Untitled, 2010. Acrylic on board. 9 x 7 inches. Courtesy Freight + Volume.
Andrew Guenther’s most recent show, simply titled Recent Works on Paper, at Freight + Volume is easy to miss. Tucked into the gallery’s back corner, the show can appear to look like a private office, but persevere—it’s worthy of discovery. Included are eight small drawings and paintings, and most interestingly, a small table and folding chair, a mug of pens, a white noise machine, and a chained copy of the artist’s Hot Dog in a Banana Costume.
At the paper-covered table the public is invited to “jot down their own thoughts and graffiti” onto its surface, slowly building an interaction between visitors and the gallery, and visitors with other gallery goers. When it comes to interactive art, you can’t really get much more straightforward than asking the public to sit down and draw something, but herein lies the refreshing quality of Guenther’s work. The pieces on the wall—a jungle scene, a collection of geometric shapes, some funky portraits, each with their own purposefully idiosyncratic frame—thus serve as a quirky inspiration for the public’s own musings. The drawing table and its small details (the mug containing the drawing materials reads “America’s Medicine”) are by far the strongest pieces in the show, but overall, Recent Works on Paper creates an environment that succinctly gives drawing its due. — Joelle Te Paske, Special Projects Intern