I Won't Grow Up's curatorial juxtaposition of older or dead, well-established artists, such as Louise Bourgeois and Andy Warhol, with the likes of a much younger generation (Ryan McGinley, Scott Reeder, etc.) makes this group show one that could easily have taken place inside a museum. But what's great about exhibits like this is that you can get much more up-close and personal with the work on display, without the defensive glare of museum guards or the droves of tourists getting in your way.

Inspired by a Louise Bourgeois quote regarding the similarities between children and artists, the work in I Won't Grow Up centers around themes of juvenescence and uses childhood objects / art-making techniques as a vehicle for expressing both the light and dark sides of life. George Stoll's artisanal kids Halloween costumes - one a skeleton, the other a clown - does just that in a simplistic manner. There's something eerie about an empty clown costume hanging on a wall, which becomes even more ghastly than the adjacent skeleton ghost. 

For levity, there is a colossal rendition of Mr. Peanut, the Planters company mascot, destroying the Cincinnati Art Museum. Whether or not Mark Fox's Nutzilla video is good art is a different story, but it is highly entertaining nevertheless. The homespun paintings of Jon Pylypchuk, one of my personal favorites, fits right at home in this context as well. In his mixed media painting, Watch Your Face Fat Head, two forlorn figures comprised of felt and glue exist in an expressive otherworldly landscape that metaphorically represents inner emotion more so than outer environs. Polypchuk's Art Brut-esque compositions have a playful pathos that gets right to the heart of what it is like to be human in a topsy-turvy world, without resorting to outdated modes of visual representation.

In addition, not to miss is a small work by Louise Bourgeois dated from the 1930's that can pass as a thrift store painting, and a recent painting by Brendan Cass that revives gestural painting from its slumber.

- John Everett Daquino

Images: Mark Fox, Nutzilla (2008); John Polypchuk, Watch Your Face Fat Head (2006). Courtesy Cheim & Read.

Feeling more like an MFA show and less like a polished exhibition, Moti Hasson Gallery opened its doors to independent curator, Omar Lopez-Chahoud, who took the opportunity to fill the space with a number of artists whose works have little in common. However, Lopez-Chahoud's pluralistic approach is not necessarily a bad thing. Rather, it leads to some interesting discoveries, for Lopez-Chahoud is known for including names not yet wholly familiar to the art world. Take Ben Godward for example, a recent graduate of the University of Albany. His outlandish freestanding sculpture, Convenience War Head, is comprised of brightly colored foam with a variety of equally bright laundry detergent bottles wedged inside. It's like a gooey explosion of material excess. Or take Maia Valenzuela, whose intricate pen and ink works blend Aztec iconography, mandalic imagery, and biomorphic forms to create ornate and beautiful drawings.

And don't let Joaquin Segura's irreverent 1960's throwback, Go Take A Leak In Some Gallery Corner, fool you.  The work on view isn't all fun n' games, though most is. Segura's other contribution to Intransit uses Mexican televisual clichés of homosexuality to loosely reconstruct a notorious crime involving a young gay couple that plotted and successfully killed one of their mothers in order to cash in on her newly-acquired life insurance plan. The 12-minute film, titled Acapulco Golden, stars Alejandra Bogue, a trans-gendered actress with cult status in Mexico, who plays the role of the murder victim. Segura's Acapulco Golden takes the theme of homemade reenactment in contemporary art to a new level, mixing Guy Ben-Ner's low-budget production quality with Sue de Beer's penchant for bloody horror movies.

Though the exhibit does not live up to its politicized curatorial framing as spelled out in the press release, it is certainly worth checking out before September comes and all the group shows fade into the distance.

John Everett Daquino

Images: Joaquin Segura, Go Take A Leak In Some Gallery Corner (2007); Ben Godward, Convenience War Head (2008). Courtesy Moti Hasson.

The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10001
(212) 481-0295

Monday-Friday, 10-6 pm
Saturday, 10-4 pm

Founded in 1974, The Center for Book Arts is the first not-for-profit organization of its kind in the nation, dedicated to both traditional and contemporary book-making practices. The space acts as both a facility and gallery, and hosts throughout the year intriguing exhibitions and affordable classes designed for various skill levels. It also houses a gift shop featuring handmade books for sale. 

- John Everett Daquino