N.Y. Magazine art critic, Jerry Saltz's review of the 2010 Whitney Biennial describes Portland-based artist Jessica Jackson Hutchins' piece "Couch for a Long Time," (top image), as "one of the best pieces here."  The sculpture, a "lumpy" sofa collaged with newspaper clippings about President Obama, cradles a series of "gnarly" ceramic objects. According to Saltz, "All the images together with the cracked pottery evoke intense pressure- the pressure that he, we, art and America are under."  In addition, Hutchins received kudo's from Holland Cotter in Friday's NY Times Whitney review, as well as being included in the Sunday NY Times T- Style section piece about "Whitney women" and ....... the Biennial has only been opened for five days!!!!! 

And if being included in the Biennial wasn't enough for last week .......... Jessica opened two simultaneous solo shows in New York City ...... at the Derek Eller Gallery in Chelsea and at Small A Projects on the Lower East Side!!!!! Her new work is still extremely intimate, very narrative, and a sublime blend of her favored materials ...... glazed ceramics, textiles, papier-måché, collage, and furniture!!!! The pieces are personal, adapting accessible and familiar ideas, sometimes including bits & pieces from her family. Both exhibitions feature a variety of works on paper, as well as a stunning selection sculpture. 

Furniture, either found or from her own home, is a major element in Jessica's work. In a number of pieces the furniture becomes the base for a combination of collaged elements that create "figures" holding ceramic vessels. In several pieces ...... including "Recliner,"  a recliner covered in papier-måché, collaged in color photographs and magazine images or "Leaning Figure," another similar work that has been collaged in a combination of paper, fabric, and paint ...... the furniture becomes an invisible armature. The piece "Kitchen Table Allegory" is the actual dinning room table from Jessica's home. It has been gouged and cut, is covered with colored ink residue, and has been pulled apart, as if waiting for a leaf ...... instead a ceramic vessel sits in it's center. Prior to being a "complete" art work, the table was gouged to create the "plate" for a series of collaged mono-prints that appear in both shows. The piece "Couple," a worn loveseat with two papier-måché, spray painted mounds and a ceramic vessel nestled between them, is another narrative work that intrigues the viewer and allows numerous interpretations. In addition, there are several anthropomorphic ceramic pieces that are monuments to human fragility, "Infinite Break" a reference to Tiger Woods, and "Disgraced Skater," a slumping athlete. 

Catalonian Marti Guixé, living between Barcelona and Berlin, calls himself an "ex-designer." He is extremely outspoken in his "disregard" of design and works hard at pushing boundaries between design, art, and performance. Firmly ensconced in the contemporary movement, often using cheap or disposable materials, looking forward rather than backward, and forfeiting traditionalism ...... results in his more playful, less commercial, approach to design. An important example of his work is this installation, "Respect Cheap Furniture,"  an edition of 50 hand painted plastic Monoblock chair that are painted with the name of the edition. This well-known, inexpensive chair, universally accepted for it's good design, is an important addition to his series "stop discrimination of cheap furniture" begun in 2004.

I think that these chairs, part of an exhibition last fall in Berlin, are a wonderful reference to my view of our current design climate ..... nothing has value and everything is valuable!!!! Seems like an "accessorator's" dream ...... or is it a nightmare???????