Plaza 2005

Jim Lambie made Plaza with plastic bags and enamel paint, arranged in a line against the wall. Each bag is filled with paint, like a ready-made form, becoming like a 3-dimensional brushstroke! The paint drips down the wall and pools on the floor in a playful way. The colors are vibrant and bold, with a kind of haphazard quality – that oozing, like an accident, but a good one! The bags themselves are crumpled and imperfect, which only adds to the charm. It gives you the sense that nothing is too precious, that everything is up for grabs in the making of art. Look at that one over there, a vivid red, with the paint running down from it like a stain. I think of artists like Lynda Benglis who worked with poured paint and materiality. It's as if Lambie wants to pull painting off the wall and into the real world. This piece is just so cool and irreverent, it reminds us that art can be found in the most unexpected places.