A person who appears to be ambling aimlessly, but is secretly in search of adventure.

2.27.2007

Robots!


R. Nicholas Kuszyk paints comical silver robots in various stages of destruction. Looking at them, I search for hidden meaning. "Do the robots represent humanity's fragile spirit? Our malfunctioning emotions?" Maybe. Mostly I like that he has produced thousands of them and they have been priced so that practically anyone can buy them. I bought two at the Fountain art fair for $60 each. Who doesn't like robots anyway?!

From the NY Press about Kuszyk's show at McCaig-Welles in 2004:

"Robots have taken over. More than 340 paintings, hung in tight formation, circle the walls of the McCaig- Welles Gallery in Williamsburg. The artist, Nicholas Kuszyk, from Virginia, was still showing his art on the side walks of Soho when he walked into Melissa McCaig- Welles' Gallery a few months back.... McCaig- Welles took a chance and offered him a solo summer exhibition.

A mere month and a half later, her walls are covered in art. The smaller acrylic paintings, some just three-by-three inches, are done primarily on rough board, with the larger works on stretched canvas. Stylistically, the images are all very similar. The bright backgrounds are generally a single color of yellow, pink, orange, blue or green, while the machines, carefully drafted, are all silver, gray and black.

Kuszyk's visual consistency creates a narrative. His robots are metaphors, describing actions as ordinary as walking pets and making love. He also depicts paranoid scenes of robots attacked by endless claw arms, intimidated by fat machines and torn apart by little scavengers. The theme of isolation is repeated throughout the series as single robots stand with arms emotionally outstretched or float aimlessly through a candy color sky.

Specializing in neo-graffiti, McCaig- Welles Gallery opened in Williamsburg several years ago. Though this show is a bit of departure, it has allowed her to test fully a new idea- affordable art. Kuszyk's paintings, ranging from $15 to $1200 with small pieces averaging around $40, had viewer's personally involved as they considered which works they might acquire. It also brought up a question: Does artistic merit rely on price?

Kuszyk, confident in his talent, believes his art is better off sold than in stores and prices it to sell. As a result, nearly 100 pieces have been purchased thus far.

"When people see a show they like" McCaig- Welles explains, "they want to take something with them."

Choosing which work to buy encourages self-reflection and gives art lovers with average incomes a chance to experience the process of artistic conservation. After all, what we collect, we also save.

Kuszyk's straightforward themes and agreeable are akin to Keith Haring's primitive dancing figures. Like those, Kuszyk's robots hide complex ideas in their simple imagery. Stacked together in a mass machine humanity, spewing bolts or searching for spare parts, Kuszyk's comic robots are alive with insight. "

-- Julia Morton

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