This entry on the Saatchi Gallery will be mostly photographs, I have limited myself to eight (out of the 151 I took) but when I have free capacity on Flickr, or buy a pro account I will add more. I am going to attempt to keep comments short, I could write thousands of words on each as an art history student, but I won’t, this is not the place. These are some of my highlights from the Abstract America exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery.

As a gallery the Saatchi Gallery spaces are typical of contemporary art display but of very high quality, all of the display spaces are a good size, well lit and are therefore very adaptable to different exhibitions. As ‘white cube’ spaces go, the ones here are up there with the best. I especially like the inclusion of a mezzanine floor viewing balcony onto one of the ground floor spaces, currently containing a very large sculpture.

Untitled (Spiral Staircase), Peter Coffin, 2007, Aluminium and steel, 670.6 x 670.6 x 213.4 cm

This dizzying, escheresque sculpture almost warps space around it, turning a functional everyday object into a twisted infinite circle. This work is displayed superbly, with visitors being able to see it from the ground level or from higher up on the mezzanine balcony and also get all entangled in it from underneath… if no one is looking…

Untitled (Spiral Staircase) [Detail], Peter Coffin, 2007, Aluminium and steel, 670.6 x 670.6 x 213.4 cm

I like to see Coffin’s Spiral Staircase as a metaphor for my entire life so far. Terribly fun, without purpose and not really designed to get anyone anywhere.

The Raft of Perseus, Kristin Baker, 2006, Acrylic on PVC, 255.3 x 40.4 cm (in two panels)

I really like the way that the raft seems solid and immovable despite being in a violent storm. It is reminiscent of Turner in some ways, being a seascape with a storm and the beautiful and innovative use of light.

The Pianist (after Robert J. Lang), Matt Johnson, 2005, Blue tarp, paper, stainless steel, 147 x 340 x 198 cm

This mostly fascinates me in a technical way but this large scale tarpaulin origami has resulted in an extremely interesting piece beyond its method of construction, amusingly as if the pianist has been put into storage along with his instrument.

Good vs Evil, Elizabeth Neel, 2009, Oil on canvas, 201 x 168 cm

Elizabeth Neel’s paintings impressed me significantly, they appear to be chaotic but the closer one looks they appear to be more balanced and ordered. Sort of cartoonish in style but also graphically violent. Good vs Evil and her other painting in this exhibition, The Humpndump, which is almost repulsively sexual as opposed to the struggle and fight of Good vs Evil, achieve something rare. They make me like paintings with dogs in, as much as I love dogs they are usually depicted in art with a cloying sentimentality that makes me want to vomit up my own pelvis. (Do not get me started on the ‘Royal Academy’ era of British art, just don’t.)

Untitled (Can Sculpture), Paul Lee, 2007, Soda cans, bath towel, ink, magnifying glass, string, paint, xerox, light bulb 23 x 12 x 19 cm

Paul Lee’s can sculptures I find very individual and quirky and they bring up all kinds of references and inferences with the use of something as blatantly capitalist-consumerist as the soda can, combined with other repurposed everyday objects. It makes me wonder if some references to people representing themselves in a sort of consumerist portrait, composing an image of themselves with bought objects, brands and lables. This is probably me bringing my own ideas and projecting them onto the art, but that is as valid an interpretation as anything else in my opinion. I’m not even going to touch on the sexual meanings, I’d have to write an essay on it if I began to tackle them.

Kiss Trap Kismet, Sterling Ruby, 2008, PVC pipe, urethane, wood, expanding foam, aluminium, spray paint, 300 x 384 x 122 cm

Kiss Trap Kismet by Sterling Ruby is the most perfect depiction of ‘love gone wrong’ that I have ever seen. It manages to walk the line between repulsive gore and beautiful indulgence. In the detail photo below, featuring the, almost obscene, tongue a greater sense of the bright, shiny sticky, gloopiness of the effect created by Ruby can be seen.

Kiss Trap Kismet [Detail], Sterling Ruby, 2008, PVC pipe, urethane, wood, expanding foam, aluminium, spray paint, 300 x 384 x 122 cm

It is love, kissing and sex as overindulgence, as equivalent to eating five boxes of expensive chocolates. Sickly but satisfied, queezy but happy, totally and thoroughly indulged to the point of revulsion.

There will probably be another entry about this exhibition posted tomorrow, about a single work in the exhibition. This will include a few photos as well as a rather badly recorded short video I recorded of it.