Repartee
Jim Flahaven and Amy Wilton
Jim Flahaven, Was He Pushed
February 3 - March 26, 2022
About The Show
Repartee pairs Jim Flahaven’s vivid, exuberant abstract paintings with Amy Wilton’s funky, mostly autobiographical found object sculptures. Flahaven’s long titles (e.g., Your Ribald Humor is Utterly Delicious. Now Pour Me Another Martini, You Scamp!) feel like disembodied dialogue and are as witty, imaginative, and delightfully idiosyncratic as Amy’s sculptural pieces. Placing Jim and Amy’s work in conversation with each other gives this exhibition the vibe of an Electric Koolaid/Through the Looking Glass/Surrealistic Pillow cocktail party. With each partygoer an object whose linguistic being is confined to the wording of its title or to text applied directly to its surface, the celebrants’ “repartee” consists of a finite series of non sequiturs that bounce off of each other, ad infinitum.
A strong urge toward repetition is also embodied in the work itself. Many of Flahaven’s paintings are marked by recurring geometric forms, and by chains and ladders of repeated, colorful patterning. Wilton’s Abstract Nespressionism I and II (two installation pieces made from discarded nespresso pods and wire) are also notable for their colorful patterns and a pronounced repetition compulsion. That compulsion manifests again in Wilton’s She’s Finally Safe (a female mannequin form to which the artist has painstakingly glued thousands of outward-facing nails and screws).
In a wry moment of art imitating life, Wilton’s Introvert sculpture, its mouth barricaded shut by square lettering spelling out its title, is seated beside Flahaven’s flamboyantly energetic painting, Ms. Pacman. The visual resonance between these two works is immediately apparent, but it takes a beat to realize that the extreme and self-professed Introvert has found herself stranded alone on a wall with the chattiest and most frenetic of Cathy’s. (“Waka waka waka” is not spelled out in Ms. Pacman’s title, but it’s most certainly incorporated by reference.) Sorry, Introvert! But we’ve all been there….
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