Daniel Reich Gallery is pleased to present a group show entitled “Holes.” In the mid nineties, summer shows were displays of works from the gallery inventory. The preparation involved the unwrapping of a curious package in the racks, which would by chance be awarded a prime spot on the wall.

While sorting through my racks, it was easy to hit upon the idea of holes because so much artwork is dependent upon the simple mark of the circle and smudge. Oriented around the varying uses of this formal mark, the simple intent of this show came to be to highlight some interesting work that had been done in the past few years, but that I felt that perhaps not everyone had seen. Additionally it seems a time of holes: of holes in the pocket and holes in the heart. However there is also Alice in Wonderland’s Rabbit Hole through which is not merely escapist surreal, but a satirical and astute notation of the absurdity of society.

This exhibition includes a marvelous stack of shattered cups by Endre Aalrust which are lowbrow in disposition, but which serve as markers of home in some capacity. If one has a mug, even if it is kept in ones automobile, one has something homelike and the circular nature of the opening at top is of interest. Related to the mugs Sean Raspet had done a project in which he allowed his coffee mug to daily stain pieces of paper making brown circular marks, which he encased in a cube as stained circular abstractions. Futoshi Miyagi’s red yarn barbed wire fence with an escape hole was an imaginative interpretation of the wire that surrounded American military bases in Okinawa and its display at the gallery is a reminder of segregation and of fences that in marking territory tend to characterize the people outside of them.

A work by Susanne M. Winterling Isadora’s shawl is part of a revisionist look at modernism remembering a woman who was a spiritualist, an advocate of free love and an artist on her own terms. Represented here is her decapitation in a series of circles and in the debris of the signature circular scarf circled her neck. Also included by Winterling will be a suite of photographs and an abstract film from her show in Bremen never shown in New York.

Given the positive reception to Amy Gatrell’s recent ceramic and painting show, I thought it would be interesting to show her evolution to her new formalism. These art-nouveau Tiffany glass gargoyle like productions which were shown a few years ago seemed to me like works that my old boss while going through the racks would have remarked “these will look great in a year...” and so they do!

Also included in the show are works by the galleries painters Birgit Megerle, Tyson Reeder, Scott Reeder and Paul P. whose paint work can be serious in its disposition - still using mark making and washes that in the past year have seemed more and more pre-1980.

I am also screening the film “Peeping Tom“ because it involves the proverbial hole of the camera but is an early exploration of the subject. Additionally it includes a record of perversity recorded by the protagonist on film. It is also the hole of memory structured around fear, which in uncertain times seemed to fit this endeavor.

Anyway, hopefully the show is of interest and I encourage people to come and see it. I am hoping to build from this experiment in the coming fall and spring season.

(click text to view gallery)