Two complex squares from Imi Knoebel use overlapping strips of paper-bearing ‘bristly’ brushed-on acrylic paint-as bordering frames that can be interpreted as looking through at the attire or furnishings of decoratively inclined personalities, while in the stockroom, as a two panel work set in a corner, Winston Roeth’s contribution seems related to Duchamp’s two portal/one door installation ( Door as a Substitute for Two Doors, 1927) that can never shut off (or open) both entrances (to two rooms) simultaneously. On the other hand Geoff Thornley’s relatively small canvas on the opposite wall, displays a closed doorway of pink flesh, with underpainted dragged lines blurred in the style of Francis Bacon-a restless, rectangular symbol of contained corporeality. Günter Umberg’s dark square, projecting out from the wall on bevelled sides, shows a mystery self of deep deep blue, an internal void that reveals a refusal to step into the light. Coen Young’s large rumpled vertical sheet of chemically treated, shiny, smoky-silver, heavy paper is presented versus the burnished graphite-on-linen stretcher of Matthew Allen where metallic silvery smears emerge from black streaks at the edges. Two other works, on opposite short walls, present mirroring: literal reflection-each a blurred configuration of the gazing gallery visitor’s face. A flap on the bedware could be a nose, and this ambiguously looks like a head facing into the room a lovely surrealist object that is quite haunting. Sam Harrison’s white bronze bust of a woman’s head tightly covered with a pillowcase or sheet, faces the wall. It is not blurred or smeared, but with its fine horizontal lines, it looks more like an embroidered tapestry. McMillan’s painting method of course, is very different from Richter’s. One of the artists, Gary McMillan, presents a realistic portrait of a head of a woman who is looking at a fence, focussing on her neck and the back of her head, Gerhard Richter style. The gallery walls have been painted a dark grey which makes the white sections of any painting or sculpture glow. Selected by Andrew Jensen and written about in an elegant pink catalogue, it presents a wide selection of sculpture and paintings, teasingly subverting the conventions of facial representation. In this twelve artist show, Fox Jensen McCory look at the notion of a ‘portrait’ without a visage, a visual study of a human subject without a referenced physiognomy. Günter Umberg, Imi Knoebel, Tomislav Nikolic, Winston Roeth, Ceara Metlikovec, Jan Albers, Helmut Federle, Geoff Thornley, Matthew Allen, Gary McMillan, Sam Harrison, Coen Young
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