The Barbara Krakow Gallery on Newbury Street is currently featuring a show of contemporary mid-to-late-level career artists that differs considerably from the normal fare on Newbury Street. The artists in "The Sum of Its Parts" use non-traditional materials and produce conceptually-based art that ranges from furniture, wall installations and relief prints, citing movements such as minimalism and post-modernism.
Visiting Barbara Krakow Gallery is unique for any visitor. Instead of a storefront space, the gallery is tucked away on the fifth floor of a large building. The elevator opens up into the gallery, which does not include the normal hardwood floors and vast expanse of wall space that is common among other galleries. The space is angular and strangely laid-out with a friendly, accommodating staff. All of the artists featured are well-known in their fields and have shown works in major museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The space at Barbara Krakow feels more like a museum than a simple gallery.
Upon entering, the viewer is greeted by Frenchman Daniel Buren's in-situ piece "Unexpected Variable Configurations: A Work in Situ" (1998), a red wall decorated with a hand-drawn grid and his signature screen-printed striped squares in an irregular pattern. Most famous for his work in Paris, Daniel Buren, known as the "the stripe guy," is a contemporary minimalist artist who manipulates space with simple geometric patterns and questions the way art is presented in museums.
Right in front of Buren's red grid wall is Tony Feher's installation piece titled "(Constellation)" (2007). The piece consists of aluminum cans, nickels, dimes and marbles strewn across the floor in an irregular pattern. A materially interesting piece using non-traditional items from everyday life, "Constellation" incorporates shiny metal and glass objects as a representation of the stars. While mildly interesting to look at, this piece is eclipsed by Mel Bochner's humorous piece "Complain" (2007). "Complain," a Jasper Johns-style composition, features letters spelling out common complaints, such as "bitch and moan," "blow your cool" and "have a tantrum."
One of the rooms in the gallery is set up as a makeshift living room with Roy McMakin's "My Slatback Chair With Another One" (2008) and Allan McCollum's "Perfect Vehicles" (1998), vases lined in a row on a display that is akin to a mantel. McMakin's art is more about everyday functionality than creativity, while McCollum's colored vases look identical but are differentiated enough to question the notion of individuality and uniqueness in wake of a mass-production-based society.
The main challenge for these artists is to find stimulating enough media while keeping their ideas intact. Conceptual art is often lauded by intellectuals and scholars more concerned with innovation than traditionally admired artistic skills — like creating visually stimulating art, whether the work is realistic or completely non-representational. The work in this exhibit aspires to be both. While some of the pieces strike a balance between these two opposing forces, many, while intellectually stimulating, fall short of the visual expression of the idea.
The most overlooked and interesting pieces of the show are two works by Tara Donovan. Her pieces, both titled "Untitled (Rubber Bands)" (2006), are relief prints from sculptural forms made of rubber bands. Her use of office materials as tools to create these prints is geometrically simple yet visually stimulating.
The work in this show is interesting and certainly warrants a visit, especially for those interested in contemporary conceptual artists' intimate venues. Regardless of whether the artist's work comes across as too conceptual or not conceptual enough, the Barbara Krakow Gallery is a departure from most galleries on Newbury Street.
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The Sum of Its Parts
At the Barbara Krakow Gallery through Oct. 7
The Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston
10 Newbury Street
617-267-9300
