ARTISTS:

Unknown ARTIST, Judith BERNSTEIN, Dianne BLELL, Mia BROWNELL, Michael BYRON, Paula COLLERY, George CONDO, David DUPUIS,Karen Hesse FLATOW, Chris HAMMERLEIN, Mary HEILMANN,George HORNER, Judith HUDSON, Konstantin KAKANIAS, Martin KRUCK, Elizabeth LENNARD, Tracy NAKAYAMA, Jason OSBORNE, Jack PIERSON, Nicolas RULE, Julie RYAN, Aaron SINIFT, Philip TAAFFE, Betty TOMPKINS, Donald TRAVER, Rob WYNNE…others

DINTER FINE ART is pleased to present a group exhibition titled “How To Cook A Wolf: Part One”. Playing on a sexual theme—with allusions to food writing, and other wolfish associations—this exhibition runs a gamut from hardcore explicitness to soft eroticism, spiced with vulgarity and smoothed with refinement, both seriously and hilariously. The mise en place of this exhibition reflects a myriad of human desires and appetites, with it’s pleasures as well as it’s darker sides. Attraction, desire, lust, seduction, give way to subversive powers, with personal, political and philosophical implications—though not quite all the way to burning hell (leave that for another installment).

This exhibition presents an eclectic array of references to sex, literally, figuratively, and explicitly. Like an art collector’s cabinet of curiosities (or well-stocked pantry) we see a selection of works which include such meaty ingredients as writhing snakes by Rob Wynne and Philip Taaffe; ready to cook cocks and chickens, by Mia Brownell and Judith Hudson; George Horner’s busy woodpecker; a lusty crocodile by Jason Osborne; and mounting pandas by Julie Ryan (“Because It Was There”). Jack Pierson presents us with his soft focus (and surely perfumed) flowers, suggesting the steaminess of a hot kitchen; Donald Traver anchors the stew, with two prongs, the female cross symbol, and all those chains; Judith Bernstein leaves a charred screw in the soup, evoking what she did in extra large format for William Copley’s bedroom in some former time; Mary Heilmann provides a pink teacup, recalling Meret Oppenheim’s furry one, this time stripped down and naked, ready for sipping. From there we move on to the dignified but tasty encounters of an Indian miniature (Unknown Artist). Paula Collery and Karen Hesse Flatow show how things might have been stirred up in earlier times. David Dupuis, Chris Hammerlein and Tracy Nakayama show variations of the joy of life; Dianne Blell and George Condo indulge us with some cooked up theatricality; Konstantin Kakanias brings us up to date with sizzling political satire; and Betty Tompkins slaps down in short order an astonishingly magnified piece of cake; Nicolas Rule whispers about “unmentionables”; while Aaron Sinift provides a splash of painterly poetics, and Martin Kruck decorates flesh with thought; Elizabeth Lennard tells us something about (how to eat) a cactus…oh yes, and don’t forget that mushroom. Last, but not least, Michael Byron hauls us back in, soberly reminding us that this recipe has been used by artists since time immemorial, a perennial and universal menu favorite…providing food for thought…in hungry times…

This exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Iris Owens, 1928-2008.