Rarely does whimsical work achieve a profound dimension. More often it playfully swims around in our subconscious, allowing us to leave serious matters far behind. So great pleasures abound in Stephen Floyd’s first solo exhibition in New York, as his whimsy demands that we reflect on our troubling past and present. In these 60 deceptively innocent drawings, the Texas-born artist covers many current issues—race, sexuality and bigotry among them—with a light and sinister touch. Never didactic, he manages to enchant like a child, while delivering bitter truths.
“four fish” by Stephen Floyd
Lining the walls of the gallery, the drawings could as well be a haphazard social history of the United States. One shows six wigwams of varying sizes, outlined in black, on a white background. To the side, a red and white, motel-type sign reads “Americ-inn,” the letters in blue. There are a million ways to represent the country’s maltreatment of Native Americans, but he uses symbols both simple and poignant in a particularly relevant way, by referring to homes being up for rent.
This same sensitivity to his subject matter comes through in drawings like “four fish” and “four rivers,” both of them simply words listed on a white background, almost like graffiti. The first reads, in shades of green: “one fish, two fish, gay fish, jew fish,” including in a game groups that are often under attack. Using blue letters in the second, he writes: “euphrates, tigris, thames and danube,” conjuring up associations with Iraq, England and Germany. That the writing looks so graceful only adds to the power of the messages.
The show’s title more than hints at Floyd’s ambiguous relationship with his country, as does the work of the same name—a big map of the United States in a mirror image, so the East and West Coasts are reversed. He goes further in his condemnation of our heartlessness in three works, just words, but so effective in their simplicity: “We sell cancer,” “I love aids” and “100% real art.”
But for all the works’ underlying solemnity, he displays an ingratiating sense of humor, apparent in the amusing “basic panties,” which are just that, green with pink flowers and the friendly, pink dinosaur-like creature, “liccolattapus.” Artists always probe their unconscious, but he seems to invite us into his, welcoming us with all his wild and funny imaginings and dark thoughts and serious concerns, unafraid of our opinion. Such openness pays off in works that are all the more memorable for their honesty.
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Stephen Floyd: I Love America and America Loves Me, through Dec.18. Heist Gallery, 27 1/2 Essex St. (at Hester St.), 212-253-0451
