MARGARET LANZETTA The Chanteuse and a Loaded Gun
K E N I S E B A R N E S F I N E A R T
1947 Palmer Avenue Larchmont, New York 10538 914 834 8077 KBFA.com
The Chanteuse and a Loaded Gun February 28, 2015 - April 11, 2015
All photography by Kevin Noble except as noted below. Artist: above, Kamakazi aircraft, Yushukan Museum, Tokyo; pages 15 (studio, Long Island City, page 20 (garden, Long Island City) Images © Margaret Lanzetta, New York 2015 Catalogue design: Chris Welch Cover image: Artist’s studio, Long Island City 2015 Frontspiece: detail, Nothing After Midnight, 2013, acrylic on paper, 18” x 24” Cupcake Out the Window title courtesy of Judy Halebsky
MARGARET LANZETTA The Chanteuse and a Loaded Gun
WAYS TO LEAVE HOME
T
he celebrated haiku poet Basho went on a writing
In her work, Lanzetta creates a language, not just a
pilgrimage for 150 days. He walked rain and shine through
spoken language, but an immensely rich and complex
small towns and mountain passes. On that trip he wrote
cultural palimpsest. This palimpsest encompasses the
the book Oku no Hosomichi, meaning an Interior, Narrow
physical and cultural learning that shapes our personal in-
Road, to evoke both a path to far away places, and his
teractions with one another and how we interpret not just
journey of inner reflection. Basho wrote that he did not
words, but body movements, physical gestures, colors,
leave home for this journey but rather that he made his
patterns and proximities. Unsettling the binaries that we
home in the journey. Lanzetta has also traveled to Kyoto,
normally use to structure meaning, her language creates
Calcutta, Damascus, Rome, Jakarta, Manilla, Bangkok...
a multiplicity of new ways to know the world. Within her
in a similar way. She has not tried to bring back images
process, beauty is not in the arrangement but in the in
of the exotic or the stunningly bright. She has endeavored
between, after the letting go and before the landing. These
to root herself outside of the places she has known and in
connections are of an artist to the world around her but
that soil tried to grow.
also have a space open for us to step into this process of
Lanzetta’s work exists in a process of constant shifting of place and point of view. There is an ongoing nego-
making, and through it to connect to the world and each other.
tiation and construction of how to breathe and live even when the here is moving. Steeped in an insistent, physical repetition, Lanzetta makes paintings in a mantra-like practice with infinite variables, subtle shifts and replete motifs. This repetition, like a meditation practice, inscribes into
JUDY HALEBSKY
the body, shapes the body and through this cultivates the Judy Halebsky is the author of two collections of poetry, Tree
mind. Her methods suspend assigned meaning and position the work in a process of striving towards, rather than
Line and Sky=Empty, both published by New Issues Poetry & Prose. Her honors include Fellowships from the MacDowell
setting it in a fixed destination or place. Lanzetta asks:
Colony, the Millay Colony and the Japanese Ministry of Cul-
how do we give up the mooring? How do we uproot? How
ture. Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, she now lives in
can we see from a point outside of the place from which
Oakland and teaches at Dominican University of California.
we come? How do we see anything beyond a surface view
Essay reprinted from Pet the Pretty Tiger catalogue with permission from
that pins down immediately into an erroneous translation?
the poet.
