James Cohan Gallery
533 West 26th Street New York NY 10001
October 23 - December 19, 2009
This was hands-down the best show I saw last night, and at least in the last couple weeks. I don't usually like video art, but Long Beach native Bill Viola has managed to contemporize the space and role traditionally filled by painting with video in a manner that is both beautiful and meaningful. In 2006 I was lucky enough to stumble upon his installation at the Church of San Gallo in Venice and found the slow-motion videos of people emerging and re-submerging from a wall of water really powerful. Some of his work from that body were present in the gallery as well as what seem to be other bodies of work. One especially noteworthy piece was a large (three-projecter) black and white projection piece that took advantage of the noise of low-light video recording to create some haunting, close to home yet otherworldly images that emerged and re-submerged into the flickering digital noise.
http://www.jamescohan.com/
Bill Viola came to CSULB about a year ago and gave the most inspiring lecture full of advice to young artist. One of which was look for answers in real experiences, not research, and have your work be question, not the answers. I find his imagery mesmerizing.
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