Time Out New York July 6-13, 2000

"Game On!" Sara Meltzer Gallery, through July 28
Article by Tim Griffin

Abstract painter Frank Stella used to say that Ted Williams was a genius, since the baseball player could see the stitches on a 90-mile-an-hour fast-ball. Now you ask, why should a painter really care? Answer: The Hall-of-Famer’s incredible vision in the batter’s box offered Stella the perfect metaphor for modernist painting’s goal of pure opticality, where eye and object become linked in a single, powerful moment.

It only goes to show that sport offers rich, if playful, territory for art – something reinforced by 14 artists in the punchy shot “Game On!” A couple are right there with Stella: Michael Scott’s large untitled canvas is shaped like a baseball field, with green grounds and brown base paths executed with almost absolute flatness; a warning track runs along it’s top edge in a lyrical, if not utterly romantic, curve. More conceptually taut is Sylvan Lionni’s painting, Butterfly Europa, which is a near perfect rendering of a Ping-Pong table (sans net), with white lines and green rectangles transforming the gaming surface into both vernacular icon and hard-edged, airtight minimalism.

Other artists consider the game inside the game: For a video, Male Pattern Baldness, Alix Lambert shaves her head and adopts the obsessed and anxiety-ridden poses of a basketball coach, effectively screwing with gender’s playbook. The art duo Type A’s Dance shows two wrestlers whose grunts and pressing flesh push the line between athletic and sexual labors. (Unfortunately, the work only reminds us of how good Mathew Barney’s sublimated sports mentality is in contrast.) And Jason Dodge plays on the continental fetishes of the avid soccer fan, as his She is kissing just for practice features a miniature goal with chocolat au lait and European cigarettes inside.

Also noteworthy is Karen Kimmel’s The Pitch, a flowchart of chic-looking logos and symbols streaming off the wall and onto the floor, where it meets equipment resembling weight belts and gymnastic gear on small pedestals. One of many artists pushing the branding phenomenon, Kimmel has even designed an imaginearly team’s athletic line for sale at her L.A. store, kbond – a retail move that, to say the least, flaunts art-world rules.


Copyright © 2003, Michael Scott