You never know what John McEnroe will do next. Taking a cue from another art-world rebel, Damien Hirst, he has turned his attention to painting in a solo exhibition of 14 works continuing through June 25 at the Plus Gallery.
Unlike Hirst’s recently ended show at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, which drew a barrage of brickbats, McEnroe – no relation to the tennis player – has not retreated to traditional paint on canvas but is trying something more adventurous and interesting.
McEnroe has delved into what might best be described as painting as sculpture, picking up in many ways where noted artist Lynda Benglis left off.
In the late 1960s, Benglis poured pigmented latex and polyurethane foam onto the floor, creating blobby puddles of color that look like melting ice cream, as one critic aptly put it. The flatness of the early works gave way to increasingly sculptural pieces.
McEnroe is doing much the same thing, but has added an innovative twist. He too uses poured pigmented latex; but he has created a process in which he essentially peels up the resulting thick, flat and pliable piece and hangs it. The result is a kind of wall sculpture.
A basic example is “Mode,” an irregularly shaped composition consisting of circles in different sizes and colors that look like they have fused together, sometimes slightly overlapping each other.
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5. Gallery panoramic view |
He adds complexity to these works, which get as large as 71 by 78 inches, by incorporating other painting techniques, as he does in “Maiden Rocks,” with its handsomely cracked and fissured surface, or adding various found objects.
In “Circus Leviticus,” the top level of paint looks like it was applied with a notched tile trowel. Also adorning this exuberant piece are such objects as a tiny tire tube and a group of colorful, plastic toy balls that have been slightly melted together.
In even more of a Robert Rauschenberg-assemblage vein is “Accent Base.” This includes a round sort of palette created of melted plastic in a spectrum of colors, as well as a hanging coil of rope and an empty can of latex paint.
Rounding out the show are a series of six sculptures created by melting together plastic toys, everything from figures in “Power Rangers” to blocks in “Towers.”
Although not as compelling or original, these pieces relate to the literal melting employed in parts of the painting sculptures, as well as the melted look frequently achieved in them.
This new body of work, particularly the poured-latex pieces, might seem at first to be far different than what he has done before – particularly his three recently installed large-scale sculptures at the Colorado Convention Center.
Those 16-foot-tall creations and some similar smaller-scale earlier works were inspired by those flat, parts-bearing plastic frameworks found in model-car kits.
What ties together McEnroe’s new and older output is his constant experimentation with sometimes unexpected materials of all kinds – from linoleum to poured latex paint – and his inexhaustible fascination with found objects.
An important force in the Denver art scene for nearly a decade, McEnroe gained a big boost in recognition with his highly visible works at the convention center.
This latest exhibition offers a welcome opportunity to see the newest directions in his work.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
“Upshot”
THROUGH JUNE 25|Solo exhibition of multimedia works by John McEnroe|Plus Gallery, 2350 Lawrence St.|Free|Noon-6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays (303-296-0927 or plusgallery.com)
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OPENING THIS WEEK
“FIVE PRESSES” Works by 75 artists from around the world will be featured in this exhibition showcasing original prints published by five of this country’s top presses, including Shark’s Ink in Lyons. It opens with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd. 720-898-7200.
“5 PROMINENT GALLERIES” Five is the number for this show. Five of the area’s top galleries present works by five of their top artists in this exhibition at the Emmanuel Gallery on the Auraria campus. A reception from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday kicks off the show. 303-556-8337.
“AMANDA MARIE” Marie uses handmade stencils to give her narrative paintings a graphic, streetwise quality. This emerging artist has been featured in previous group shows, but her first solo exhibition at the Andenken Gallery, 2110 Market St., begins with a reception from 7 to 11 p.m. tonight. 303-292-3281.
-Kyle MacMillan
