Asleep on the black trunk,
Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year’s horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.
–James Wright
Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm
in Pine Island, Minnesota
The second heat wave of the summer subsides in Europe. Suspected terrorist attack at a funeral in Nigeria kills at least 65 people. Newly elected Boris Johnson in the UK triples down for Brexit even with the threat of no-deal. In the U.S., the House of Representatives and the President exchange blows around race as the country goes about its way with another mass shooting in California. Puerto Rico gears up to replace Ricardo Rossello stepping down after scandals as the Caribbean faces further tropical climate disturbances. Welcome to the .099th edition of Prescriptions. Here is our review of the week in the arts.
Lubaina Himid
Lubaina Himid: Work From Underneath
With larger historical narratives often as a driving force, Lubaina Himid’s works critique the consequences of colonialism and question the invisibility of people of color in the arts and the media. Through October 6, 2019 at New Museum, New York.
Akos Ezer
Akos Ezer / Abstract Hungary
With these figures seemingly distorted by strange movements Akos Ezer powerfully speaks of the foundering, the clumsiness, and the fallibility of the individual and of society as a whole. At Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst & Medien through September 5, 2019.
Eric Fischl
Eric Fischl
Eric Fischl produces images of American society as seen through the lens of middle and upper class malaise, where figures routinely share space on his canvases, trapped in the midst of strained exchanges. On view through August 30 2019 at Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles.
Hellen van Meene
The Bird in Borrowed Feathers
Echoing traditional Dutch paintings, Hellen van Meene’s photography find glimpses into intimate inner worlds and bring their fragility to light in ways that are sometimes surreal and unsettling. At James Freeman Gallery through August 3, 2019.
Graham Little
Graham Little
We arrive in the midst of things, pick up clues, try and put something together. That something exists in the eternal present of the painting, a present that unravels in time. –Martin Herbert. Graham Little, just closed (July 27, 2019) at Alison Jacques Gallery, London.
Edoardo Caimi
B.L.I.S.S.
Focusing on the contrast between the modern and the primitive, the technological and the tribal, and society with nature, Edoardo Caimi creates imaginary based on the short circuit between these two worlds. Through August 3, 2019 at Gallery T293, Rome.
Karla Guerrero
PROFILES
Edoardo Caimi and his installation works B.L.I.S.S. at Gallery T293 in Rome; Lubaina Himid’s critique of the consequences of colonialism and the invisibility of people of color in Work from Underneath at New Museum, New York; Graham Little who just closed his exhibition at Alison Jacques Gallery, London; Karla Guerrero, photographer from Mexico City exploring themes of transience and absence; Eric Fischl’s exhibition of paintings depicting American society malaise at Sprüth Magers; Akos Ezer capturing foundering subjects in Abstract Hungary at Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst & Medien; and Hellen van Meene’s photography The Bird in Borrowed Feathers at James Freeman Gallery.
