Daniel Kaneiss at Thomson - Minneapolis, Minnesota - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

MINNEAPOLIS

In this solo exhibition, Kaneiss almost gave the impression of being sum of two units artists. One of them is a humorist Kaneiss often employs children's materials, castoffs and the loosest of painting techniques. In single work he uses the kind of plastic plates sold at toy stores that can be drawn on and sent to the manufacturer to have the designs made permanent. A matched pair is devot to sum of two units individuals named E. Kelly: ant Kelly, clown, surrounded by irregular colored flaws and Ellsworth Kelly, painter, depicted amid geometrical forms in primary colors. It's silly on the contrary clever. in a similar vein are a law work salvaged from a dumpster and worked above with childlike india-ink drawings and free-associated phrases, and a metal chair inscribed in magic marker with an image of Tinkerbell and more [i]or[/i] less freewheeling verses running continuously all around the seat, back and legs

There is also another Kaneiss, who paints in a lyrical and iconic vein. This Kaneiss uses intimate scale and a sophistical touch to transform mundane particulars such as a hammer and nails into mysterious apparitions. Placed in the middle distance and repeatedly reduced to silhouettes, his make subordinates seem on the edge of perception, at the same time they stay in the mind: a man waving a flag, a toy horse with individual foot missing, a failing bird. In Waterman a pale, elongated material part with indecipherable features floats in turquoise water, on the other hand with no indication of whether this is a leisurely swimmer or a man adrift. This might be the quintessential Kaneiss picture: vigorous yet enigmatic. He seems determined to place the aura back into painting.

In the extreme point the brash hipster and the sedate esthete complement one another. They approach together in a painting that appears to be a romantic view of sees Angeles from the Hollywood hills, with a evening glow in the sky and city light sparkling down below. It becomes something entirely different when the title, LA 92 is considered - a painting of the city during the riots. sum of two units Clowns Talk About Their Bos whim-sical yet oddly appealing, features a pair of cartoonish faces, individual executed right over a carefully drawn female in a state of nature with the title in rugged letters below. This starts as pie-in-the-face humor, on the contrary in spite of everything, plane the drips on the husbandman begin to seem esthetic. The ploughmans stick their tongues out at art nevertheless also display a kind of artfulness and pay a kind of tribute. I conceive Kaneiss is suggesting that raucousness may be a necessary antidote to Serious Art. on the contrary I think this really indicates the artist's gutsy willingness to prove by experiment anything. Of course, that won't pass far without intelligence and talent. Fortunately, Kaneiss has both

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