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Photos courtesy of Marlborough Gallery.
Now is a time of reinvention for the Marlborough Chelsea gallery in New York. The long established Marlborough Gallery (with locations on 57th street New York, Madrid, London, Monaco, and Santiago ) has for decades been one of the world's leading art dealers, working with established artists like Fernando Botero, Claudio Bravo, Tom Otterness, and Paula Rego.
Marlborough Chelsea opened their 25th street location in 2007 and as of late the gallery has proven to show a keen eye for scooping up talented and challenging contemporary artists. Marlborough impressed with their last exhibition, “Herald,” a solo show of Rashaad Newsome's intricate collages and videos, and the gallery is at it again with their current second floor exhibition “Gum, Dropped,” which opened this past Thursday, December 15.
“Gum, Dropped” is the solo show of young Miami artist Nicolas Lobo, presenting his work for the first time inNew York. Lobo's work experiments with concepts rather than media, making the intangible tangible. He works with obscure subjects and forces them to be read and considered.
When entering the gallery viewers are hit with Black on Black Donut, a felt ring caked with black gesso and aquarium rocks which converses with the pieces around it: a series entitled Micro waved CD Pen Tests, small portraits of microwaved CD's on top of exposed photo paper with Twombly-esque gestural marks pouring from them. Donut is a recurring aesthetic for Lobo during his shows, often working in combination with smaller pieces.
Marble planks arranged throughout the gallery are a nod to minimalism. They appear underwhelming, at first, until one notices the phone numbers that are water-cut into the planks. With further inquiry (and a quick look at the title list) the planks become a phone directory of sorts for various, obscure sex hotlines. Numbers that spell out 1(877)-702-GOTH, are sealed in a somber permanence and displayed publicly despite the dying industry and obscurity of the actual users.
Also on view are watercolors, a ground sculpture, and a 14-minute video referencing pop star Justin Bieber. “Gum, Dropped” hangs an array of media and concepts worth the view at Marlborough Chelsea's second floor gallery and is open through January 14, 2012