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 Eye Exam Rolling Rowley
"I really enjoy work that I find difficult to understand or engage or
place historically," art dealer Rowley Kennerk says. He is drawn toward
ambiguous art, but Kennerk has no uncertainty about his role as a young
gallerist. His eponymous gallery is "first and foremost a business."
Of course, he means that "in the good sense of the word
business," in that many artists find it awkward or complicated
to court collectors and viewers, which is where Kennerk comes into play.
He seems to have the natural charm, agility and motivation necessary to
act as both the meeting ground between artists and buyers, and as a
progressive voice for his generation. In the business of the art world,
building strong relationships is just as important as having a smart eye
for smart art.
Kennerk's gallery is currently passing its six-month mark in
existence. As the new kid on the block of Peoria Street, Chicago's
real-estate ground-zero for contemporary art galleries, Kennerk must
contend with such legendary heavyweights as Rhona Hoffman Gallery and
Donald Young Gallery. While Hoffman is celebrating her thirtieth year in
Chicago, the legacy of the work that she has supported continues to
succeed beyond bounds. In fact, conceptual art is flourishing, tagged
with the prefix neo, and is being carried into this century by newcomers
such as Kennerk. Currently at Rhona Hoffman, a geometric sculpture by
conceptual-art pioneer Sol LeWitt represents the staying power of
idea-based art, and as it is composed of building blocks stacked in a
gentle upward thrust (reminiscent of the Sears Tower), it reminds us
that chronic lust for "the new" often succeeds by pushing off from the
shoulders of the giantess.
Kennerk does not own LeWitt's sculpture, but what LeWitt codified
exceeds the structure of formal or expressive art; it is a prescription
for a moral life. Or, in LeWitt's words, "Ideas can be works of art."
Idea art does not become dated in the way that Op art or even Pop art
from the same period yellows--conceptualism is the product of an
international cosmopolitanism. Rowley Kennerk's programming is turning
out to be like this sculpture, or perhaps like a Mies van der Rohe
building--it is both assertive and supportive of the new canon of art.
If both art and life can be stylized, then Kennerk is International
Modernism, which was (and continues to be) such a powerful code for
living because it could exist anywhere in the world without appearing
out of context, untranslated from one locale to the next.
In much the same way, Kennerk supports art that can be carried
around the world in the global market without suffering from jet lag.
Currently, the gallery is exhibiting a film in a two-part installation
by German artist David Lieske. Lieske's film draws references from the
Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, the lighting designers Howard
Harrison and Ingo Maurer and rocker Patti Smith. While these references
are varied, the connections between the subjects, once grasped, are
illuminating, so to speak. In fact, Lieske is, here, most interested in
exploring the relationships between physical light (such as from a bulb)
and representations of illumination. As Lieske's film progressed, it
slowly turned into pure white light, thus illuminating the darkened
gallery and revealing several hidden silkscreen prints of light fixtures
by Maurer. This month, in the second part of the exhibit, the film has
been re-installed on a pedestal, cased within its 16mm metal container,
propped against Plexiglass and displayed alongside two photographs. The
relationship between the various objects and the reflections within the
Plexi and the glass covering the photographs is perhaps more of the
artwork than the actual "alternate installation" of the film. Again,
this highlights Kennerk's tendency for supporting artists who have a
total vision of cosmopolitanism. Idea-junkies and culture-aficionados
would be hard pressed to dislike such art.
Neo-conceptualism, drawing from Sol LeWitt's design, and which grew
exponentially in Chicago in the 1980s and 1990s with such artists as
Jeanne Dunning, Gary Justis and Richard Rezac, is not Chicago-bound; it
connects a network of worldwide intellectual practices. Similarly,
Rowley Kennerk, who was born, raised and educated in the Midwest (from
Indiana to Michigan to Chicago), is working independently of the
hard-nosed Chicago style. Instead, he seeks to bring new ideas and
artists to Chicago viewers. Some art in the gallery's short exhibit
history directly references 1960s culture and the breakdown of
absolutism, such as works by Richard Prince and Sam Durant. Others, such
as David Liekse and Florian Morlat's works (who Kennerk will show later
this year), press on the barriers of history in favor of an openness to
the universal. By introducing the work of these "significant emerging"
artists to Chicago audiences, Kennerk hopes that we will be as
challenged as he is, and that our taste for uncertainty, as well as the
uncertain future, will be edified. Rowley Kennerk Gallery is located at 119 North Peoria,
(773)983-0077.
Also by Jason Foumberg Portrait of the Gallerist
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