By Piri Halasz, June 16, 2010, TWO EXTREMES; THREE OTHER PRETTY SHOWS
...We have mdh fine arts, a pocket-sized gallery located at 233 West 19th Street, down the block from where Marlborough Chelsea used to be.
Its proprietor, Michael Henry, doesn’t trouble himself with explications. His modest announcement for “Pick 6,” an exhibition offered in conjunction with the gallerist Corinne Robbins, says only that it is “A collaborative show featuring the work of Jeffrey Bye, James O. Clark, Risa Glickman, Michael Henry, Michael Miller, Gabriella Mlynarczyk, John-Paul Philippe, Rachel Press, Corinne Robbins, Donna Senger, Jimmy Shack and Ann Walsh” (through June 19, though individual pieces may remain on view longer).
Actually, after the invite was printed, the artist Kenneth Hayden came in with his provocative little paintings of birds, and Henry was so taken with them that he omitted his own work from the show in order to include Hayden’s.
No work in this show appears to rely on “chance,” or be more significant for its manner of creation than its results. On the contrary, it is all straightforward and well-crafted painting, sculpture, works on paper and ceramics (with materials & methods ranging from very traditional to very up-to-date, and all created within the past few years). No artwork is large; everything is small (though needless to say, there are degrees of smallness).
I particularly liked Bye’s sensitive oil painting entitled “FDR,” with its aerial view of small cars trundling alongside the East River and skyscrapers in the background, ceramic bowls by Press, ceramic cubes by Shack, mixed-media constructions by Clark, and the four handsome & good-sized tree studies by Glickman, made with pastel, acrylic, and charcoal on paper.
However, the star of the show is Walsh, whose brightly colored blocks & free-standing panels, made of vinyl and cast acrylic, are among the smallest works on view, but stand out for their especial verve and vigor. The display in the window facing the street is a still life that easily surpasses anything by Morandi and approaches Cézanne in perfection — a particularly delightful combination of shapes, colors & textures. A white block stands next to a slender vase of white gladioli on their pale green stalks. Atop the white block stands Walsh’s “Button,” a rectilinear, three-dimensional shape measuring only 8” x 7” x 5.5” and combining a mostly-electric-blue surface with one upper corner of the hottest pink in town.
