Iwas invited by a friend to attend, on the evening of May 19th, a banquet to honor the work of German artist Gregor Wiest at The Wall Gallery located at 41 Seabring Street in Red Hook. The Wall Gallery is two years old and has had 5 exhibitions. It was established by myself and Franz Landspersky, two compatible Red Hook neighbors in a former accounting office and studio across the street from the NYFD Engine 202, Ladder Company 101.
The exhibition had previously enjoyed a very successful opening night which featured the extraordinary ensemble known as Synchol. Several hundred people attended that evening and celebrated the results of Wiest’s month-long artist residency: With material quickly procured and a handful of preparatory drawings in place a group of 12 large drawings and 2 sculptures were made in the gallery space. A major body of work forged in a few very busy short weeks. It was, I am told ,a wonder filled evening. But this night was set aside for a smaller gathering of artists and friends of the artists assembled to appreciate, perhaps more contemplatively, Gregors’s work. And enjoy a meal together. The director, Franz Landspersky, refers to these regular pot luck dinners as “artists banquets” to imply a feast of all the senses. And so it was.
Spaetzle and cabbage
Conversations overheard concerned film, politics, european history, philosophy, local history, economics, misconceptions, propaganda, and that’s just a partial list of what I was able to understand since a good deal of the chatter was in German. Goat stew, roast pork, spaetzle, cabbage, beets, roasted cauliflower, ample beer and wine, a table set for 20, the kind of beautiful dinner that can only be accomplished by the offerings of random and uniquely talented guests.While we enjoyed each other’s company I began to feel the artwork exert its influence. And to me the conversations seem to grow more focused as the subjects gain clarity. Or perhaps I had simply fallen into the striking context of the art.
Wiest is the type of artist that occupies the wild periphery of domestic culture. Self sufficient in every way, Wiest carves his path into our visual arena with an intensity that seems drawn from some deep elemental force. Facing these works requires an act of affirmation. Confronting them without this commitment would be a tragic error. The viewer will have avoided the messages in this work and be the poorer for it. In all of these works most prominent is the strange viscous black pigment applied masterfully in numerous ways to collaged pieces of white translucent paper, They create an architectural assembly of images within landscapes which are populated with distorted figures and a collection of marks and gestures the origins of which seem to reside within those same elemental forces that propel and reinforce these pieces. Perhaps the images are the vulcanized remains or the brilliant birth of a unique alternative visual energy, one that sometimes haunts and sometimes coddles our sensations. And like most really great art these works embrace us in a physical relationship to their space. and suggest a subtle invasion of our own personal space.
The press release for Gregor Wiest New Work, printed below with the permission of the gallery, makes extravagant claims for these month old objects and reading the self admitted hyperbole one might be misled as a viewer fresh to his work. If we choose to join this immersion what can we expect? Is it real? And can we choose not to be changed, by the obvious magnetic charms of art so compelling and challenging? Obviously the outcome is completely dependent on the individual. Prejudice frequently overwhelms our receptivity to unique experience, and we decide not to decide and so limit our thought to the comfortable confines of the lived and known. As a result we limit also the scope of our lives and retard the development of our understanding new concepts and gaining new experience. Gregor Wiest exclaims (I think eloquently): “Open your eyes to his, yours, our, soul! Let vision stoke the hearth and heart”. A promise of new worlds awaits everyone who is willing.
The Wall Gallery is supported through the sale of art and the generous contributions of time and money of it’s founders. They seem constantly scrambling to raise additional funds for advertising and publications. This is where you come in: The purchase prices of these remarkable works are stunningly low. And if you or your keepers have a sense of decency or fair play, or any inclination to support the living culture around you, and wish to improve your domestic arrangements or otherwise can spare some discretionary income you should spend it here and spend it now.
Please note: Another rare opportunity to witness Gregor Wiest pyramid of human cognition AKA “New Work” will be on the evening of June 17th to mark the closing days of this continent-shifting landslide of culture.
Hyperbole pales when finding words to describe what you will see. Come.
Artist in Residence at The Wall Gallery
Don’t let Disney and Amazon steal from you the real magic that flows from the art of Gregor Wiest! Hyperbole is a familiar and favorite means of communication for us. We find its (un)critical structure essential to discovery of the overlooked aspects of our visual sense, that acuity which is lustful and primarily unfulfilled. Gregor Wiest ‘s works change our perception of these too-evident values. His strategy is nuclear, essential, uncompromised. The results are the volcanic remains of the last and most recent attempt to make sense in a senseless world.
Scott Pfaffman
Curator at Large
The Wall Gallery
www.wallgallerybrooklyn.net
