I first met the multitalented Danny Moynihan within the early Nineteen Eighties, however I didn’t see him once more till not too long ago. Throughout that point, he’s labored as a gallerist and an impartial curator, revealed a satirical novel concerning the artwork world (Boogie-Woogie, 2014) and a collection of his assortment of erotic images (Personal Assortment: A Historical past of Erotic Images, 1850–1940, 2014), written An Set up for Agongo, an opera, and exhibited his work in England and Los Angeles (which I used to be solely in a position to see in copy). As a result of I felt strongly about his work once I noticed them within the Nineteen Eighties, early in his profession, I used to be notably curious to see In Reward of Limestone at Nathalie Karg Gallery, his first solo exhibition in New York. I knew his work had modified, however I wasn’t certain how.
The exhibition’s title comes from considered one of W. H. Auden’s most interesting poems. In a letter to his biographer, Edward Mendelson, Auden wrote of limestone “that rock creates the one human panorama.” I point out this as a result of Moynihan’s work, which start with direct remark of various landscapes visited by Paul Cézanne, invite allegorical readings, however with a twist. The hidden that means of his photographs, which meld human and nonhuman types with rocky landscapes, stays opaque. They’re invitingly impenetrable, at the same time as they fire up all kinds of associations, from mythological beginnings to rampant lust and greed.
Whereas the exhibition’s 10 work primarily depict rocky landscapes, each has its personal character. Since one of many present’s underlying themes is the connection between a human physique and an detached panorama, discovering other ways to convey that change was considered one of Moynihan’s challenges, together with making every panorama particular and distinct from the others.
In “Quarry” (2021–22), which takes Cézanne’s depictions of Bibémus Quarry as a place to begin, dinosaur bones merge with massive tough stones, and collectively evoke the physique and flesh. It’s this ambiguity that held my consideration. Are we taking a look at stones or buttocks? The tough areas can recommend scar tissue or wounds, including one other layer of that means to the work.
By reminding us that we reside on a planet that has been dwelling to innumerable different animals, lots of that are lengthy extinct, Moynihan frames the current inside an expansive stretch of time. By imbuing a number of the stones with a fleshy presence that ranges from youthful to decaying, he provides one other a measure of time. The sky above the land that speaks to those two measures of time provides yet one more sense of time, underscoring our insignificant existence in an detached universe. I believe this understanding of time’s disdain for humankind and the myths we derive from the rocks and soil of the earth — whether or not they are often up to date and remodeled with out shedding their primal energy — are on the artist’s thoughts.
The contour of the mountain in “Gaia” (2021–22) resembles Paul Cézanne’s Mont Saint-Victoire, however Moynihan has remodeled it right into a volcano. An irregular row of enormous, different-sized, orb-like shapes protruding from the foot of the mountain is animated by the Cyclopean eyes that appear to stare again at us. They belong to creatures we can not see. What are we to make of them? And, equally necessary, what do they make of us? The work attracts out a sense of mutual estrangement on account of our lack of ability to see your entire creature.
“Cost” (2021–24) is the one portray populated by energetic creatures, which resemble pigs. The 2 on the left facet of the work are licking and nuzzling what appears to be an unidentifiable milky white creature, much like the only one on the correct. Behind them is a formation of porous limestone from which staring eyes might be seen. The juxtaposition of eyeless porcine figures and bodiless eyes, smooth flesh and porous rocks, suggests the alienation of thoughts and physique, rational considering and animal greed. Is lust an impulse that we will management? What can we do concerning the greed of the tremendous wealthy? How does their greed have an effect on us and the earth we share?
By starting with motifs impressed by Cézanne, is Moynihan charting how far we’ve got devolved for the reason that single-minded French painter who walked for miles in pursuit of the right view of diffident nature? What does it imply to animate the stones with flesh and eyes? There are not any simple solutions to the questions that come up in these work.
Danny Moynihan: In Reward of Limestone continues at Nathalie Karg Gallery (127 Elizabeth Avenue, Decrease East Facet, Manhattan) by means of December 20. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.
