fluent~collaborative: http://www.fluentcollab.org/mbg/issue59.htm
	III. Carol Bove, Seth Price, and Adam McEwen at Marfa's United Artists, Ltd. On view through December 31, 2005 There’s a wonderful new space in Marfa, Texas, called United Artists, Ltd., that we think will prove to be one of the most important and exciting places to see art and meet artists in the state. The space, a renovated gas station/mechanic’s shop, is owned and run by New York-based (and now New York/Marfa-based) artist Michael Phelan, whose funny and poignant video Groundhog (2005) you might have encountered in Suspended Narratives at Lora Reynold’s Gallery. The inaugural exhibition at United Artists, Ltd, which opened on October 6, is fantastic, and features work by three New York-based artists: Carol Bove, Seth Price and Adam McEwen. Bove is represented by three pieces: one of her bookshelf sculptures (an astute and idiosyncratic archive of the 1960s), a beautiful “drawing” in thread, and an intriguing “intervention.” Here she suspended a quartz crystal from two opposite walls so that it rests in the center of the room at about eye level. This is a modest gesture, but it has profound perceptual, spatial, and conceptual consequences. Three of Price’s vacuum-formed polystyrene “sculptures” (one of ropes, two of vintage bomber jackets) were also in the exhibition, in addition to two works by McEwen (vinyl text installed at the base of one of the walls and a blueprint of an ocean chart titled in homage to Robert Smithson and Lewis Carroll). I found myself thinking a lot about history—more specifically, about how these three artists approach, mine and reinterpret the past. (Side note: download Seth’s provocative text Dispersion when you have a moment: www.distributedhistory.com) If you can manage it, get in your car this weekend or next and drive to Marfa to see this show, because it closes at the end of the year. If you’re not able to make it, the next show, which opens on Jan. 14 and includes work by Matthew Brannon, Wade Guyton and Patrick Hill), looks excellent as well. —Kelly Baum, Ph.D., Assistant Curator, Department of American and Contemporary Art, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin United Artists Ltd. 325 East San Antonio Street Marfa, Texas 79843 tel. 432.729.1905 www.unitedartistsltd.com