CARY LEIBOWITZ
“Happy Days Good Times/Vicey Versy”
Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia
What the Gallery Says: “Happy days and good times. Really? Now? Happy Days. Good Times. Are they states of being or 1970s TV shows? Welcome to the ambiguous but endearing, high and low, humorous and poignant, sardonic sincerity of an exhibition by Cary Leibowitz a/k/a Candyass… Central to Leibowitz’s artistic practice is his nom d’art/alter-ego, Candyass, a fat, Jewish loser, loner, and ‘narcissistic, self-pitying homosexual who surrounds himself in a world of never-fulfilled hopes and dreams’ (Tim Davis, Resident magazine, 1997). Candyass redeems himself through the endearing charm of witty self-deprecation tinged with wistful idealism and palpable vulnerability. It is with this endangered, hapless innocent that Leibowitz’s admirers identify.”
Why It’s Worth a Look: Leibowitz manages to venerate both the celebrated and the loser within every one of us, and to maintain a credible outsider voice, even having become the subject of museum shows nationwide, which is quite a trick.
What It Looks Like:
Cary Leibowitz’s I Can’t Think of Anything That Rhymes With Loser (2016). Courtesy of the artist, Fleisher/Ollman, and INVISIBLE-EXPORTS.
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“Cary Leibowitz: Happy Days Good Times/Vicey Versy,” installation view.
Cary Leibowitz’s Please Don’t Tell Anyone You Saw Me (2016). Courtesy of the artist, Fleisher/Ollman, and INVISIBLE-EXPORTS.
“Cary Leibowitz: Happy Days Good Times/Vicey Versy,” installation view.
Cary Leibowitz’s Oh Nuts, Awe Nuts (2016). Courtesy of the artist, Fleisher/Ollman, and INVISIBLE-EXPORTS.
Cary Leibowitz’s Greta Gerwig (2016). Courtesy of the artist, Fleisher/Ollman, and INVISIBLE-EXPORTS.
Cary Leibowitz’s Painting on My Tippy Toes (2013). Courtesy of the artist, Fleisher/Ollman, and INVISIBLE-EXPORTS.
Cary Leibowitz’s They Only Put Up With Me Because I’m Colorful (2016). Courtesy of the artist, Fleisher/Ollman, and INVISIBLE-EXPORTS.