Glenn Goldberg. Other Place at The Approach, November 2024 – We caught a flavour of Glenn Goldberg’s recent work in amongst the polite noise at this year’s rather conservative Frieze London, this new show of his recent work just opened at East London’s ultra-establishment art space The Approach and so after a rather disheartening Thursday night a not too quick Saturday afternoon strut over to the gallery above the pub of the same name.
“Born in The Bronx, Glenn Goldberg was exposed to the anti-establishment sentiments of 1970s’s America; a time when socio-political concerns took precedence over academic and professional aspirations. For Goldberg, it was a continuation of the 1960’s counterculture in which music, drugs, sex, peace and love flourished alongside political protest. The dream-like iconography of Goldberg’s paintings captures the spirit of this time, when fantasy and invention assumed a social significance and spiritual intention. Each work, recurringly titled An Other Place, draws from the artist’s invention and structural inclination, referring to a place that is unknown and, as Goldberg states, “more there than here”.
The artist’s familiar motifs appear to reference the natural world, yet reject specificity. Instead, they appear as indexical signs, as if stand-ins for us. By employing borders, stacked forms, decorative passages and architectural elements, Goldberg’s paintings are built landscapes that shimmer and reward prolonged looking. It is an effect that owes much to the artist’s mark-making which indexes sewing, weaving, printing and ideas related to craft and the decorative arts. Stitched atop washes of vibrant colour, Goldberg’s strokes record physical labour, delineate pictorial space and make a case for intimate repetition. Beyond tone, space and form, these accumulated marks reveal anxiety, perseverance and a calmness out of which artistic decisions are formed”.
Well that’s what the gallery statement said and yes it is damn lazy of me to just cut it out and paste it here but that is kind of how I’m feeling about London’s art scene right now. I mean I’ve got nothing to complaint about in terms of these Glenn Goldberg pieces that are taking up the main space at The Approach, they’re rather nice, they’re almost delightful. You can understand why, In 2023, Goldberg was commissioned to create a public mosaic arts project at the E. 149th St subway station in the Bronx by the New York MTA Arts and Design Commission. I do like his mark making, I mean who gives a damn if I like it or not, the gallery is a short walk from my studio, I do feel some kind of obligation to support these space, to at least make the effort, but hey, who seriously give a damn what we think or what’s said on these increasingly fractured pages? For what it might be worth these are pieces to spend time with, to linger in front of, to just enjoy, they are rather nice, and when I say nice, this time a don’t mean it as some kind of passive aggressive insult, they really are very nice, very decorative, textile-ish, they hint at many things, you wonder what he sees on an average day, Goldberg still lives and works in New York City, I guess there could be anything or everything right there around him, flavouring his thoughts, his art? I do like his ” intimate repetition”, it must be the one time textile designer still somewhere inside me? Hey, I liked the show, I enjoyed the show, I’m not going to shout about how you need to go, it didn’t move me, it didn’t demand, it didn’t elicit any kind of serious emotion, it was just a rather nice rather enjoyable rather politely rewarding show.
And the same kind of things can be politely said of the small exhibition of new works on paper by London-based Scottish artist John Maclean that can now be found in the small annex space at The Approach. he of the Beta Band and more recently a film maker. A small room full of pleasantly enjoyable works on paper… (sw)
The Approach is found on the first floor above the pub, 47 Approach Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9LY, Access to the gallery via The Approach Tavern pub, there’s a brown door at the end of the left side of the bar that the staff may or may not feel like pointing out to you. The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday (although some places say Tuesday) 12–6pm or by appointment. Both shows go on until 21st December 2024.
Previous coverage from The Approach
As always, please do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the small slide show
THE ORGAN 