S, M, L

Group exhibition A multi-media exhibition that examines artists' use of text and language in their work in varying scales and to different effect. Artists included: Mel Bochner, Chris Caccamise, Dana Frankfort, Matthew Keegan, Christian Marclay, Ed Ruscha, Alexis Smith, Valeska Soares, Lawrence Weiner, and Christopher Wool

Greenberg Van Doren Gallery is pleased to present S M L, on view from October 28 – December 23, 2010. This is an exhibition of works by a cross-generational group of artists all of whom use text and language in various medium and scale. The artists included are: Mel Bochner, Chris Caccamise, Dana Frankfort, Matt Keegan, Christian Marclay, Ed Ruscha, Alexis Smith, Valeska Soares, Lawrence Weiner, and Christopher Wool.Christian Marclay and Ed Ruscha are represented by works that mine the area of onomatopoetic words. In Ruscha’s Exhibition of Crooners, 1985, a series of the letter “s” lights up the width of the midnight blue/black ground while Marclay’s Whomp, 2006, (and other words) are overlaid on scenes of destruction. Christopher Wool in his word painting from 1992, And if you, employs stark black capital letters on white ground to deliver an industrial strength directive to the viewer. Lawrence Weiner, represented by Aphorism-Archimedes, 2007, uses text that is strangely similar in style to Wool but with a softer, more lyrical message. Mel Bochner and Dana Frankfort use the painted word meshed into gestural abstraction but to different effect. Alexis Smith employs text that is printed onto a poster announcing a movie released in Japan with the image of a city sinking into the sea. Real objects that are primordial or in a state of decay pepper the surface as we contemplate their collision with the verbal elements. Valeska Soares presents Disclaimer, 2010, a collection of pages, each mounted in an antique frame, taken from books in which the author discounts any similarity to reality.