MEGAN GECKLER

Megan Geckler has been realizing her webbed multicolor installations around the country and even world of late, but less frequently has she shown small individual pieces. What these frontal objects lack in physical embrace they make up for in visual pizzazz. Geckler’s compositions, fabricated like the installations from flagging tape stretched over tubular steel supports, resemble lawn chairs somehow mutated into Bauhaus tapestries. The tape, gloriously hued in its plastic sheen, describes networks of regularly or not-so-regularly alternating color – or, as frequently, black on white, or even black on black. (As evidenced by this body of work, at least, Geckler experiments incessantly with sometimes surprisingly nuanced color, and non-color, combinations.) Varying the width of her tape, the density of her weave, and/or her palette, Geckler realizes a surprisingly broad formal vocabulary. She also realizes a surprisingly painterly art out of paint-free materials. (Andi Campognone, 300 West 2nd St., Pomona CA; closed. www.andicampognoneprojects.com)

- Peter Frank

(image above: MEGAN GECKLER, Black and White, 2011, Flagging tape and stainless steel, 28 x 55 inches)

David DiMichele’s cover story, “ABEX RETURNS: THE SEQUEL IN LA It’s Not Just About the Paint Anymore” features the work of artists who are working in a manner similar to Abstract Expressionists, but using alternative formats such as sculpture, photography and installation in a manner likened to Donald Judd’s “neither painting nor sculpture” objects.

Featuring the work of Rebecca Bollinger, Megan Geckler, Anthony Pearson, and Christina Pierson.

“Playtime”, group show at see line gallery, opening on March 22, 2011
curated by Janet Levy and Leonardo Bravo

On February 22, at Urban Outfitters in Hollywood (Space 1520), a unique installation will debut. More info to follow soon, including links to the UO Blog and PR. Stay tuned!

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be a part of the upcoming “Six Solos” exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio this fall:

This set of independent exhibitions features the work of six rising international artists on view inside and outside the Wexner Center. Organized by the Wexner Center and opening in conjunction with the center’s 21st anniversary celebrations, the presentations continue the Wex’s tradition of supporting younger artists in their efforts.

The exhibition runs November 9, 2010 through February 13, 2011 in the lobby of the Wexner. For more information, visit the Wexner’s website.

I have a new installation opening soon at the Pasadena Museum of California Art entitled, “Every move you make, every step you take”:

Pasadena, CA – The Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA) is proud to present Every move you make, every step you take, a new installation by Los Angeles artist Megan Geckler in the PMCA Project Room. Geckler’s site-specific architectural installations are assembled from thousands of strands of multicolored flagging tape, a plastic ribbon typically utilized by surveyors to demarcate space on construction sites. The end result resembles an updated three-dimensional version of string art that shares the seemingly kinetic territory of the Op Art and Light+Space movements. These site-specific projects are also strongly influenced by minimalism, but retain a sense of play and delight.

The bulk of Geckler’s work lies between art and design. Each installation site informs the optical order and systematic reasoning that is the foundation of her process. An entryway to a space offers multiple pathways and destinations—each with their own readymade focal point for the work. Before working, Geckler studies the intent of the architecture, the intended use for the space, and the flow

of foot traffic. She then creates a virtual model of the space, which she uses to draw her installation ideas. The flagging tape, a material the artist discovered in graduate school, becomes the surface and a point of departure for color studies, achieved by layering the material over itself, much like a painter would use a glaze, exponentially increasing the palette. Non-adhesive, like rope or yarn, but devoid of the loaded backgrounds, the tape offers immediacy. The manner in which the tape is used is obvious and deliberate. Generally, a gesture is repeated over and over until the area is completed. The freestanding sculptural forms and large-scale installations are defined entirely by their surface, hollow on the inside, challenging the notion that sculptures have both weight and volume. Essentially drawings in space, they bisect and alter perception of the architecture and become seemingly kinetic as the viewer’s orientation changes. Made of translucent plastic, the installations appear to be machine-made and futuristic, concealing the handmade quality of the work.