Fresh Loaf

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned
Rated M for Mature
Released Feb. 17
Xbox 360
Published by Rockstar Games

If you were to look over my favorite games of 2008, you might be surprised by the absence of Grand Theft Auto IV. True, the internet uni-mind has invariably done five or six about-faces on the game by now, but GTA IV generally racked up in the year-end accolades department. It’s not one of my favorites, though, despite some of its more amazing capabilities. The dialogue and voice-acting are some of the best you’ll find, and Liberty City’s the most immersing virtual urban environment since whatever that town was in Final Fight (New Mechadetroit?). Like previous GTAs, IV excels at presentation, making a good impression even if you don’t enjoy the gameplay.

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LINE BACKER: Glexis Novoa's 'Refurbish, 2007'

At least one historian has described the Peruvian song form called cumanana as “descuidado,” or careless. He meant that in the best way, referring to the form’s random, haphazard meter. Likewise, the group exhibition Cumanana currently on view at Saltworks showcases art that feels casual, thrown together and improvisational.

The 13 artists assembled by curator William Cordova all have long histories of collaboration — many of the same shows from the last half decade pop up over and over in their CVs. In Cumanana, the artists use mostly trash, found objects and low-grade materials to channel the experience of making something from nothing. This should sound familiar — the trend of making art whose list of materials reads like the inventory of a homeless lady’s shopping cart is well-established.

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OUT OF CONTEXT: Meg Aubrey's "Trash Day," 2008

Meg Aubrey’s MFA thesis show, I Just Live Here, at Gallery Stokes is like a debutante ball: Both serve up white, southern womanhood with a saccharine aftertaste to feed mythologies of place and time.

Aubrey’s 10 medium-size oil paintings pursue a cast of female characters through prosperity-era, suburban America. In “New Tree,” two women sit facing each other in spindly patio chairs at a stiff little cafe table. The painting is keyed-up so that the light has an overexposed, sun-drenched quality. We might imagine a shopping center parking lot or mini-mall courtyard behind them, but such context has been removed. Instead, a flat wash of solid sky blue fills the background and middle distance. Just off to the right in the midst of this arid environment, an impossible little tree grows, artificially tied down in an artificial circle of artificially manicured grass.

All the women in Aubrey’s paintings inhabit similar deserts of suburban precision. (more…)

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GLUE GUN: "Evereman Wheatpaste" by Evereman

On Tues., Jan. 20, the nation will swear in the president with the catchiest catch phrase since Eisenhower’s “I like Ike.” If ever there was a time for art to explore political language, it’s now.

Beep Beep Gallery’s Popaganda attempts to tackle the visual language of politics without all the messiness of actual politics. Organizers Mark Basehore and James McConnell have brought together work designed to promote itself, promote nothing, or promote promotion with no ties to real campaigns or parties. Unfortunately, this group show is long on promise and short on delivery.

Popaganda squeezes 15 artists’ works into Beep Beep’s intimate, studiously lo-fi space off Ponce. The exhibit consists mostly of small paintings, drawings and mixed-media works by a young stable of gallery regulars including Ben Goldman and Sat Kirpal Khalsa. Themes depicted range from Goldman’s hyperpatriotic portrait of the gallery’s founders to Evereman’s early Soviet-style print of a worker mounting a poster by, who else?, Evereman. The spirit of Shepard Fairey hangs low over all.

What should have been a provocative look at how art shades into marketing shades into manipulation, instead too often degenerates into a series of easy jokes. But irony eats its young. And the down-at-the-heels, hipster aesthetic of snarky irony evinced by most of the show’s works is already starting to feel dated.

A missed opportunity is forgivable, but Popaganda takes a step down from there. (more…)

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