Communication between distant regions of the globe has become as simple as one click of a mouse. Fittingly, the newest exhibition at the UCLA Hammer Museum shows that in the world of contemporary art, styles are transcending borders.
On display now through April 27, “International Paper” focuses on artwork executed on paper by emerging artists from across Europe, Asia and the Americas. The broad theme serves to highlight the tremendous variety of techniques being embraced by galleries today.
While the exhibition has drawn together a remarkably diverse group of approaches to working with paper, pieces by many of the international artists are not necessarily representative of the kinds of regional styles a viewer might expect.
“I was surprised to see how contemporary it all was,” said Kim McCarty, one of the L.A.-based artists included in the show. “Katharina (Wulff’s) piece didn’t feel that German in scope, it felt sort of American, too. The artist from Mexico’s work looked very much like some work I’d seen of an artist in Los Angeles.”
With the ability of nearly any artist to log online and check out gallery offerings from all over the world, it is perhaps not surprising that ideas and styles move across the globe so quickly.
“Personally I do look at a lot of gallery Web sites and online magazines,” said Tam Van Tran, another artist represented in the exhibit. “I have some friends in Vietnam and there’s not too much information as far as magazines and works from Europe and America there. So (the Internet) is their only way of finding visual information about what’s going on in the States and abroad.”
One of the global trends most prominently on display in “International Paper” is the playful utilization of craft techniques often reminiscent of the kinds of projects you might have done in the fifth grade.
Alice Könitz’s large series of owls surrounded by cages of woven paper suggest both a mid-century modernist ideal and a weekend spent making macramé towel racks with your Aunt Estelle. Sandeep Mukherjee has traced simple ovals into Duralene to create a kind of textured and elegant wallpaper. And Van Tran’s “Beetle Manifesto” uses staples and hole punches to transform a piece of paper into a three-dimensional leaf that seems to breathe with life.
“If you look at what’s being shown, there are a lot of people working with that craft technique,” Van Tran said. “Maybe it has to do with the directness of when you’re making work as a child. It’s essentially collage, it’s a way of painting in a different way.”
McCarty’s work in the show also touches on elements of childhood, though in a less indirect way. Her work is a series of haunting images of the torsos of young children achieved with watercolors. The children are not clothed, a choice she realizes may lead to some controversy.
“I’m sure that some people will be disturbed by it but I think that’s really what I’m trying to say, because I’m trying to show the vulnerability of this age and how everything is just thrown at them right now,” McCarty said.
Given the range of styles included in the new show, spanning from Honda Takeshi’s expansive charcoal drawing of a dark forest to Iona Rozeal Brown’s Japanese-African gangsters, it might seem to lack focus and overwhelm the senses. For Aaron Morse, also included in the show, this type of exhibition represents a direction in which galleries are and should be heading.
“A long time ago you maybe weren’t aware of all the different visions because they were trapped, or they were more specifically tied to their region,” Morse said. “That’s not really the case anymore. It may seem like there’s an overload of difference, but that’s because we can see it all now where before we couldn’t.”
The UCLA Hammer Museum is located 10899 Wilshire Blvd. at the corner of Westwood Boulevard. The museum is free for UCLA students, faculty and staff.