One of Artblog’s favorite artists, Matthew Fisher wrote to say he was in two group exhibits, “Honeymoon with Romeo” in Basel, Switzerland at Groeflin/Maag Gallery and “Sasquatch Society” in Chelsea at Sixty-Seven Gallery. Fisher’s drawings and paintings of disaffected-looking poet-soldiers in Bismarkian get-up have appeared several times at Spector Gallery — in the Great Re-Masters’ show and in a solo exhibit in the back space where he was paired — perfectly — with Randall Sellers in the front. See post on the latter show here.
(top image a Matthews soldier from the Basel show which is up to Aug. 27.)
Sasquatch also has work by another one of my faves, Chris Bors, a video/performance artist whose video “Slayer” in the metalhead show “Scarab” at Project Room was a highpoint. Ketta Ioannidou, whom we’ve written about here, is also in the show, which is up to Sept. 10.
Coincidentally, collage and mail artist Mike Leigh who I told you about here, happens to have a photo of real world soldiers in Oslo who look remarkably like Fisher’s imaginary army men. See here.
Fisher who usually works easel-sized paintings and small drawings also said:
I am trying to finish the largest painting to date, around 54 x 78
inches or so. I will also have a piece in Jane Irish show at Icebox come September. So look out for that!
That Jane Irish show at the Ice Box Project Space, Crane Art Center, for which there’s much buzz, is “Operation Rapid American Withdrawal,” opening Sept. 2, and up through Sept. 25. It’s a Vietnam-themed show commemorating a 1970 antiwar march by Vietnam Vets Against the War, from Morristown NJ to Valley Forge PA. Irish says her show is about “heroic resistance.” The activist-artist often paints about activist subjects. Her solo show at the Morris Gallery featured, among other things, photo-based paintings of Vietnam War protesters.
With more than 60 excellent local artists in the show including Susan Hagen, Susan Moore, Sarah McEneaney, Terry Adkins, Mark Campbell, Charles Burns, Steve Donegan, Joy Feasley, Susan Fenton, Nick Kripal, Richard Hricko, M. Ho, Josh Mosley, Ann Seidman, Mark Shetabi, Ben Woodward and all of the work brand new, the show is going to be great. It also includes ancillary events like a poetry reading and an oral history panel. The opening’s Friday, Sept. 2, 6:30-9:30 pm. See you there. (image is one of Irish‘s paintings, depicting what I think is a symbolic funeral of a soldier that was part of the antiwar march in 1970)
