|
A Gathering of the Tribes is a sophisticated and assertively multicultural, multimedia, grass-roots cultural organization in the East Village. Founded by the poet Steve Cannon and now well into its second decade, it survives on a combination of personal energy, karmic chance and the economic kindness of strangers, including several arts foundations. And much of that personal energy emanates from the East Third Street walk-up apartment that serves as an office, social club and art gallery.
The small show now installed there is part of Tribes' annual Charlie Parker Festival. It is also the second of two shows of work culled by the curator Robert Storr from submissions received through an open call to artists. There's some impressive stuff. The painter Caomin Xie turns an Agnes Martin-like field of horizontal bars into a seascape. Cheryl Molnar assembles futuristic landscapes from thin strips of color. And Stephen Pauley, in the show's most striking and unorthodox work, carves paintinglike reliefs from panels of dark granite.
Certain pieces relate more specifically to the Lower East Side. This is true of an eschatological comic drawing by Christopher Weeks, John Ranard's photograph of a syringe-and-poppy tattoo and Abby Goodman's tiny, bright-hued paintings on plexiglass of local friends and neighbors. Many such people will doubtless be on hand for the Charlie Parker birthday block party on East Third Street on Aug. 29. This summer's Bird blast, coordinated by Tribes' manager, the writer Chavisa Woods, gives an accurate sense of the organization's exuberant scope, with poetry readings, film screenings, jazz performances, and displays of Tribes-published books and magazines. The art may stay in the gallery upstairs, but almost everything else is on, and of, the street.
Holland Cotter
NY Times
Friday, August 17th, 2007
Steve Pauley deals with decidedly less elegant but equally familiar subjects in his new stone works, adding yet another strong sculptural presence to MAP's Artscape roster.
“Bathroom Stall (For da Bitchez)” is a marble and steel reproduction of a beloved and seldom celebrated permanent marker magnet: the public toilet stall.
Ranging from the crude and all encompassing (see subtitle) to the private and profound (“Jon, one heartbeat of freedom is better than a life of slavery”).
Pauley's carved mantras turn off-the-cuff scribbles into permanent inscriptions. “Fast Floor (Sugar Babies)” takes a similar approach to a 6 by 6 foot grid of granite floor tile,
carving detailed images of familiar urban detritus into the surface, including a smashed can of Natty Boh, twisted cigarette butts, and movie theater candy boxes.
The piece has pop appeal, particularly in a gallery setting, but Pauley's sculptures beg to be placed in high-traffic commercial areas, next to real toilets and sidewalks.
Consumed by the masses, his work could serve as a one-man antidote to the sameness of public art, appealing to savvy viewers who recognize the parody, as well as casual
passers-by drawn to his pitch-perfect mimicry of the commonplace.
J. Bowers
Baltimore City Paper vol. 28 No 26,
June 30-July 7, 2004
The work of sculptor Steve Pauley is built on grit and fear. He beautifies urban debris as well as fleeting images
from the evening news, immortalizing the culture and its impermanence into solid granite tiles.
Narration from the short film “Inspiration”
University of Baltimore
Baltimore, Maryland
2004
Steve Pauley is a native of North Carolina who grew up in West Virginia. He became an apprentice stone carver at age 19
and continues to work in stone to present day. He received his B.A. from West Virginia State College, M.A. from
Marshall University and M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He also attended the Vermont
Studio Center. He has exhibited at the Art Student Showcase in New York, Signal 66 Artspace in Washington D.C.,
The Whole Gallery and the Decker Gallery in Baltimore, The West Virginia Cultural Center, Sunrise Museum, and the
Museum in the Community in West Virginia. He engraves into stone and proposes that the work be installed in public
spaces as well as traditional gallery settings to confront people with art in their everyday environment.
Juxtapositions,
Maryland Institute College of Art
Baltimore, Maryland
2004
|
