Continuing through July 2, 2011
Those with deeper knowledge of the downtown and alternative scenes know HK Zamani as the pioneering director of POST gallery, which ran from 1995 to 2005, and has conducted 30-day show-per-day endurance exhibition runs during the past two Julys. Zamani's own work has been conceptual and sculptural. But his recent exhibitions, including the current one, have served as a sort of 'coming out' as a painter, at least publicly. With "In-between Air, Land and Sea" Zamani explores abstract landscapes with a rich painterliness that, while strongly evoking Philip Guston, is far less referential.
Zamani often opts for the primal, and hits some of his best notes there, whether in the vaguely Forest Bess-like "Untitled Mounds," the loopy lines-as-waves of "Untitled No. 25," or the digesting-snake-like humps of "Untitled No. 2." That said, the larger "Untitled No. 10", with its relatively more complex loops, is mesmerizing in its own esoteric way as well. All the works, indeed, are their own level of primordial. Moving forward I wonder whether Zamani will mine deeper into this land/sky terrain, deeper into himself, both, or find a new third way.
CB1 Gallery