Africano: Falling in Love With Romantic Love

Illinois artist Nicholas Africano was the subject of a recently closed exhibition at the lavishly endowed Lannan Foundation in Marina del Rey. It was quite a spectacular show--very big artworks in very big rooms--and it indicated Africano to be an artist whose talent is equal to his ambition. In an exhibition at Thomas Solomon’s Garage, Africano shows a body of new work that functions as a coda to the sweeping symphony he staged at the Lannan Foundation.

Comprised of seven paintings and one sculpture, the show is intensely personal and specific as to its concerns. As with Africano’s Lannan show, romantic love is the theme at hand here, however, the artist’s thoughts on the subject come across with particular clarity within the context of this small, subtle show.

Like Leonard Cohen and Ranier Maria Rilke, Africano seems to regard romantic love as a kind of holy pact, as the highest calling a human being can aspire to. To behave with character while standing at the eye of the hurricane of romantic love is, of course, enormously difficult, and Africano’s characters occupy that turbulent place with a mixture of serenity, gratitude and grief. They seem dazed and unknowing, yet ecstatic.

Depicting the gestures and touch that take place between lovers--at once intimate and awe-struck--the show could be described as a visual essay on vigilance, devotion and patience. Africano espouses quite a chaste view of love--he suggests that it’s a function of the spirit rather than the flesh--and one could dismiss his work as hopelessly solemn and self-conscious; however, his images are so persuasively lovely that you’re willing to follow where they lead.

We see crudely rendered human forms, either couples or solitary figures, adrift in a vast, atmospheric void achieved with thin washes of color. Africano creates a sequestered realm of absolute privacy for his lovers, and the only objects that appear in this silent place are fruit and tea sets, symbolizing the acts of serving and nurturing.

Loosely inspired by the Italian opera the artist listens to as he works, Africano’s art has a distinctly Italian flavor--one thinks of the art of ancient Rome, as well as recent work by Francesco Clemente. Africano’s palette--dominated by muted shades of tan, along with occasional passages of pale green or blue--sometimes seems a bit too decorative for comfort, but mostly it complements the ideas central to his work quite effectively. Those vaporous, lyrical colors, combined with Africano’s fragile, sparsely drawn forms, exist in the mind’s eye like a beautiful dream.

The show also marks the unveiling of Thomas Solomon’s new gallery. For the past two years Solomon has been operating out of a garage on an alley in the Fairfax district, where he presented quirky little shows of small works by an intriguing roster of artists. With this slick space Solomon goes legit; this handsome inaugural exhibition bodes well for the future of the gallery.

Thomas Solomon’s Garage: 928 N. Fairfax Ave., Hollywood; to June 16; (213) 654-4731. Closed Mondays.

Body and Soul: For his debut L.A. exhibition at the Stuart Regan Gallery in Beverly Hills, New York artist Matthew Barney presents a rivetingly weird piece--a hybrid of sculpture, performance, and body art--that explores the transformation of the body as a metaphor for deeper change.

Barney’s performance (which took place at the gallery over the weekend of May 18), revolves around a feat of endurance juxtaposed with an inquiry into gender, and the exhibited video of his piece may strike some as deeply disturbing. Nonetheless, this young artist (Barney is just 24), has elicited an enthusiastic response from the critical community and he’s already placed works in the permanent collections of several museums.

Combining objects related to sports (football equipment, barbells) with materials charged with sexual significance (petroleum jelly, bondage belts), Barney draws a parallel between the theme of dominance and submission and professional sports. The world of athletics is a cult of the body where flesh is perceived as having metaphysical properties, and it’s also a realm where gender stereotyping is rigidly enforced. Barney’s out to subvert all of that, while simultaneously paying obeisance to the discipline and drive central to athletic excellence. The piece is essentially an extended meditation on human will.

Barney’s influences are easy to peg; Joseph Beuys, Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman and Chris Burden all passed this way before, leaving formidably brilliant artworks that exploited the body as an arena for feats of endurance and transcendence. Barney’s piece is squarely in this tradition.

The show includes the aforementioned video, along with related objects that include an exercise bench sculpted out of petroleum jelly that is housed in a large cooling chamber that prevents it from melting. Embedded in the slimy bench are steroids and a speculum. Among other items on view: a petroleum jelly barbell, a football jersey, mouthguards, foam pads, a blocking sled, a rubber exercise mat, a wedge sculpted out of sugar, and a photograph of Barney’s favorite football player, Jim Otto.

Barney’s materials (prosthetic plastic, petroleum jelly, industrial rubber, organic substances) are charged with a disturbing sexuality, and, as in work by Nayland Blake, there’s a cold, clinical cruelty to this piece. At the same time, it has great tenderness. In approaching the confrontation of his own body as an aesthetic act--and in his violation of gender codes--Barney draws our attention to the complex and fragile interplay between spirit and flesh.

Stuart Regan Gallery: 619 N. Almont Drive, Beverly Hills; to June 22; (213) 276-5424. Closed Sundays and Mondays.