{"id":22612,"date":"2014-09-18T08:14:15","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T13:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/?p=22612"},"modified":"2014-09-22T12:55:24","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T17:55:24","slug":"rob-pruitt-multiple-personalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/the-bomb\/2014\/09\/18\/rob-pruitt-multiple-personalities\/","title":{"rendered":"~ROB PRUITT . . Multiple Personalities \/ revised MON SEPT 22"},"content":{"rendered":"

. . talk to me !!<\/p>\n

ROB PRUITT – ‘Multiple Personalities’
\nopened SAT SEPT 13, 2014
\nruns thru OCT 25, 2014
\nGavin Brown’s enterprise<\/a> – 620 GREENWICH ST, WEST SIDE, NYC<\/p>\n

for sure, I caught ROB PRUITT’S opening this past Saturday.
\nmultiple personalities ?
\nmore like . . bi-polar split !!
\nI needed a little time to think about it.
\na two-headed monster of an exhibit – if I ever did see one !!
\nit spoke with a real rush, the ‘studio love seats’ – to our collective, smart-ass media-driven ‘ups’ – and to our deeper . . ‘downs’, the ‘suicide paintings’ which captured the less obvious spiritual longings, and the secret, non-verbal . . self-reflections, we al carry within.
\nonly YOU . . can be a mirror into YOUR OWN SOUL ?
\nin a word: communication.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nthe show started off really anonymously, if you didn’t already know Rob Pruitt’s penchant for DIY water fountains.
\njust another white pick-up truck on the street, no fanfare.
\nvery Americana. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nROB PRUITT at the opening, seemed to be gathering his thoughts – harnessing the multiple personalities ?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nROB PRUITT, ‘Studio Love Seat (Orgy)’, 2014. marker on couch, 57 x 30 x 28-1\/2 in.<\/p>\n

note the ode to JEFF KOONS, at left.
\nand . . BART SIMPSON.<\/p>\n

the start of the show hit you in the face, with quite the opposite smack of the soft-pedaled lo-fi water fountain, outside . . in fact it seemed to me – that this was the ‘multiple personalities’ (duh) theme of the show in action: quiet contemplation (running water), smack (wise-cracking furniture), self-therapy (free-form primitive gesture painting), and finally a good sobering dose of inner reflection, termed: suicide . . (paintings), but if suicide is that beautiful – let me in.<\/p>\n

though just for a day, life<\/strong> on planet earth calls (his 2014 calendar on the front office walls).
\nthe inner and the outer states of being . . ‘bio’, man.
\nbeing human is . . complicated.
\nself-expression, how we deal with the larger culture that screams around us, & finally – contemplation of the . . inner infinite.<\/p>\n

what’s larger, what’s the bigger force ?
\nthe huge media circus we live in, or the infinite unknown . . within\/without ? <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nmoney over bitches . . right on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nROB PRUITT, ‘Studio Love Seat (Studio Assistants)’, 2014.
\nmarker on couch, 57 x 30 x 28-1\/2 in.<\/p>\n

this one in particular . . was talkin’ right at me. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nwhen will mom die ?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nJulian Schnabel is my life coach ?!!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nKEEP CALM & GAVIN BROWN.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n . . . in pursuit of magic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\naround these couches was arranged a circle, more or less, of standing lunch ‘tables’ – with pretty much the same sort of cultural wise-crackin’, the exact kind – you need<\/strong> to get thru life these days. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nwith a kind of cosmic scary – rigid fascist black and white pattern, beyond them.
\nin my mind – it’s a metaphor . . for the religious fascist fanatic mindset out there, in the ‘beyond’, vs the creative freedom we find here ?<\/p>\n

Rob also seems to have adopted, maybe ‘branded’ is the better word – a more standard black & white checkerboard platform – to visually high-light<\/strong> the free-form & text-driven ‘creative’ on the up-right lunch tables, and also uses them as contrasting ‘foils’ aka platforms – for the collage message board ‘love seats’, too.
\nagain, personality . . splits. <\/p>\n

