James Siena at Gorney Bravin + Lee - New York - art exhibition - Brief Article

James Siena showed 12 modest-size oil-on-aluminum patterned paintings in the gallery's large main room and, in the tiny project space, 39 drawings on pages torn from a small notebook (one painting was dated 1999; everything else was from 2000 and 2001). The drawings were presumably studies--they employed the same motifs or sequences as the paintings in less elaborate treatments of colored pencils or graphite--but their combination of regularized invention, varied colors and tactile material made them just as compelling as the larger works. Siena's treatments range from single motifs--such as a large spiral, radiating lines or coiffure-like waves--to multiplied tiny ones; often the overall organization is irregular or warped, but in every instance he repetitively applies a structural or spatial principle.

The paintings were set out at considerable distances, which led you to read them first from afar. Siena's characteristic angular outlines and patches of light and dark carry well over a distance. But the details are even better. He seems to take off from half-conscious, space filling doodling and appears to draw on the somewhat systematized patterns of quilting (only "somewhat" because he leans toward the more ragged schemes, such as "drunkard's path" and crazy quilting), and on various tribal traditions including the boxes-inside-boxes of Northwest Coast art. As the detail and complexity pull you closer, you see that the paintings are as handmade and imperfect as the drawings, despite their harder, cooler surfaces.

The middle of the painting Nighthouse (2001) is occupied by a blue grid of unequal-size blocks. Each box is divided into four, and then four again, with concentric boxes within these last; the colors change from purple to multiple greens. The grid elements stretch into rectangles at the work's edges, and the blue grid lines bend and seem to slide into the corners of the canvas.

Some works are called "combs," but these are as warped or altered as the grids--merely sets of parallel lines with a perpendicular spine running down one end. The teeth may be shown vertically or horizontally, and they often mesh with the teeth of a different-colored comb. Works called "folded loops" resemble meanders or mazes, with every line bending back on itself. Other named motifs include "connected hooks," "lattices" and "recursive bivalves." Some works recall Celtic knots or Louis Sullivan ornament.

A series of statements by the artist in the back of the small catalogue accompanying the show reveal that the patterns result from set procedures. Siena's task-oriented process recalls Sol LeWitt's, but it also reflects the systematized nature of any pattern production. Robert Hobbs, in an essay for the catalogue, claims that Siena's work is really related to computer programming and artificial intelligence, and that similarities to traditional patterns are incidental. That's hardly the case. Siena is illustrating how all these things are linked, old or new, hand or machine.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group