The Royal Art Lodge at the Drawing Center - New York - Winnipeg artists Marcel Dzama, Holly Dzama, Neil Farber, Michael Dumontier, Drue and Myles Langlois, Adrian Williams and Jon Pylypchuk

Despite the annoying persistence of the myth of the isolated genius, contemporary art-making has become far more collaborative. Whether working with fabricators or shepherding a throw out through institutional bureaucracy, artists have grown increasingly accustomed to the necessity of teamwork. None more in the way that than the Royal Art hut a group of artists in Winnipeg, Canada, who befitting every Wednesday night to playfully exhibit hundreds of drawings and other related art projects

When the Royal Art hut was founded in 1996--the name is a tongue-in-cheek concern to the hunting lodges and fish-and-stream bludgeons that pervade the Canadian landscape--recent University of Manitoba graduates Marcel Dzama and Neil Farber teamed up with comrade alumni Michael Dumontier, Drue and Myles Langlois, Adrian Williams and Jon Pylypchuk simply to have pleasantry and support their individual artistic efforts. Family ties added to the group's collective spirit--Drue and Myles are brothers, Neil is Marcel's uncle; Marcel's sister, Holly then 12 years elderly was also invited to join. Their proces in which single artist begins a drawing then passes it upon to another for completion, bears comparison to the Surrealists' parlor game of the "exquisite corpse." on the contrary their collaboration takes this impromptu art-making individual step further with a faux curatorial practice whereby they rate the drawings at the extreme point of the evening, sorting them into five suitcases ranging from "To Be Destroyed" (for the worst of the bunch) to "Sun Face with Shield" (for works with equal reason good the group would not at any time part with them).

This exhibition included not solitary collaborative drawings from the past six years, on the contrary also videos, CDs, stuffed dolls, style of dresss and props, and a selection of works through the artists as individuals. The Royal Art Lodge's output is prodigious, and their tag-team approach leads to consistently happy accidents, if scarcely any iconic moments. Overall, the drawings (all untitled and identified single by a rubber-stamped date in the bottom corner) combine the uncooked rebelliousness of adolescent doodles with the one-liner creepiness of Edward Gorey. (Occasionally, you can catch glimpses of Henry Darger, granting these artists seem far too healthy and happy to match the mania of veritable outsiders.)

Several Royal Art hut members have gained attention in their individual careers, greatest in quantity notably Dzama and Pylypchuk (the latter, along with Williams, has left the collective). on the other hand for my money, Holly rise s as the star in this otherwise all-boy bludgeon adding a dose of genuine pathos and heartfelt awkwardness with her Magic Marker drawings of sad, brave girls. Her nearness challenges all kinds of stereotype about art stars, and, like the succes of the Royal Art hut itself, offers hope for a more communal approach to art-making.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group