Monika Stricker at P420

(link)

It's become a trope the generic lumpy thing stands as question, a guessable what, an interminable fount ... of interpretation. Stricker's previous scrota attached a specificity to this decipherable gum. They were tea leaves but they were testicle tea leaves, thorny full frontal fun. A too-specific amorphousness to your nightmare. Maybe the problem is "Bigfoot is blurry.. It's not the photographer's fault. Bigfoot is blurry, and that's extra scary to me. There's a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside." Because not being able to discern is our Halloween. 

Alfred D'ursel at dépendance & Monika Stricker at Galerie Clages

(dépendance, Clages)

Hot monkey action day today at CAD. A sort of content of the night. With monkeys. But whereas one withdraws into dark heat the other goes full frontal - bearing all the fruits it can let hang out. A press release well to go with it:

"The depiction of a monkey actually always stands for something else, especially in paintings. Most of the time, monkeys act as a distorted picture of mankind, they articulate the tragic dimension of human existence, of life as a cultivated animal. Clearly, Rococo singerie painting only worked satirically ... Monika Stricker continues her engagement with the scrotum, which has now been going on for several years."

Exposing the nut of the matter doesn't diminish it. Turning on the lights doesn't necessarily let its content out. 

see too: Monika Stricker at dépendance

Monika Stricker at dépendance

(link)

This is the second time we've reviewed excellent paintings of nutsacks. (Is there something about today that makes testicles right?) Whereas the last painting was an exotic gum, these paintings are soft creatures -  Stricker can turn a nutsack into a malignant growth. This would seem obvious or easy - the thing is an alien enough gum - but her nutsacks are like the baby in Eraserhead, there's an uncomfortable paternity. Occasionally even looks like a crowning child, the penis removed entirely, and the bulb swells. A monstrous sex, and painting a strange care for the creature.

see too: “De Por Vida” at Company Gallery