meager photo show

:: EXHIBITION REVIEW ::
Louise Lawler/Cindy Sherman
Studio Guenzani ; Milano, IT

This was one of the first openings I went to in Milan, on 31 May 2007. This gallery alone cannot sum up the contemporary art scene in Milan, yet it did not make ways for a good impression. I call this show the "meager photo show" because there were only 7 works in the whole exhibition dedicated to these two artists. I was expecting a larger gallery with a wider collection of photographs, so this, of course, completely took me by surprise. Sometimes, one must realize that less can certainly be more....

About the Artists: Louise Lawler was born in 1947 in Bronxville, NY; Cindy Sherman ( New York ). was born in 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. Both artists live and work in New York, NY. Since 1988, both artists ingurated a collaboration with Studio Guenzani.

Lawler and Sherman were two revolutionary artists that used photography as a method of expression in the late 70s and the 80s. Both are creative genuises: while Lawler underlines the influence of our perception of artistic objects (ie. paintings, sculptures, furniture, etc.) in her photographic ouevre, Sherman focuses primarily on contemporary iconography, and in the 80s and 90s focused on the representation on the stereotypical female by dressing up as those characters (housewife, model, clown, etc.) as well as violent scenes in our society that might appear to be grosteque and violent -- but yet, are blatantly honest.

This show, although small and meager in size, shines in that it provides a glimpse into the diverse photographs of these two American contemporary artists, who continue to transfigure the proper image and disperses the proper subject in a million different reflexes which in the end, represents a body of work that is stronger and more evident -- to communicate a message to the masses. Indeed art that does more than sit on its ass just to look pretty.