L'ATELIER
ROBERT COANE
- THE CARAMEL AWARD -
"Artistic standards were abandoned, the comfortable cult of the
mediocre prevailed,
and presentation became confused with substance."
- J. D. Landis in Longing
APRIL 2002
 DAY |
NYFew
|
 BIALOS |
a toast - on the occasion of their first and, hopefully, last anniversary
- chearie-o-o-o-o!
|
NEW
YORK FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIVE WORKS Comprised of Lawrence Day, Jake Bialos and Georgia transplant Michael Tice, this bizarre collective portends to represent the resurgent figurative trends in New York's artistic milieu. Excessive in pretense, nil in substance. They have just closed at vanity venue Nexus Art ( in its last gasp ... closing shop after three more shows this Spring ) where, to the tune of close to $1000 for their back room lodging and dwindling attendance, they managed to sing their song. Next tryst for this triumvirate of the figure: Boston's French Library and Cultural Center, thanks to Mr. Day's mother, who was Honorary Consul of the Principality of Monaco in Boston until December 2001. How this dyslexic duo-plus-one has managed to survive for an entire year is a credit only to gall and chutzpah, wangling and finagling. www.NYFew.com, born to much hoopla, has failed in that year to attract a single new member (other than Mr. Tice) or even a single link. In effect, they lost two artists they had adding new meaning to "sorry site" (sic.). Not only did Mr. Day not bother to update his site from 10 October 2001 to 17 January 2002, but, when he did, he did so by copying and pasting "Bob's Picks" from this site shamelessly and in it's entirety. No pretense there! He never even bothered fixing the bottomless pit left on his Home Page by the sudden departure of Croatian-born Nevio Carcich in early January. Until aproximately 20 March, the black hole was still there! No matter there is no expertise, no connection, no content, no contacts, no market knowledge, 'webmeister' Day's stated ambition is to "control the figurative art world". So he goes about scavenging the internet for whatever he can grab and copy from others in the way of material content and ideas and dredging site after site for e-mail addresses to spam. At this Mr. Day, webmaster to Penthouse Magazine where he undoubtedly got his only "figurative" training, is a talent unto himself. Computer geek playing fine artist, LAWRENCE DAY's fecal trickles betray an unqualified lack in the most basic concepts of both draftsmanship and painting. So he goes "experimental", which would be fine indeed if he had any clue of what he was doing. But "theoretizing" is simply all he's capable of doing. For all his bluster and all his blather, the man wouldn't know a brush from a chicken feather. Mr. Day is, however, adroit at hyperbole and in the art of regurgitating parrot-like anything he hears as if it were his own to cover his myriad and very real deficiencies. MICHAEL TICE, an office assistant at NYU School of Law and fellow poseur, straddles a wide devide between comic book kitsch and fine angst. Well he belongs in Exit Art -- that shrine to the incompetent and inept; cradle to the angst-ridden, vacuous, self-inflicted and self-oppressed; home to the primitive / sauvage / naïf / self-taught / artistically challenged or whatever euphemism they may be hiding their inadequacies behind these days -- where he played to the disaffected just this March in tandem to Nexxus. Rest assured Bill Traylor, Horace Pippin,Grandma Moses this is not. Then, a BFA from the University of South Carolina makes him not naïf at all, just a lousy draftsman. This must certainly be the apex of Mr. Tice's career. Shows at Nexus and Exit...EXIT PLEASE...! Enough said
POST SCRIPT On 9 March 2002 Michael Tice wrote
my Department Chair at Parsons: Comment: To Me: Our
Reply: *
* * Our Reply
to the Service Provider: Response
from our Service Provider: Michael Tice's E-mailed Comments
on his CARAMEL AWARD: ...and the saga continues
Assuming the boat I "missed" refers to the show the invitation is for, the one Lawrence Day's mother procured at Boston's French Library, these two replies followed. First
Then
To which Mr. Tice brilliantly responded: Subject: Re: Anchors Aweigh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought it rather clever of me... Final Comment: |
The
one exception in this incoherent ménage-à-trois
might be JAKE BIALOS, whose facile
line and expert watercolor application truly delight. His witty,
whimsical narratives, populated with marvelously exaggerated
elf-like characters, are reminiscent of the very best in fairy-painting
and in the tradition of Hirschfeld and Honoré
Daumier. Mr. Bialos has the ability to turn the most common
academic studio situation into a winding, intriguing tale. Witness
what a little literacy, a good dose of innate talent, some training
and a large measure of imagination can achieve! He should trade
the suit and tie of the salesman he is for the pen and brush
of the fine art illustrator. He alone is worth a visit to 
"Nor wonder how I lost my wits;
Oh! Celia, Celia, Celia shits!"
- Jonathan Swift
|
|
"YOU
HAVE THE NERVE TO DRESS UP A TURD AND CALL IT A CARAMEL" ...is the inspiration for our less than inspiring monthly award. Here we do NOT discriminate. There are no sacred cows. High and low beware! Our CARAMEL statuette is derived from the traditional cagané figure or 'shitter' from the northeastern Spanish region of Cataluña where no manger scene can be found without one. It's attributes are far more prosaic here. |
back to the top
The criteria, views and opinions expressed in the CARAMEL AWARD are exclussively those of Robert Coane who is solely responsible for its
content and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of the other participants in www.Atelier-RC.com or of the members of L'Atelier.
|
>
|
ROBERT COANE © All rights reserved