Tara Donovan vs. Julia York

Dennis Matthews
Show Comparison
November 8, 2007

Tara Donovan at David Weinberg Collection
300 W. Superior, Ste. 203
Tel 312-529-5090
Tue-Fri 10-5:30, Sat 10-4

versus

Julia York at Perimeter Gallery
210 W. Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 266-9473
Tue-Sat 10:30am-5:30pm


Hey where did those chicks just go? What you see isn’t what you get; in fact it actually leaves you and walks away. Appearances, disappearances, reflections and ideas of what constitutes form are formidable foes for viewers of the work of Julia York and Tara Donovan.
Showing in Chicago this month at Perimeter Gallery and David Weinberg Collection, respectively, are two young artists whose approach depends on the particularities of which material is being used at the time. Last year, in obvious awe, the critic Fred Camper wrote an article in the Chicago Reader, which praised the work of York at the Sculptural Objects and Functional Art fair. In this article he mostly gives a biography with snippets culled apparently from an interview (when it took place is not mentioned) in lieu of saying anything solid. Camper outright feels the need to explain that York’s objects “they’re obviously not functional.” in his write up on the work.




The gross misconduct that train of thought will lead to while attempting to find a critical viewpoint is hardly productive. To expend the bit of energy needed to come up with that realization might have been redirected to saying something, anything in the essay.
Taking it further there is a mention of tying her work to her dyslexia, which albeit is very weak but an easy way to keep writing about something else, although self-admittedly important to her work. Perhaps it would be more believable if York had Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, it could explain the attention span needed for her process at least. Working in Philadelphia for the last seven years, Julia York has stretched her work across the United States and Canada with her lengthy exhibition record while maintaining a Residency at The Clay Studio.
An equally obsessive, yet much more successful so far, artist is Tara Donovan showing an installation one city block away at David Weinberg Collection.
Relying on mass-produced materials that are easily obtained and even easier to be manipulated into very deceiving forms that clearly conjure up all things organic. This stepping out of the realm of expectations of the material utilized is found in the work of Donovan and the “functional”-ity of York’s ceramic, glass, and mineral oil works. Doesn’t the work of both artists do something, they function oddly yes but they act, they react to the movement of he who views them. They flash, sparkle, and tend to get aggressive if left at “eye-candy” level. York’s images will disappear when you walk too far away, exit stage left, if you’re not looking then York is out the door too.


Donovan’s “reefs” aren’t much more solid as objects either. (In fact I kicked a piece, it kind of went flying). They shimmer it all off and are, in fact, pretty honest objects about what they do which is nothing. Camper should have seen their lack of function and the unapologetic tone Donovan’s objects take with their viewers. Though fixed on my return visit, to see roughly five thousand dollars get misplaced by my foot was an anxious moment in my recent life.
Here’s hoping that York speeds up and over the success Donovan has had in the last few years. High prices and cheap material really only leads to a huge margin of profit, not profundity or even curiosity this is where York has achieved leaving Donovan in the dust.