"The Mass of Expenditure" a one-man show of recent work by Brendan Coyle has a lot of creativity and is worth a visit at Art Lab in Livingston Staten Island. Art Lab has given the modern sculptor free reign to offer his vision of modern sculpture. And intriguing that vision is.
"In Coyle's world, sleight of hand is the rule. The armored 'warrior' he constructed for "The Mass of Expenditure" enjoys only the protection of bottle caps," adds The Staten Island Advance in a review by columnist Michael Fressola.
"For this show in the Art Lab Gallery, the North Shore-based sculptor, illustrator, video-maker and grassroots arts activist has limited himself to two and three-dimensional works. Nearly all are made from recyclables and throw-aways, cheap materials, even condiments," added Fressola.
"It's a vintage 20th-Century strategy, not new territory at all, but Coyle finds inventive new pop-art variations within it," according to the review.
"In one or two instances, he's pulling off the opposite of stunts like Damian Hirst's diamond-clad human skull. But instead of using unthinkably posh ingredients, Coyle is creating beauty (and wit) with unbelievably worthless stuff," adds Fressola in the article.
"The long-stemmed, beautiful silvery rose (under glass like a sleeping beauty) called "Excedrin Rose," is made made entirely of Excedrin packaging, which is shiny and foil-like," adds Fressola, Remind you of another freat pop artist, Andy Warhol? Yes, and I believe that was the artist's intention. Coyle is doing for sculpture what Warhol did for the screen print. process Well, on a local Staten Island level that is.
How do you spell relief?
"Over-the-counter pain-relief packaging? It's something even a hoarder might toss.
From a distance, 'Twistie Colorfield' looks like a small, appealing abstract painting of a red rectangle and a blue field," adds Fressola.
"Look again. That's not what it is at all. It's a mosaic, kind of, made of bright-colored, plastic twist-ties," according to Fressola.
" Cap Mail is exactly what it purports. It's the name of an odd, colorful half-flugure dressed in "armor" made of all kinds of caps, tops and lids, from peanut-butter jars (smooth and chunky), glue bottles, water bottles, bleach-jug caps, etc. etc.," adds Fressola.
"Books with Bulletholes, the starkest piece in the show, is a trio of old hardcovers (one is a textbook titled "Intelligence Language and the Human Mind" pierced by gunfire, apparently," adds Fressola.
"The Mass of Expenditure," which was underwritten in part by the Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island, has only a two-week run at the Art Lab. It finishes its exhibition to the public on Saturday.
The Lab, a school that offers professionally taught art classes to aspiring painters, draftsman, sculptors, printmakers and photographers of all ages, is on the grounds of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, 1000 Richmond Terrace, Livingston. As a graduate of the summer scholarship program in painting and drawing, I can highly reccomend art lovers check out the facility and the exhibition. its worth the trip!
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