Access (white)

Art reviewer Judy Robbins’ review of Access (white and black) at Moen Mason Gallery

“Christopher Classen is a Los Angeles painter and sculptor who describes an Art Industrial Complex as one which has “evolved into the movement of commodity.” His works are conceptual in that the medium the artist has chosen makes a statement. It is about consumerism, specifically the excessive accumulation and monetary valuation in art markets. Classen’s “Access, White” and “Access, Black” are the type of candy dispensing machines we remember from our youth. In Classen’s installation, the machines stand silently and seemingly expectant, coated in black and white enamel and filled with black and white gelatin capsules. The capsules presented a choice but not a clear one. Were the white capsules innocent and pure and the black capsules offering a dark and toxic experience? The viewer then becomes part of the dialogue about our appetite for excess suggested by these unsettling works.”