Stephen Riolo

As published in Highlights Magazine

Hugo Markl
Dr. Frankenstein
A-M-P Gallery
18.3-22.4.09

Dr. Frankenstein, the maniacal genius of Shelley’s novel, has loaned his name to an intimate exhibition of Hugo Markl on now at A-M-P. A creamy mixture of flesh, text, chocolate and advertising shots, selections from his brown series (2004) ring the gallery walls. Below we find a sampling of Link works (2008), web address that have been rendered in aluminum and varnished in an appropriately serious tone of hyperlink-blue. It is a sarcastically chaste appearance that masks the raunchy smut sites that these links actually point to. The exception to this rather formal, geometric presentation of Markl’s works is Acting, a large format print comprised of four color stripe compositions and WINCHESTER?, a massive pink and yellow silhouette of a shot gun that hangs precariously from a column. Over all it is a clean sampling of Markl, whose recent presentation at Gallery Eva Presenhuber, Gladstone Gallery, Yvon Lambert, Palais de Tokyo and Art Basel Miami Beach all point to a sound future for this American artist. He is also slated for participation in the Athens Biennial ReMap KM2 project from June 16 – October 4 in Kerameikos.

Stephen Riolo 4.4.09

Disctrict of Colombia
55.5 × 42.4 cm
c-print, mounted on aluminium
2004

courtesy A-M-P