Alon Levin, End to the Grand Gesture, 29.04. - 18.06.2011 Klemm’s, Brunnenstraße 7, 10119 Berlin, DE by craniv boyd.

Alon Levin, End to the Grand Gesture, 29.04. - 18.06.2011 Klemm's, Brunnenstraße 7, 10119 Berlin, DE by craniv boyd.

 

Modernism as protest, Robert Ryman and his white on white paintings go to a protest and picket with protest sings that are painted white, of course, In the now running exhibition of Israeli born, yet Den Haague and Berlin, based, artist Alon Levin we have a misc en scene of scatter art, modernist art, platonic forms stacked, and other large heavy geometric objects that are meant we are to believe by the exhibition title, that begins with the word "end", and the press release in the form of a triad structured interview between the artist and those who currently seek to further his endeavor, chiefly his gallerists handlers, that this exhibition is a now one more nail in  the coffin of the already dead horse of a modernist Utopian dream or nightmare depending which side of the bed you woke up from. 

 

Alon Levin, to his credit has made a grand tour of exhibition spaces dedicated to conceptualist and Biennials track artist, and judging from the information provided by effective gallery staff in the past few years dating from during his time of study, Levin has done a circuit of group exhibitions at Nýlistasafn in Reykjavík, Contemporary Art Center Vilnius, and recently the David Roberts Foundation, in London, and notably CCS Bard in picturesque Hudson valley New York state, some art fairs in Miami and some project type spaces in Zürich, the fount from which this extensive CV stems perhaps a quality group exhibition from way back in 2004, with a catalogue, of course, at a world renowned European museum, the Stedelijk.

 

This is anti retinal art at its best position, in the installation there is a proliferation of highly crafted objects made from heavy particle board and low cost wood, an overwhelming abundance of clearly purposeless objects that are all painted white, yet when you look again and are attentive to the sawed off edges of the works Alon Levin installs at Klemm's, the individual blank white picket sings individuate them selves further, they are in rainbow hues of industrial processed house paints and lacquers. One with this ironical and deliberate homage to MODERNISM, a viewer could almost half expect to trip over Rietveld's chair dripping in bone white globular paint.

 

Stimuleringssubsidie, it is great that the low country stimulates the growth of its artists categorically, I am positive that an art stimulation package from national monies for early developing artists can only be a fantastic thing, Levin can develop his exhibition with a strong yet ambivalent perspective on modernism, if nobody collects the difficult and ambitious installation work it can posit no problem his recent receipt of the Dutch Stimuleringssubsidie can generously sponsor his art object book that he blatantly cross promotes over the course of the interview, the book has a common enthrallment with utopia, or it seeming failure. It, Levin's track on the way up to national representation of Israel at international settings for current art, commences with a book, and an award for well crafted book given the same year as the Stedelijk Museum exhibition, viewed in this light the bland although involved installation hearkens back and almost begs to be documented visually, it seems intentionally constructed for that explicit purpose, applicable as elegant photograph in a well design artist made portable book. By craniv boyd.