January 9, 2016

It’s great to go to openings for the social aspect.  But for looking at art, openings are not the best.  I dropped in at a Clint Roenisch gallery opening last week and could not really get a beat on the art shown.

It was so cold in the gallery that people stood outside, around a fire, to warm up.

There was a small display referencing the work of On Kawara, who died on July 10th 2014.

At one point I dropped my phone.

 

Division Gallery

(Viewed in daylight hours.)

Svea Ferguson – Self Exposures

I particularly liked looking at this artist’s sculptures.  Vinyl flooring, that generally banal substance, is the material Svea Ferguson uses to create these expressively nuanced three dimensional pieces. (You can almost feel the matte knife slicing through the buttery vinyl!)

“Black Sigh” by Svea Ferguson

“Untitled” by Svea Ferguson

The sculptures swoop, furl and drape with apparently effortless grace.  It’s like we are programmed to respond to those elegant curves.  It must be in our DNA.  The bland beige and industrial black and white add a mood of detached sophistication.

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Jillian Kay Ross – Most Dogs Go To Heaven

Jillian Kay Ross tells us that these paintings “function together as a collection of reassurances.”  The paintings, composed of simple, spare line drawings on a white ground, do create a sense of naivete. Maybe what the artist is getting at is the trusting faith that exists only in childhood?  The somewhat primitive renderings of buckled up ponies, nails, dogs and various ambiguous objects – which may or may not be related to childhood – definitely have a fey appeal.

“Like this in West Lodge” by Jillian Kay Ross

“Bent clay 2” by Jillian Kay Ross

Some of the images made me think of those few last “Lucky Charms” slowly dissolving in a bowl of milk.   It does takes real faith to blow these fragments up and know that they will hold together as paintings, and they do.

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Mythology – Wesley Martin Berg, Bryce Zackery and Daniel Boccato

Concurrent to the exhibitions by Svea Ferguson and Jillian Kay Ross is three artist show called Mythology.   It’s a big space!

The three-dimensional pieces by Daniel Boccato look like giant, colorful, plastic inflatable toys that have lost a bit of their air and been dragged in from a deserted beach somewhere.  I really liked these pieces.  They have a joyful eccentricity and bravado that gives a playful feeling to the entire show.

Installation view of Mythology Exhibition

Artwork by Daniel Boccato

Artwork by Daniel Boccato

Wesley Martin Berg creates large monochromatic silver or black paintings over relief imagery, and a strange recurring “hobo” sculpture.

Detail of artwork by Wesley Martin Berg

Bryce Zackery must be a fan of heavy metal.  His dense black sculptures are encrusted in with nails, chains, found objects and taxidermied creatures.

Detail of sculpture installation by Bryce Zackery