Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/820206
scene back then. Beginning in the 1990s, a new generation was ready to rediscover the Bott manifesto. Critics, collectors, and the curious came to appreciate the arduous pin pinstriping of his canvases (in later years, achieved against all odds despite his diagnosis of Parkinson's). Humor was often present, a welcome side to the baroque minimalism of his more complex a n d o c c a s i o n a l l y a l m o s t topographic canvases. A famous show in this direction took place in 1997 at New Gallery/Thom Andriola on Colquitt's Gallery Row. The artist celebrated the 25th anniversary of DoV by an absurdist amalgamation of sculptural modules that took the Displacement of Volume concept to Pop heights. Utilizing synthetic polyester fur, pre-chewed bubblegum, Legos, Beanie Babies, and Erector sets, he created a playful environment that would have been equally at home in MoMA or on set of Romper Room. Since 2005, Bott has been associated with Anya Tish Gallery, where his current exhibition looks into the rearview window as well as to the future. Gallery-goers will get a chance to acquire vintage monochromes from the vaults — especially canvases bearing the artist's signature media, an inventive acrylic pastiche of titanium mica flakes, pigment, and gels. Don't miss a late-'80s- era tribute to the CAMH, Camglace Shadows, which we hope one day soon might make it into a solo there during the artist's lifetime. Bookending the exhibition are an ongoing series of delicate wire sculptures that also incorporate DoV. Cavorting in space while casting lacy shadows, they are every bit the equal of the acclaimed Venezuelan modernist, Gego. Bott's show will no doubt sell out. If the artist were in L.A. or New York, the museums would be lining up. One can hope that our institutions will discern what savvy collectors, informed critics, and more than 100 corporate and public collections, from the Pentagon to Playboy, already recognize. "H.J. Bott: Thick and Thin and Back Again," through May 27, at Anya Tish Gallery, anyatishgallery.com. BOTT WAY OR THE HIGHWAY (continued from page 34)