Corey Stein.

Zellen, Jody

Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica CA January 13 * February 24, 2007

The image of Corey Stein as revealed in her drawings is that of a woman struggling with language, often misunderstood, but who makes the best of her situation. She has a clear head and deft hand. Though hardly flattering, her pastel and paper self-portraits mix line and color, shape and form to delineate figures who never feel quite at home in their surroundings. "Trying to pick up a GALLERY GUYDE" thus functions on multiple levels, striving simultaneously for the naive and sophisticated. The same goes for her wordplay on "mate," "pair," "double" and "partner," which is an attempt to investigate how these terms relate both to the artist's personal and professional life.

Each self-portrait is a carefully crafted montage juxtaposing cutout paper figures with shapes containing text. The centerpiece is always herself, looking dapper (Double, 2004), dressed for square dancing (Partner, 2006), or drawn with child-like simplicity, where surrounding details are stated matter-of-factly. In Partner, she is dressed in a red, white, and blue cocktail dress with a singles tag on her chest, holding out a similarly colored cowboy shirt to a potential partner. Lines of text crudely positioned on the white stripes of an American flag read, "The caller has a partner," "The lawyer has a partner," "The bank robber has a partner." Of course, the implication here and elsewhere in her work is that the artist herself does not have a partner.

In Double, we see Stein dressed in printed pants and pointy boots, her tailored blazer perfectly offsetting a pair of hooped earrings sticking out of her long brown hair. She smiles at us as if knowing that no matter how stylish she may be, she still can't get the guy. In various captions she suggests, "I practice double tonguing," "I watch double Dutch," "I wear double-breasted double knits." In Dates (2006), she wears a rainbow-striped sundress and red high-heel shoes. Hands on hips, sporting dark sunglasses, she stands smiling beneath a palm tree in a tropical landscape. Flanking her left side inside three abstract palm crowns are the words, "I like DATES," "I don't like DATES," "I don't know the DATES." The ambiguity and double entendres contained in these phrases compound their meaning--is she really saying that she doesn't like eating dates, doesn't enjoy dating, or might not wish to know calendar dates?

Stein's work is more substantial or layered than you might think, since she often employs bits of folded paper to assemble her figures in the manner of paper dolls, making them literally stand out from the background. She also often chooses paper with fluted or shaped edges, as well as deploying a loose drawing style (in pencil, ink, paint) that provides just enough extraneous detail to identify the setting, while concentrating on the central figure. In Spotted (2005), the artist squats down toward the foreground in a black tank top, blue pants, and leopard-patterned boots. Behind her stand a fish tank and bookshelf. Brushed overall in a blue tone, with cross-hatching filling out details, the basic color range--the artist's reddish hair, the fish on her shirt, and gecko in her hands--helps to bring attention to these narrative elements. Black circular bubbles say, "Jennifer is spotted," "My boots are spotted," "The cricket has been spotted." While Spotted may not directly refer to being single, close examination reveals that the aforesaid cricket is resting on a Solo cup.

Stein's work is not ironic, nor a simple exercise in self-parody. It does not ask us to pity her, but rather presents universal scenarios using herself as subject. What single person isn't on the lookout for a partner? What unrepresented artist does not seek a gallery? Hence Gallery Guyde (2006), featuring the artist on the implied magazine cover--lost in thought contemplating a range of "guy" "guides."