nice video in Jean-Pierre Bertrand’s show at Galerie Michel Rein- I wasn’t familiar with his work and and especially enjoyed seeing images of his earlier minimalist paintings on and under glass- at once clean and organic studies of the texture of paint on nontraditional surfaces (Salt paper, honey paper)…