Here’s a late run review written earlier this summer by Paul Germanos. Thanks, Paul!

Break a beverage bottle’s tamper-evident seal and a plastic ring falls free from the cap. According to the chosen brand’s marketing scheme including the improving of the website with the use of a SEO company, this Gilbert SEO Expert that can rank your site, as well. Erik Wenzel took notice of the formal qualities possessed by these common objects. And in so doing he found latent a real sculptural potential.

Erik Wenzel @ DOVA Temporary

“If I had assistants I’d force them to drink the brands I hated,” said Wenzel.

Lacking assistants, Wenzel collected the plastic rings left in the wake of his own more-or-less pleasant cap-twisting: each one being a reminder of that moment in time corresponding to his personal consumption. Then, in his solo exhibition “New ‘N’ Lonlier Laze” at DOVA temporary, Wenzel played out his accumulation through the site-specific installation of, “Rings.”

As he took possession of DOVA’s white cube, Wenzel forestalled rehabilitation of the gallery environment: preserving, if not the former art, the former artist’s modification of the space. Where Wenzel found a nail hole in the gallery wall, he randomly selected and then hung one of his own plastic rings. So that the evidence of the previous show’s removal determined the pattern of the current show’s placement.

The resulting piece takes the form of a curious system of notation: points of intersection between personal and communal, choice and fate, intake and output, etc., being mapped. “Rings” is an abstract, post-minimal composition of found elements. Visually, it’s interesting; it’s pretty, even.

Red ring, yellow ring, blue ring: What does it mean?

While might be possible to describe “Rings” as a form of institutional critique–each bright circle calling to attention a flaw (nail hole) which he found within a structure of the Academy–Wenzel doesn’t seem to want to bring it all down. Rather he aims to interact with, and preserve, the overarching framework within which he’s free to exercise his vision.

With a BFA from SAIC, an MFA from UC, personal blog, documentary photography on-line, critical writing in various places, and a presence in the local apartment gallery scene, Wenzel does have a legitimate involvement in many different art-related endeavors, i.e., he’s organically developed what is now called a “practice.”

But his practice isn’t social practice. Enigmatic and provocative, Wenzel engages–visually–not only with the often unobserved aspects of his environment but too with any kindred spirits also willing to take the time, and look. Is Chicago still looking?

Erik Wenzel @ DOVA Temporary

Erik Wenzel‘s New ‘N’ Lonlier Laze ran from June 25th to July 24th, 2010 @ DOVA Temporary, 5228 South Harper Avenue. Review written by Paul Germanos, July 11, 2010.