The Americans are on at Galerie Zürcher with the second edition of Wild Feature (this one is aptly titled Wild Feature 2).  The first Wild exhibit was shown at Zürcher Studio in New York during June-July, 2009. 

Big, brash and quirky - this exhibition of 8 artists curated by one of them (Brian Belott) brings a visual deli of New York-style offerings.  The work is dense and needs a couple of viewings to consume.  Layered, collaged, packed, and cobbled, from large-scale paintings, to works on paper, to sculptural objects, each artist requires time and energy to unravel and discover.  Included in the show are Brian Belott, Melissa Brown, Brendan Cass, James B. Franklin, Jesse A. Greenberg, John Hodany, Misaki Kawai and Taylor McKimens, apparently all "painters" of a kind who work in Brooklyn. With this exhibition, each of these artists except Brian Belott are being shown in Paris for the first time.

The artists in Wild Feature 2 were born in the 1970's. Their tastes were probably forged on 80's grunge, the Fall of the Wall, being PC and going green, the rise of the Internet, and  too many tattoos. On top of that, they all have been educated in US institutions, fed the postmodern pastiche of skepticism, fragmentation and defiance, looked at Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, Cindy Sherman and Paul McCarthy, among thousands of others.  Going from the 20th to the 21st century, these artists straddle the close of an era and the dawning of a new one as they come into mid-level artistic maturity.  The result of this explosive and cyber-boosted group seems to be a double-stack of wry humor and free-wheeling assuredness that recycles and reclaims, rebukes and regurgitates with fervent abandon.

Thinking about this show brings a smile to my face. There is an optimisim in this work that just hangs on. It is a journey well worth taking despite the mess and the hack needed to get there. 

So, back to the future and don't forget the pickles.

--Georgia Fee

Taylor McKimens
Burnin’Barrel, 2008
Acrylic, acrylagouache and Flashe on canvas
208 x 260 cm
© Courtesy Galerie Zürcher, Paris

Misaki Kawai
Communication Station, 2009
Huile sur toile
264 x 411,5 cm
© Courtesy Galerie Zürcher, Paris 

John Hodany
Beaver Study, 2008
Acrylic on paper inlay
61 x 132 cm
© Courtesy Galerie Zürcher, Paris

Melissa Brown
Zero Dollar, 2008
Woodcut on Hand Dyed Rag Paper With Stencil
86 x 234 cm
Edition de 3
© Courtesy Galerie Zürcher, Paris

Brian Belott
Untitled, 2009
Collage on paper
132 x 196 cm
© Courtesy Galerie Zürcher, Paris

(All images courtesy of the artists and Galerie Zürcher, Paris)