From March 3rd through April 8th 2012 BCB ART will present a group show titled THIS LAND featuring work by Lynn Dreese Breslin, Frank Cressotti, John Foxx, Erik Hanson, Julian Opie, Eric Rhein, Ed Ruscha, Peter Seward, Patti Smith – and others.
Obviously the title of the show uses Woody Guthrie’s song as a sort of ‘springboard’- yes, it’s a landscape show, but with very atypical views of our surroundings.
Lynn Breslin’s paintings channel the little boxes and oddly manicured hedges of a “Levittown” like community, while Peter Seward’s paintings point out our ridiculous attempts to hide technology doting the landscape.
Julian Opie taped his camera to the dashboard of his car, and took random snapshots while driving to Calais- putting them into small family-like photo albums, as a multiple. In 1966 Ed Ruscha documented “Every Building On The Sunset Strip” in panorama, which is considered an icon of artist’s made books.
Eric Rhein’s “Heathcliff” has the feel of an Arcadian environment akin to the paintings of Thomas Eakins.
John Foxx’s photographs portray cities as a place to find anonymity, Patti Smith records fragments from homes of her poetic ‘mentors’ such as Arthur Rimbaud, while Erik Hanson and Frank Cressotti’s paintings focus on landscape fragments depicted as a playful surreal archaeology.