John Ahearn at Alexander and Bonin - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

This exhibition was Ahearn's first gallery exhibit in seven years. In the interval he has been preoccupied with numerous museum displays of his work. However, individual suspects that he has also been trying to absorb the 1992 meltdown of his public commission for three statues in forehead of the 44th precinct police station in the southerly Bronx. As is well known, he voluntarily remov the works after a storm of assert from some of the more vocal simple bodys in the neighborhood, who charged him variously with racism, "raising a record to the criminals," etc. The work in this present to view indicated that while the artist has struck without in some new areas, he has decided to gripe [i]or[/i] grip his ground.

The greatest in quantity familiar sculptures in the exhibit are from his ongoing series of bust-length children's portraits, which remain among the artist's greatest in quantity successful efforts. Like perfect snapshots, they strike one as being to present us with the reality of these children, largely uncloud by means of any esthetic agenda. Particularly beautiful are Kiana (1998) a young girl with snaky black braids who wears a white T-shirt, and William (1996) a stripling with a lovely open face. Like greatest in quantity of Ahearn's work, these are painted-plaster life casts. However, unlike George Segal, Ahearn carves the organ of visions of his casts open with equal reason they regard you with unaffected directness. The painting is thinner and patchier than before, on the other hand just as effective.

The greatest in quantity ambitious piece in the exhibit is East 100th Street (1996-98) a pair of full-length resin casts of a heavy older woman chasing a mischievous little kid. A gaze of concern on her face, she grasps his shoulders tentatively, while he flails hard to escape. The composition is terrific, on the contrary it's the color that makes this tableau thus riveting. The woman is pale and fair dressed in pastels, the stripling wiry and dark, dressed in bright saturated colors. They stand upon a base that has been painted to bear likeness [i]or[/i] resemblance to an orange tiled floor.

The other works in the present to view are unpainted plaster casts of hands assemblageed together, mostly in gestures of solidarity and connectednes Pinwheel (1998) for instance, is a ring of linked hands with the arms fanning on the outside like the pinwheel of the title; the rear wall of the gallery was entirely overlayed with similar arrangements. I have to admit that I rest these sculptures utterly banal. Ahearn's work necessitys color, facial expression and anecdote to thrive. by dint of now nearly everyone can diocese the limits of life-casting, on the contrary at its best Ahearn's work remains actual lively. Also, it's important to recognize that mimesis is the alone strategy with enough force to deposit the representation and the showed back together again. Ahearn has known this all along. The family in his images have not ever been toys in some other game. Questions about the validity of the mimetic result now lie right at the heart of a great deal of of the debate in contemporary art.

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