Art Commentary With Marion Wolberg Weiss

Michael Knigin At Goodfriend Park

Work by Michael Knigin Photo by MW Weiss

Exhibition space has taken many forms in the Hamptons, as a previous "Art Commentary" series suggested, including restaurants, banks, and insurance companies. Yet venues also exist in large industrial-type buildings, like the structures on Plank Road, off Route 114 towards Sag Harbor. While the art may be good, the space is, unfortunately, somewhat sterile, the works becoming a commodity.

Yet there are exceptions: Michael Knigin's current show at The Studio and Gallery at Goodfriend Park presents a different image. While it is situated in a contemporary, wood building, the surrounding grove is welcoming and refreshing. The structure's interior is similarly fresh and minimal.

Mr. Knigin's work is shown to good advantage in such a place, considering that his art is not minimal but full of startling, often confrontational images and bold colors. His themes are just as daring. Simply put, his pieces are like fireworks, exploding in all their glory.

(Is it no wonder then that fireworks is the subject of one of Mr. Knigin's series?)

Metaphors continue to play a part in Mr. Knigin's oeuvre, particularly the juxtaposition between images. Such juxtapositions make political statements: images of a Vietnam soldier next to an image of a baby doll's head is one example.

Another work makes a philosophical statement: the juxtaposition of a classical statue's head with a nude woman's torso. Thus, icons are objectified.

Mr. Knigin's connections between ideas extend to yet another realm. For example, his bold and beautiful flower floating in the sky, a distant star in the background, nature on earth and in the cosmos.

Another interpretation: the temporary (flower) and the permanent (star). Certainly, that appears the theme in Mr. Knigin's work featuring two iris blossoms set before an exploding mountain-like shape (perhaps a volcano).

That Mr. Knigin's art gives rise to multiple interpretations is one of its strongest qualities, besides the sheer beauty of the imagery. A second arresting aspect is the artist's recurring motifs including flowers, moon and stars, both classical and popular icons.

Even so, there are metaphysical motifs as well, perhaps more subtle than what meets the eye: the rise and fall of life's events; the fragility of being; the endurance of the human spirit.

Mr. Knigin's exhibition can be seen by appointment. Call 631-324-5550.

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