Utopia @ 111 Minna Gallery
San Francisco, CA
2 Nov – 2 Dec 2006

work by Helen Garber, Suzanne Husky, Eric Joyner, Josh Keyes, Alexis Mackenzie, Chris Pew, Stephen Powers, John Sheridan, Casey Jex Smith, & Winston Smith

Review by Tonya Warner

Utopia. Because of its unfortunate futuristic leanings, it is destined to remain the recurrent zombie of art show themes. You think it has been done and dusted, discussed, done to death and long buried. But lo, there it is again. It has gotten to the point where the exhibition is evaluated more for how it relates to previous utopian displays than the artworks at hand. For the show at 111 Minna, the bar-cum-club-cum-gallery, the theme of utopia can be culled out from the mixed bag of works, however, this could just as easily be called anything else. And probably to the artists’ benefit.

The unfortunate effect of having such a strongly worded title (especially one which draws upon a concept so loaded down with a history of interpretations) is that it creates a singular reading of the various works that was possibly not intentioned by the artists.
(insert zombies eating brains joke here).

That said, I must also note that this show was much hyped due to a roster of familiar names on the local scene – including Eric Joyner, Chris Pew, Stephen Powers, and Casey Jex Smith (whose single work included in the show was quite good). The overall effect, however, was a bit lacklustre.

A shining gem of the show, however, was Alexis Mackenzie, whose collages are comprised of Victorian ladies, houses, and aquatic life. Her grand pseudo-mermaids float demurely in front of monstrously complex manses that have come free of their earthly moorings. These images are undeniably otherworldly, set, as they are, amidst the stars or upon an alien landscape. The interplay between these “mermaids” and their floating palaces evokes a sense of simultaneous distance and connexion between women, and the home and all the discourse that this brings forth, within a very stylized medium. Collage is a hard thing to get right and Mackenzie manages to strike a balance between craft and a beautiful combination of images and colours in uncluttered and varied compositions.

Another notable addition to the exhibition was Josh Keyes, who makes extremely detailed and provocatively intense vignette paintings. Each scene, which appears to be a violent intersection of the urban environment and nature, is acted out on a small patch of ground, cut out of any context and floating on a white plane. I found it was hard to say whether I liked this work initially because of its sheer stark intensity. Office workers in violent fits, a sickly wolf growling at Mickey Mouse gloves while looking as if he has been run through with a traffic sign – its hard to know how to process these images on more than a visceral level. And I find that I appreciate them for that.
Do these images have anything to do with (a critique of) utopia? They could, but why limit it to that?

http://www.111minnagallery.com/
http://www.alexisanne.com/
http://www.joshkeyes.net/