We are excited to report that Francie Shaw's latest solo show at A.I.R., Old is New, was reviewed on the Art in America Blog by Eileen Myles.
Here is the part of the review that covers Shaw's exhibition:
I was going to a poetry reading on Saturday to see Rae Armantrout, San Diego's gift to the world. As we tried to meet and kept failing to organize it she mentioned she'd just gone to the A.I.R gallery to see Francie Shaw's show. I wanted to see it so I slogged in the rain and the snow to DUMBO, with umbrella and boots and the promise of fruit on the other side. An excellent juicy pear from the store right next to the gallery was the bribe for the trip. Francie's collages are as small as 12 by 12 inches and full of figures. I grew up in the '60s! If I see a slightly abstracted human form mixed with the sensation of political strife, I get ready to punch. Yet in Francie Shaw's pieces the ovals of the heads mortify into rings and chains, froth and eventually moons. I thought of the litany of terror in Marlene Dumas's work. Francie records history, and in these small works it comes through instead as a dance.
These are collages by the way—with gesso and ink and salvaged bits of earlier canvases. There's a bold arm gesture that erupts in a lot of them—well if it's not John Travolta, it's just a human line. A gesture or letter. Someone wearing a rabbit belt is directing impossible traffic against an eerie patterning that is swirling around and behind them. A big crappy torn moon hangs overhead. And by crappy I mean good, melancholy, strong. Altogether it feels like someone has an actual job—a signifying one. A language body in this tiny canvas is reaching, successfully, through the rising danger. It feels like a musical pause. A little blessing.
To read the full review (Myles reviews exhibitions by Lisa Yuksavage, Oscar Tuazone, and Nan Goldin in the same post), please click HERE.
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