NOTE MAY 12 2020:
From when I discovered the NYC art scene and began to cover it, I noticed the Pagan themes of the Witch, Goddess, and also the hermaphroditic man, which I identified as Dionysian. But it could also be said that the Hecate (witch), is also Kali, and that Dionysus is the Shadow of Christ, the Devil. But, on the deepest level, it’s apparent that the European-Western Schizoid psyche has driven artists to an insane desire to “uncover” the ancient archetypes, the primitive scenes, and, oftentimes, the instinctual body.
The consequences of this lack of moral responsibility receded, and it seemed that the West had fallen into a great spiritual despair. I walked into Downtown Manhattan during that fin de siècle, and knew that a larger storm was brewing.
Begin:
An ethereal boy, with bones of air, moves through the evaporating mist after a monsoon that swept through Manhattan on the evening of September 6, 2019. Red light glows from 22 Ludlow St. — is this a mirage? No, this is Alberto H. Arsenberg’s debut solo show in NYC, “Your Kind of Person.”
Temporary pop-up, 22 Ludlow St., NYC. September 6 - 19, 2019. Arsenberg online: @aharaw (instagram)
I.
A man with a dark leather jacket and two serpents on his neck parts — and beyond the threshold of the door, from behind a bar, where Yerba Maté rests on fairy moss, the bartender (whose descended from old American lumberjacks), pours a taste for the boy, whose excitement jingles.
Into the gallery, a mellow crowd circles around psychedelic paintings, as Dionysus, Orpheus and Apollo, themselves, seem to be pattering on the drums, spitting through a saxophone and languidly strumming a jazz guitar.
It is the fool’s notion; the shaman’s nightmare; the psychopomp’s terrific vision:
Large paintings sloshed with heavy acrylic paint, invariably scribbled and scratched-up, stack along the left and center walls.
II.
Alberto H. Arsenberg has an innate ability to see art’s function. This is so evident, that without an artist’s statement, it is clear that Arsenberg perceives art as a dynamic mechanism within culture. Within this concept of art, “the artist” is linked to a formula of “expression and scene as a way of life.”
Debuting this year, Arsenberg’s initial statements display his understanding that painting is something that should be done spontaneously, freely — it is an activity of the artist, a part of their overall mode of living.
Every detail of his gallery presentation imbues a sense of specialness — of this particular event. This happening is a part of his own aesthetic mode of living, and our collective art conversation. In this way, he understands what an artist’s role really is.
III.
In many of the canvases (which photograph for insta remarkably well) Arsenberg appears not to be in dialogue with the tradition of painting. This tact opposes the majority of erudite LES shows. Rather than engaging with formal aesthetic ideas, Arsenberg appears to be committed to documenting psychic states — the reality of the psychedelic unconscious. This venture, a certain undertaking of its own accord.
That being said, of the large canvases, two of the works — respectively titled, “Eyesight KD” and “Birdo (Self-Portrait)” — seem to refer more-so to “painting” as a tradition. And so I’m interested to see if Berto (or, I mean, Alberto H. Arsenberg) will continue in this direction.
IV.
Installation, “Dance Party USA,” jacquard weaving, poly-cotton, 60 x 60 inches, 2013. Sarah Wertzberger. Photographed by myself at HOLDING Contemporary exhibiting at VACATION, 24A Orchard St, NYC.
On my way out. And just down the street, a fresh find (from a temporary pop-up by Portland-based gallery, HOLDING Contemporary):
Sarah Wertzberger exalts pagan revivalism in a richly colored tapestry titled, “Dance Party USA.” This, possibly, reflective of a larger cultural experience: as our political life is being torn apart, it also seems that certain cultural silos are becoming increasingly polymorphous, expressive and free — and in that way ever so pagan.
IV.
“Dionysus is the abyss of impassioned dissolution,
Where all human distinctions are merged in the animal
Divinity of the primordial psyche – a blissful and
Terrible experience.”
James Hillman, “Mythic-Figures,” par. 37