art NYC

Elana Herzog is currently exhibiting at Smack Mellon, the beautiful water front non-profit art space in DUMBO. (See www.smackmellon.org for more details. This wonderful place offers studio grants and top-notch exhibitions in a truly gob-smackingly lovely setting. High ceilings, brick and huge views of the Brooklyn bridge and waterfront. Amazing...)

Elana's work was familiar to me from the recent "Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting" exhibit at the Museum of Arts & Design (formerly the Craft museum. See http://www.madmuseum.org/site/c.drKLI1PIIqE/b.2056307/k.4439/Radical Lace Subversive_Knitting_Artist List.htm, for details...).

While I really liked her piece(the fragments of an oriental rug stapled onto a plasterboard wall), I was puzzled by her inclusion in the show.

For her current SmackMellon exhibit, all of the usual suspects are back: plasterboard, staples, fabric scraps, although this piece ("Plaid") attempts to address the architecture of the room a bit more.

While I liked it, I was not always sure why, or whether I could really justify my fondness for her work. I think I mis-read a content into the staple and rug piece that was entirely lacking in "plaid", and that just made me question the whole project entirely.

Detail of Elana Herzog's work "Plaid" on view now at Smackmellon in Brooklyn

OK, so I like the dichotomy of soft, fragile textiles and ungainly industrial construction materials like staples and plasterboard. And the decorative-non-decorative quality in all of this is intriguing. But like many of the works I have seen in the Art & Design museum, other than the materials themselves and the expansion of what they can do, there is no content. I am left feeling empty. Intrigued by the style, but hollow, ultimately.

I wish I'd seen her larger, recent show at the Aldrich museum in Connecticut (see http://www.aldrichart.org/ for more info.). Perhaps that would have given me a broader and richer understanding of her practice. As things stand now, I'm a bit disappointed....

Elana Herzog's work from the Aldrich museum

Yet when I look at these images, I am really compelled by their sad, faded beauty.

I guess my parting shot is this:

I need to know more, and "Plaid" withheld rather than offered more. Compared to what I saw previously, or what the Aldrich pictures suggest, the Smackmellon show was meager, offering a quick hors d'oeuvre when I wanted a meal.