Elizabeth Dee Gallery Presents: John Giorno, Space Forgets You

I think I can safely say that every single time I’ve stumbled across a cool exhibit at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, located just off 11th Avenue on 20th Street, it’s not only because I’m on my way to a gallery located a bit further east, but because I recognize a piece of art in the window as one I’ve seen at Frieze Art Fair. This indicates that the artists they represent are truly memorable, because Frieze is massive. My point being, I stopped in to Elizabeth Dee on Saturday because I recognized the artwork of John Giorno, who creates text-based paintings of bold, thought provoking slogans originally sourced from poetry that the artist has written, or lines that never made it into a final poem. It’s amazing to see that, at age 79, John Giorno continues to create works that speak so poignantly to a contemporary audience.

In this series, entitled Space Forgets You, Giorno presents his paintings in three different styles: in vibrant, rainbow-hued paints, as pastel water colors, and earth-toned graphite drawings. Although many of the sayings are repeated over the various groups, the method by which each was created definitely affects ones perception of the message.

One gallery room is dedicated to the water colors.

Another displays all of the smaller, graphite drawings.

My favorites in this series are the rainbow colored paintings. This one I’ve seen at Frieze, but done with black paint on a white canvas.

It always gives me great satisfaction to use this phrase, for some reason.

This one is great. It should be on a T-Shirt.

So true.

John Giorno’s Space Forgets You will be on Exhibit Through May 9th, 2015, at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, Located at 545 West 20th Street at Eleventh Avenue (West Side Highway), in the Chelsea Gallery District.