The gallery season has begun, the Chelsea galleries are packed and a trend in subject matter is immediately evident: our disregard for beauty and community in deference for cheap construction and the wreckage of the big-box store. Forty-five years after the publication of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, we’re still building it fast, cheap and ugly. Take that Jane Jacobs! On a recent crazed opening night, I visited seven Chelsea shows that all related to this theme. Two of them stand out: Jeff Brouws’ color-rich photographs in Approaching Nowhere at the Robert Mann Gallery and Erik Benson’s innovative paintings in Elsewhere at Roebling Hall.
Brouws makes no bones about his modus operandi. Social commentary oozes from the images and drips from the title: “Superstore Under Construction On Former Farmland, Indiana, 2004” shows a long gray wall cutting into a cold gray sky with tire piles and tire tracks in the wet mud—not a blade of grass. His pictures documenting the former central business district of Gary, Indiana, are heartbreaking, but what replaces these structures chills the soul. Brouws has a knack for the architectural blank stare and “Fast-Food Restaurant Under Construction (Please Order Here), Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 2004” and “Closing of Ames Store, Hudson, New York, 2002” in some way hold us accountable. “Robert Taylor Homes (Since Demolished), Chicago, Illinois, 2002” is a square, skyless picture of a famous public housing failure, and “Shuttered Manufacturing Plant #7 (Inc.), Cleveland, Ohio, 2001” shows nothing but silver letters spelling “Inc.” still affixed to a brick wall. These grim pictures have a haunting beauty because Brouws knows how to elegantly tell this nightmare tale of cracked asphalt and endless highway.
Eric Benson’s paintings also depict dead, drive-by neighborhoods and un-peopled places, but the titles are less dire. “Anniversaries” has three F1 fighter planes shooting though a brown sky. What could be more cheery? And “Extreme Home Makeover” shows a suburban development under construction. Two enormous balloon wreaths float above a muddy parking lot sprinkled with orange cones and netting, the effect as gleeful as a child’s birthday party. Balloons, trees in dark silhouette, army aircraft and skull graffiti are among Benson’s favored icons, but what is truly amazing is the way he puts pictures together. These paintings are made by first applying acrylic paint to glass and, once dry, cutting these delicate ribbons of color and affixing them to canvas-like collage. The effects are worth whatever X-ACTO cuts the artist suffered while slicing together the geode form in “Elsewhere” and pasting torn clouds into the sky. All in an effort to examine man-made detritus and junk on wheels.
Approaching Nowhere. Through Oct. 21. Robert Mann
210 11th Ave. (betw. W. 24th & 25th Sts.), 212-989-7600.
Elsewhere. Through Oct. 14. Roebling Hall, 606 W. 26th St. (at 11th Ave.), 212-929-8180.