and checkerboard . . marks the s-p-a-c-e.<\/p>\n

see: GBE archive<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\na little hand-built<\/strong> cat – looked to be carefully finding the way . . down ?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nbut what I really liked, in this play into the space of the gallery, were the ordinary sand bags mooring the tables from tipping over.
\nwhat did<\/strong> I like so much about them ? I liked how they were so ordinary, so causal, yet so functioning – so anonymous – just like the pick-up truck outside.
\nbut I also liked them for the continuity they offered me. they made me think of the quelle fun journey into clay, muddguts, ebay bowling, and pigeons I took this summer, ending up with Pat McCarthy’s miniature cinder blocks – in Satan Ceramics. how fun. sand bags to mini cinder blocks – well, that’s how my <\/strong>personality breaks . . down. nice touch.
\na down-to-earth detail in a prism of conceptual-ism . . . throw me a bread crumb, and I’ll run with it, any day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nwell you could peruse those couches, and up-right tables . . for a few hours, I’m sure.
\nbut damn, do I feel alone ? yes.
\nand does the world feel shitty, most times, yes ?!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSHIT BEGET SHIT.
\nfor such a successful artist, Rob sure harbors some pretty dark thoughts.
\nmultiple personalities, anybody ?
\nor just the world . . how the world turns.
\nlife is shitty, and then you die.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nROB PRUITT, ‘Suicide Paintings’, 2014.
\nacrylic on linen, 81 x 108 in.<\/p>\n

well, with thoughts like that – no wonder his mind turns to . . suicide ?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nROB PRUITT, ‘Suicide Paintings’, 2014.<\/p>\n

well, first off – I’ll let somebody else talk about the sand scattered all about, but esp I liked, and wondered about how these reflective surfaces – came across as so inward-directed ?
\nwashing over me like . . the sea, waves ?<\/p>\n

was infinity . . inward or outward ?
\nor – is that the point ?
\nendless circle with no beginning, no end.<\/p>\n

also really, really liked how the outer ‘borders’ had been kept so minimal, and gray.
\nagain, check out his archive.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nthough it struck me as a little off-key that these inward reflections, paintings so sophisticated in their ‘soul-catching’, as well as their rendering . . would lead into a room of free-form primal ‘dalliances’, the so-called ‘Therapy’ paintings.
\nbut maybe – that was the point.<\/p>\n

transcendence vs day-to-day anxiety.<\/p>\n

maybe they were there for people who can’t understand art – unless it has a gestural arm movement ?
\nmaybe they were there to highlight the experience of the room before ?
\nthe room before was like looking into . . mother-of-pearl.
\nthis room was akin to confronting inner insecurity, and bad demons ?
\nmultiple personalities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nand then it all wraps up, with a . . 2014 calendar.
\nall I can say is: busy, busy, busy, esp for a guy with multiple personalities, maybe he needs to slow down.
\njust joking :)<\/p>\n

loved the homage to Mr. Helvetica himself, MASSIMO VIGNELLI, RIP.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nso where am I . . in this shooting star, spurting bio-ness 12 month cosmic chart ?
\nAPRIL !!
\nalong with . . PHARRELL WILLIAMS !!
\nfab fab and more fab. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nlooks like, MARC JACOBS shares my special day. lucky number 9.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nthey made some gorgeous posters for the show . . . a suicide painting.
\nthose suicide paintings were my absolute fav.
\nI’d take that suicide trip-tych – in the front alcove, all 3, hands down, in a split second.
\nand, well . . maybe the truck fountain too.
\nfor sure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nROB PRUITT, and I go back a long way.
\nI can be a big mouth, that’s for sure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nrain in the fountain, rain in the streets – I felt like I living in a technicolor movie world, as I left the opening, and moved on to . . the GOWANUS CANAL, water, water, everywhere.<\/p>\n

to check out . . .<\/p>\n

ANDREW GUENTHER & DEAR DERRICK – up next !!<\/p>\n

and, I would have been feeling mighty shitty, and pretty grouchy myself – if I had had to hoof it by foot & mass transport over to Gowanus . . which is what my past, as my ghostman DAN ASHER would say … 30 shitty years in New York as a hardcore prankster, or is that hustler – boiled down to, hoofing it. except now I have my kid with his wheels driving me around, so. so – what a difference a set of wheels make.
\nmultiple personalities sure do melt away, on the wheels of a fast, sleek car in the rain.<\/p>\n

PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . talk to me !! ROB PRUITT – ‘Multiple Personalities’ opened SAT SEPT 13, 2014 runs thru OCT 25, 2014 Gavin Brown’s enterprise – 620 GREENWICH ST, WEST SIDE, NYC for sure, I caught ROB PRUITT’S opening this past Saturday. multiple personalities ? more like . . bi-polar split !! I needed a little […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22612"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22612"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22614,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22612\/revisions\/22614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}