MICHAEL BANICKI
Most of these acrylics on canvas feature neat rows of color-coded dots, which fill a grid centrally placed on a larger white background. An alphabetized list, handwritten in pencil, runs down the grid’s left side. The same list of items reappears along the top of the grid. A color key near the bottom of each canvas assigns a rating to each color–Banicki usually limits himself to four or five colors per work. Lighter shades represent a “+” or “+ +” rating, while darker shades carry a “-” or “- -” meaning. Most items receive a fairly even distribution of dot colors, seeming to indicate an overall neutral response.
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Reading a Banicki chart requires the viewer to stand very close to the piece. When seen from a distance, however, the penciled information fades and the charts begin to resemble plaid fabric. This visual transformation suggests an association between big business, which uses charts and graphs to project sales and track profits, and the American tradition of the con–the carpetbagger or flimflam man, the guy in the ill-fitting plaid suit who’d like to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge at a cut-rate price. These plaids also recall contemporary geometric abstraction painting. Is the artist accusing this style of scamming the public into believing it is important art? Or is he critiquing the whole art world, whose subjective selection of artwork is based on the profit goals or career aspirations of dealers, collectors, curators, critics, and so on rather than on the merit of the work itself?
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/courtesy of Feature.
