Micah Lexier

I used to think that I hated Micah Lexier’s work until I was given an assignment to write a sort of review/preview of his work for the magazine’s website and then spent a bunch of time looking at and thinking about his work. The more time I’ve spent with him, the more I’ve come to appreciate what he’s doing. His new trend of only accepting shows that will let him display his own work as well as his curatorial projects is a very strange but totally interesting one.

Anyways, the review/preview didn’t get up on the website before Lexier’s Toronto shows closed, so I thought I’d post a revised version of it on here. I sincerely hope I’m not breaking any copyright or intellectual property laws with this…

The artist Micah Lexier is known for works that contrast the steady, internal logic of numbers and letters as conceptual measures with the uncertainties of the everyday life these signs represent. Lexier delivers his latest existential musings in two new projects on view to November 17 at MKG127. In a series of prints titled Vitrine Drawings, Lexier maps the display windows of a recent New York gallery exhibition of his work as a sequence of numbered shapes on the page. This is classic conceptual double vision—the work exists in both the past as documentation, and in the present as a conceptual mapping device. Lexier’s interest in mapping double meanings is expanded in Number of Letters, a ten-volume set of books that illustrates the number of letters used to spell out each numeral as a word in an ongoing sequence (i.e. One = Three = Five = Four = Four). Although this equation makes logical sense, its execution is ultimately redundant. We gain no new knowledge at the end of the equation and always find ourselves back at Four (which has four letters and represents the number 4).

As previously mentioned, Lexier has recently taken on the role of curator in two exhibitions on view in Toronto and Saskatoon. At Birch Libralato, Lexier is showing a series of metal sculptures based on his own handwriting alongside a trio of international artists whose work, like his own, obscures symbolic meaning. David Altmejd’s maze of gold chain almost forms a recognizable figure but ultimately remains abstract, while Eric Cameron’s “Thick Paintings” (which I’ve grown to really love) conceal an everyday object beneath thousands of layers of gesso.

Meanwhile, Lexier’s interest in quantity, increment and repetition provides the theme for the “Me & Them” show at College Building Art Galleries. While the “Me” exhibition features a group of sculptural self-portraits that represent Lexier’s age in years, “Them” showcases works by eight Canadian artists, including Kelly Mark’s 10,000 Hits and Gerald Ferguson’s 1,000,000 Pennies, that seem equally fascinated by the relationship between numbers, time and everyday objects.

Micah Lexier, 38 Wood Units (1999), wax-coated birch plywood stamped with a number; 38 Cubic inches (black) (1999), painted wood blocks; 39 Wood balls (2000), maple balls stamped with a number, painted wood.
Courtesy Birch Libralato, Toronto and TrépanierBaer, Calgary.

Gerald Ferguson, 1,000,000 Pennies (1979), one million Canadian pennies.

“Letterpress,” new print projects by Micah Lexier
To Nov. 17. MKG127 (127 Ossington Ave., Toronto)

“Micah Lexier: Lives & Works 5. And Sing Myself” and “Renate Anger/David Altmejd/Eric Cameron.” Curated by Micah Lexier
To Nov. 17. Birch Libralato (129 Tecumseth St., Toronto)

“Me & Them”
An exhibition of sculptures by Micah Lexier and an exhibition curated by Micah Lexier including the work of Eric Cameron, Ian Carr-Harris, Gerald Ferguson, Brian Groombridge, Germaine Koh, Kelly Mark, Jocelyne Prince, and Jeannie Thib
To Nov. 30. College Building Art Galleries (University of Saskatchewan, 107 Administration Pl., Saskatoon)