pierogi 2000 press: gasworks

The Los Angeles Times

A Bountiful Exhibition That Gets White-Glove Treatment

Just the simple prospect of a show featuring 300 artists and roughly 3,000 works is enough to slow the pulse into a prophylactic stupor. But don't let the threat of malaise deter you from visiting Post, where the "Pierogi in L.A." show is much more likely to cast a different kind of spell: the genuine enchantment of discovery. While the scale of the enterprise sounds daunting, the sheer magnitude is what makes the show so engaging and gives it the sense of inexhaustible surprise. The fun ends only when you run out of time to enjoy it.

Pierogi 2000 is the name of a Brooklyn gallery that, since 1994, has been developing a fluid collection of works on paper by mostly young, emerging artists, about 600 at last count. On view now at Post is an abridged, traveling version of the gallery's flat files that has made stops in London, Vienna and San Francisco. Most of the artists represented in the flat files are based in New York, But the local show is supplemented by a batch of L.A. artists. When the files travel on, some of the artists added on-site will be integrated into the collection.

The show has a refreshingly casual, do-it-yourself format. Three banks of flat files with fold-out counter tops have been parked in one of the gallery's smaller rooms, and the walls above are hung, salon-style, with nearly 50 drawings, prints, paintings, photographs and collages by artists in the files. Each of the 300 artists represented has a separate, well-marked portfolio of work in one of the numbered drawers, rendering the experience of this immense group show more like a succession of separate solo shows, activated at the will of the viewer.

This is true interactivity, for after donning white gloves for the protection of the artwork, viewers navigate through this fantastic thicket of work at their own pace, following the path of their own predilections and preferences. Much of the work within the files is as playful and easily accessible as the manner of its presentation.

The term "automatic drawing" carries credibility through its association with the Surrealist movement, but "extended doodles" suffices to describe plenty of the drawings and paintings here. Many are pattern-oriented, geometric abstractions. Some engage in mapping strategies. Visual humor abounds, some of it of the inbred art-world variety, and some derived from popular culture sources like comics. Complex, conceptual mind games are scarce, but many of the artists here revel in the invention of new ways to express self-doubt.

Visions amusing, slight, obtuse, decorative, self-indulgent, witty—they're all here, tucked away in the file drawers, awaiting the touch of those gloved fingers.

Standouts emerge frequently enough to keep the energy high. Among them, Jonathan Herder's sheet of notebook paper masquerading as a stamp collecting album page wryly annotated with a stream of consciousness monologue of personal misgivings and commercial slogans; Katie Merz's skittish wisps of concrete poetry; James Lee Etheredge's whimsical patterns of typed letters; and Jim Torok's coy cartoon dialogue between two artists, one an impoverished, die-hard visionary, and the other a successful sellout.

Videos by artist in the files are available for screening at the gallery, and larger paintings and sculptures are also on view. What is most remarkable about the selection of larger works is their material exuberance, as if the artists were bingeing on the freedoms granted within a pluralistic art scene.

James Hyde paints blocks of color a la Hans Hofmann on a wide swath of indoor carpeting. Roxy Paine dips a small canvas in cool white paint until what look like icicles hang from its lower edge, and Bruce Pearson gives a monochrome coating to a large panel of Styrofoam with labyrinthine trails (they look like they could have been carved by giant termites).

There's lots of pleasant, superficial grazing to be done here, but also the occasional deep well of imagination to be plumbed. How broad your investigation will be, and how deep it will penetrate are, in this thoroughly delightful show, entirely up to you.

LEAH OLLMAN
December 8, 2000

P I E R O G I 2 0 0 0
177 north 9th street brooklyn, ny 11211 718.599.2144
noon to 6p friday through monday and by appointment
pierogi 2000 is an innovative art gallery in williamsburg, brooklyn, new york

	post gallery Haulin' Ass, Pierogi in L.A. Los Angeles, CA 17 november - 23 december 2000 The Los Angeles Times A Bountiful Exhibition That Gets White-Glove Treatment Just the simple prospect of a show featuring 300 artists and roughly 3,000 works is enough to slow the pulse into a prophylactic stupor. But don't let the threat of malaise deter you from visiting Post, where the "Pierogi in L.A." show is much more likely to cast a different kind of spell: the genuine enchantment of discovery. While the scale of the enterprise sounds daunting, the sheer magnitude is what makes the show so engaging and gives it the sense of inexhaustible surprise. The fun ends only when you run out of time to enjoy it. Pierogi 2000 is the name of a Brooklyn gallery that, since 1994, has been developing a fluid collection of works on paper by mostly young, emerging artists, about 600 at last count. On view now at Post is an abridged, traveling version of the gallery's flat files that has made stops in London, Vienna and San Francisco. Most of the artists represented in the flat files are based in New York, But the local show is supplemented by a batch of L.A. artists. When the files travel on, some of the artists added on-site will be integrated into the collection. The show has a refreshingly casual, do-it-yourself format. Three banks of flat files with fold-out counter tops have been parked in one of the gallery's smaller rooms, and the walls above are hung, salon-style, with nearly 50 drawings, prints, paintings, photographs and collages by artists in the files. Each of the 300 artists represented has a separate, well-marked portfolio of work in one of the numbered drawers, rendering the experience of this immense group show more like a succession of separate solo shows, activated at the will of the viewer. This is true interactivity, for after donning white gloves for the protection of the artwork, viewers navigate through this fantastic thicket of work at their own pace, following the path of their own predilections and preferences. Much of the work within the files is as playful and easily accessible as the manner of its presentation. The term "automatic drawing" carries credibility through its association with the Surrealist movement, but "extended doodles" suffices to describe plenty of the drawings and paintings here. Many are pattern-oriented, geometric abstractions. Some engage in mapping strategies. Visual humor abounds, some of it of the inbred art-world variety, and some derived from popular culture sources like comics. Complex, conceptual mind games are scarce, but many of the artists here revel in the invention of new ways to express self-doubt. Visions amusing, slight, obtuse, decorative, self-indulgent, witty—they're all here, tucked away in the file drawers, awaiting the touch of those gloved fingers. Standouts emerge frequently enough to keep the energy high. Among them, Jonathan Herder's sheet of notebook paper masquerading as a stamp collecting album page wryly annotated with a stream of consciousness monologue of personal misgivings and commercial slogans; Katie Merz's skittish wisps of concrete poetry; James Lee Etheredge's whimsical patterns of typed letters; and Jim Torok's coy cartoon dialogue between two artists, one an impoverished, die-hard visionary, and the other a successful sellout. Videos by artist in the files are available for screening at the gallery, and larger paintings and sculptures are also on view. What is most remarkable about the selection of larger works is their material exuberance, as if the artists were bingeing on the freedoms granted within a pluralistic art scene. James Hyde paints blocks of color a la Hans Hofmann on a wide swath of indoor carpeting. Roxy Paine dips a small canvas in cool white paint until what look like icicles hang from its lower edge, and Bruce Pearson gives a monochrome coating to a large panel of Styrofoam with labyrinthine trails (they look like they could have been carved by giant termites). There's lots of pleasant, superficial grazing to be done here, but also the occasional deep well of imagination to be plumbed. How broad your investigation will be, and how deep it will penetrate are, in this thoroughly delightful show, entirely up to you. LEAH OLLMAN December 8, 2000



	P I E R O G I 2 0 0 0 177 north 9th street brooklyn, ny 11211 718.599.2144 noon to 6p friday through monday and by appointment pierogi 2000 is an innovative art gallery in williamsburg, brooklyn, new york

post gallery

The Los Angeles Times