Cupcake Out the Window 2015 oil and acrylic on canvas 56” x 40”
previous page, left
Sniff Kiss 2015
oil and acrylic on canvas 56” x 40” previous page, right
Half Singing 2015
oil and acrylic on canvas 56” x 40”
Itchy 2013 acrylic on paper 18” x 24”
Chanteuse 2015 oil and acrylic on canvas 36” x 75”
previous page, left
Star Card 2015
oil and acrylic on canvas 56” x 40” previous page, right
The Scent of Water 2015 oil and acrylic on canvas 56” x 40” opposite,
Opposite Temperature Zones 2015 oil and acrylic on canvas 62” x 52”
Buddha Jumps Over the Wall 2013 acrylic on paper 18” x 24”
bottom,
Colony Collapse acrylic on paper 18” x 24”
SIMPLE EXOTICS Nature as symbol, inspiration and eclipser of culture is a
western imperialism. In Japan, the transient sakura per-
persistent, insistent theme in Margaret Lanzetta’s work. In
sist as an enduring Buddhist metaphor for the fleeting,
Simple Exotics, a polite phrase for invasive species, Lan-
ephemeral nature of life. Altering this spiritual, aesthetic
zetta re-examines sakura, iconic Japanese cherry blos-
association, sakura painted on the sides of the bomber
soms, through the lens of economic botany, the cultural
planes during World War II inspired pilots to “bloom as
exploitation of plants by nations. Embodying both inspi-
flowers of death.�
rational and nefarious themes, the series illuminates con-
In the Simple Exotic paintings, the sakura, fragmen-
flicting narratives within Buddhism, Western colonialism
tated and splintered, bring to mind larger issues of envi-
and the field of economic botany.
ronmental degradation, genetic piracy and the dangers of
In the large-scale photographic work, Famous Orna-
invasive species that threaten these and all other harbin-
ment, Lanzetta juxtaposes images of sakura, both real
gers of future springs. Tying together historical and global
blossoms and machine-made nylon or pop reproduc-
threads, the Simple Exotics series considers the legacies
tions, with Victorian botanical drawings. Victorian botani-
of scientific exploration, colonialism, spirituality and na-
cal drawings coexist as both early, fascinating studies for
tionalism within an increasingly shared and fragile world
medicinal plants as well as triumphant documentations of
environment.
exotic trophy specimens brought back to Europe through
Margaret Lanzetta, Tokyo 2013
Famous Ornament Victorian botanical prints juxtaposed with photographs of Japanese sakura: cherry blossoms: real, fake and pop 2013 archival digital ink print 42 images, each 13” x 16” 96” x 90”, overall
Simple Exotics 2013 acrylic on paper 18” x 24”
bottom,
Super Flat acrylic on paper 18” x 24”
MARGARET LANZETTA’S
work draws in-
Paint, Art Critical, Muftah.org and the New York Times.
spiration from Buddhism, nature, Islamic architecture,
Lanzetta received an MFA from the School of Visual
and sixties pop culture. Her work has been widely ex-
Arts in New York and her first Fulbright Fellowship to
hibited in New York and abroad, most recently in the
Germany in 1989. Newer awards include a second
2014 solo exhibition, Blues For Allah, at Heskin Con-
Fulbright Senior Fellowship to India and Syria in 2008,
temporary, New York. Recent international showings
an MTA Arts for Transit Commission for the New York
include Famous Ornament, (solo, 2013) at the Youkubo
subway in 2007, the British Academy in Rome Abbey
Art Space in Tokyo and the Stockholm Independent
Painting Award in 2003, a Ucross Residency in 2010,
Art Fair: Super Market, with Le Cube Gallery, Morocco.
and several MacDowell Fellowships. Her work is in the
2012 included exhibits at Kenise Barnes Fine Art and
collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York;
Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York; and Le Cube Gal-
The British Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum,
lery and Jardin des Biehn Gallery, Morocco. In 2010,
London; The Harvard Art Museum, Boston; the Yale
a ten year retrospective was organized at the Cantor
University Art Gallery, New Haven; the Hallmark Col-
Gallery, Massachusetts (with texts by John Yau and
lection, Kansas City; and several other corporate and
Judy Halebsky). Lanzetta has also exhibited at Bernard
private collections. Lanzetta has traveled extensively
Toale Gallery, Boston, the ATP Gallery, London, and
throughout Asia and has lived and exhibited in India,
the Queens Museum, New York. Reviews of her work
Italy, Morocco and Japan. Margaret Lanzetta lives and
have been published in the Brooklyn Rail, Two Coats of
works in New York City.
in progress, February 2015