Ten years ago I spent the summer in New York, interning at Newsweek. The week before I was scheduled to head back to Northwestern, an email made the rounds: The mag's art editor, Peter Plagens, was looking for someone to housesit his Tribeca loft.
I jumped at the chance. And for a week, I felt like a real New Yorker. Plagens' loft (which he shared with his wife and daughter) was huge, with industrial furniture, an area for painting, a large kitchen and two bedrooms. (Oh -- and a feisty cat. Who battled me for the main bedroom. Apparently the cat had long ago learned how to open the door.)
It was the perfect way to finish up my time in New York, living large in Tribeca. Meanwhile, I read in this week's L.A. Times that a Plagens art retrospective has opened at the USC School of Fine Art's Fisher Gallery:
Meet Peter Plagens, a critic, painter, educator and novelist whose artistic work has been displayed at galleries across the country.
Perhaps most widely known as Newsweek senior writer for fine arts and an Artforum contributor, Plagens is also an accomplished artist. His paintings have been described as “of single importance … imposing expression(s) and exemplification(s) of the new condition visual art finds itself in.”
Plagens expresses himself through abstract forms that alternate between subtle and brash colorings. His work ranges from the self-described “craggy, disjointed and garish” to something more elegant and lyrical.
“Contemporary art,” he recently said, “is in a bad way because it has strayed from the path of trying to be different from pop culture. My taste and intellect is for an art that stands as the antithesis to pop culture.”
"Peter Plagens: An Introspective" is open from Wed, November 17, 2004 through Sat, February 12, 2005 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the USC Fisher Gallery. Admission is free.
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