Friends With Benefits

This selection of work originated by inviting artists represented by Lehmann Maupin gallery, the likes of Tony Oursler, Mickalene Thomas and Angel Otero, to select artists not represented by a gallery to participate in the exhibition. On the surface a kindly gesture aimed at cultivating fresh perspectives, however in practice one that resulted in a disparate exhibition that went no further than to reference the supposed connection between artist friends—ignoring the title’s implied sexual innuendo, the 2011 movie of the same name and any other possible explorations of the theme. In addition, showing work by the selected artists and not the selectors served to reinstate hierarchies between gallery artists and unrepresented “emerging” artists by creating presumptive oppositions of old vs. new, established vs. “aspiring”.

However, despite its thematic and structural pitfalls, “Friends with Benefits” included individual works that offered provocative and interesting isolated conversations. In the entry room a profile portrait collage, Heads #14 (floor plan), 2012, by Derrick Adams maps out associative perceptions to texture and material that is laden with cultural signifiers. It's a brilliant soliloquy. Entering the second room, two large patchwork color paintings hang on either side, affectionately conversing across the vast expanse of untreated wooden floor. Made entirely of vinyl sheet and colored tape, Wilfredo Ortega’s Ripples (Intervals), and Have Knots is a lyrical play of color panels pasted to the wall with ad hoc colored tape, combining a do-it-yourself approach with lively abstracts of color.

Haul is an equally compelling corner installation by Nicole Awai, comprised of a collaged sketch of twin characters conjoined at the waist and situated in a lush landscape in front of a building with the all-too-familiar word fragment “Haul” on its façade. These outlandish twin figures recall the insignia one might find on a vinyl taxi decal, and lie immersed in a sketched out black puddle that spills over the frame into a three dimensional sculpture of black tar-like resin, from which sprigs of grass and a butterfly creature emerges. Awai creates an ominous interplay between real and virtual space, fantasy and reality.

The top floor is reserved for two videos by Linda Post titled THISISMYBODYLANTOME, 2012, a documentation of a performance and LOW IMPACT (Window), 2012, a five minute rendition depicting the artist smearing a glass pane and systematically cleaning it off. The videos are interesting yet feel isolated on the barren floor that offers nothing more than Post’s processional dialogue.

Curator Carla Camacho explains the curatorial process: “Leaving it up to our New York artists to reach out to their friends for participation, our role was to present the venue and curate the works.” This meant that an element of chance informed the selection of artists and influenced which work was brought together—which could have led to an adventurous exhibition. Yet “Friends with Benefits” appears disparate and disconnected, and the individual pieces that enter into inspired conversations do not − regrettably − transcend their random selection. Sometimes chance leads to happy accidents; unfortunately, “Friends with Benefits” does not.