55 Delancey Street, New York
Like the work at BOSI, Jonathan Allmaier’s using a sort of painting grammar– but this time, the painting object itself is the part of speech. I’m not sure I fully understand the text that accompanies his work, but Allmaier has created a few different denotations which fall somewhere between scientific experiment and game.
A “pointing painting” draws attention to the stretcher. I assume this refers to paintings like the “counting pointing” painting “Untitled (6 Green Points),” a mostly-white painting with six small green brush marks and very visible stretcher rubbings.
A “bump painting” occurs when the painting “draw[s] on the stretcher and canvas,” which means that anything but a brush is used, and there are no outside references. This refers to “Untitled (3 Orange Pairs),” a big red and brown painting which Allmaier has painted with his hands, because it directly works with the paint and the surface, and because the indicated action is entirely contained within the canvas.
A “key painting” occurs when there is an outside object described, which therefore requires the use of a brush. This refers to paintings of hands, whose palms are colored-in with different primaries.
It’s the kind of thinking that can lead to a better understanding of what painting can do. Allmaier’s showing us different planes of meaning, from the painting tools to the physical world outside. Painting can signify things in different ways, the show seems to say, but you’re left to wonder why, and what.
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