Thursday, November 3, 2016

Spencer Finch: "My Business is Circumference" at James Cohan Gallery

Yellowstone Hike (from Lily Pad Lake to Artist’s Point)
340 ready-made Pantone chips, pencil
Dimensions variable

Spencer Finch’s show My Business is Circumference is a subtle recollection of the natural world. Multiple installations and works on paper allude to the play of light and color in nature, and he does so with brevity and finesse. The first room on the left side of the gallery contains the work Summer Afternoon (passing cloud). The bright green carpet on the floor reads as grass, and the bright LED’s in the ceiling trick you into thinking the sun is shining on a patch of well-manicured lawn.

The second room, Thank You, Fog, consists of eighty-five glass panels suspended from the ceiling at different angles. If you stand still long enough, the people around you become spectral reflections in the glass, and you begin to get lost yourself. The soft lighting from the skylight, combined with the soft gray walls, enhances this feeling further.

Yellowstone Hike (from Lily Pad Lake to Artist’s Point) directly references colors found in nature. The piece is a line of color chips, corresponding to elevations in the hiking trail that Finch took. Every color corresponds to a color seen on his hike, and accordingly each chip is labeled with its location. With names like canyon wall, grass, and dead tree, the viewer is invited to take the time to experience the myriad of colors found on his hike.

Works on paper in adjacent rooms, like Following a Bee (Zinnias), isolate small moments of intense color. Tucked away in the back room, these pieces lack the immersive and inviting qualities of the other rooms in the exhibition. They act more like quick snapshots of an experience, instead of creating a place for contemplation of natural experiences. But overall, Finch asks us to slow down and pay attention to these small moments of aesthetic pleasure.

Spencer Finch: My Business is Circumference
James Cohan Gallery
533 West 26 Street

On view until November 26, 2016


  1. Overall, your review reads very well! Perhaps, in a weird way, it reads well to a fault? You do a very thorough job of describing each work, and provide (I think) an accurate analysis of what Finch's work is capable of, and succeeds in doing (i.e. "slowing down and paying attention to small moments of aesthetic pleasure"), but there's no "aha" moment for me here. I found myself pretty easily agreeing with everything you said, without really having to consider any statements.

    I would love if your review could reveal something to me that is either more critical, or really fleshes out how Finch is able to succeed. This is totally prescriptive, so feel free to disregard, but perhaps if you were to gloss over some of the works in the show, and then really dig into one piece, you could analysis specifically how that piece is able to accomplish (through form or content or installation) through "brevity and finesse" Finch's statements on the natural world?

    Regardless, a very thorough and tight review!

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  3. Your review is as relaxed and kind to the viewer as the pieces described were, which I find highly appropriate when considering the context of Finch’s show. While the detailed recollection is helpful, your review is more of a description than a critique. Rather than focus on Finch's style, or the experiences that the pieces promoted, what is your opinion on the show? What worked and what didn’t? How does this show relate to the contemporary art scene/market? I can understand how this show looks as if it exists in a vacuum, but I think it’d be beneficial to include surrounding contexts.