Review

A review of Robert Quackenbush's Load Bearing

Robert Quackenbush, "So… What Holds Up Your Sky? #10," mixed media on canvas, approx. 4' x 8', 2010. Image: courtesy of the artist

Mallin Gallery, Kansas City Artists Coalition
Kansas City, Missouri
March 5 – March 26, 2010

Structure is all around us. Our homes, our highways, our workplaces, and our places of leisure are all examples of the physical, man-made assemblages in and around which we live our lives. Robert Quackenbush’s exhibition Load Bearing, on view at the Kansas City Artists Coalition’s Mallin Gallery, explores the idea of the architectural-as-visual metaphor.

Graphed, a 2008 canvas, stands as a testament to what the construction of an art object can achieve aesthetically. Citing German artist Anselm Kiefer’s use of texture as influential in the making of this painting, Quackenbush builds this painting from the ground up, leaving evidence of his steps visible on the picture surface. “I have always been interested in geometrics,” he states, referring to the tight, gridded pattern that occupies the top quarter of the canvas, and almost in the same breath, speaks of the symbolism of the dripping, rust-colored paint onto the burlap-textured, white lower portion as “chaos, melting, bleeding, panic.”

Robert Quackenbush, "Residensity," mixed media on jute on panel, 42” x 40”. Image: courtesy of the gallery and artist

It is this dichotomy of obsessive meticulousness and chaotic abandon that gives this painting and others — including Residensity, a white canvas covered three quarters from the bottom up with a strict grid of raised blocks which simultaneously grounds the eye from its rigidity and suffocates the senses with its claustrophobic allusions to residential areas — such visceral presence.

Robert Quackenbush, "So… What Holds Up Your Sky? #7," mixed media on canvas, approx. 4' x 8', 2010. Image: courtesy of the artist

Less weighty, though no less substantial, are the paintings CAREFUL!, Portal, and Gate. While not keeping with the physicality of the previous canvases, Quackenbush introduces an element that will appear in the remaining paintings: framework. The frameworks in these paintings appear at the bottom of the panel. A skewed three-point perspective belies the horizon line that bisects each of these canvases at the same height. The horizon line represents another kind of duality in Quackenbush’s work. He states such contradictions as private/public and dark/light to be one of the reasons behind the inclusion of the horizon.

Robert Quackenbush, "Portal," mixed media on canvas, 40” x 40”. Image: courtesy of the gallery and artist

CAREFUL! is painted almost entirely in muted greens and tans, save for the three street-cone orange orbs that float ominously in the sky above the abstracted framework below. In the wash of mottled green, the orange seems to pulse like a beacon illuminating the fog, warning travelers to use caution ahead. The framework itself cuts through the tan void with a hard, calculated manipulation of space. Its presence is known absolutely, even if its purpose remains vague. This, coupled with the painting’s title, attests to the sense of unease that this work exudes.

Robert Quackenbush, "CAREFUL!," mixed media on canvas, 40” x 40”. Image: courtesy of the artist

The paintings Portal and Gate, though not having the emotional resonance that CAREFUL! carries, achieve a linear quality and blueprint-like sketchiness that fits comfortably within the parameters of the exhibition. As in CAREFUL!, muted green and peach make up the washes of background color, with the horizon slicing through both compositions three-quarters from the bottom of the canvases. The frameworks that are seen in the lower portions of the two paintings are less severe than in the previous canvas, more airy, and more defined in the sense of looking up at it.

Robert Quackenbush, "So… What Holds Up Your Sky? #8," mixed media on canvas, approx. 4' x 8', 2010. Image: courtesy of the artist

In Portal, a second, sketched shape mirrors the first and occupies the upper right corner of the picture plane, giving an impression of looking up — maybe through a partially opened sun roof while passing under the soaring trusses of a large, abstracted bridge. Gate is similarly composed, with white girders looming high overhead, bathed in a warm, yellow light. The difference between these two similar panels takes place above the horizon line. The upper hand sketch in Portal runs off of the picture plane, giving an illusion of being grounded somewhere out of sight. In Gate, however, a contained rectangular form resembling a skewed window frame occupies the space above the horizon. It emits an orange glow from where the windowpanes would sit, almost as a view through the sky that surrounds into a world beyond.

Installation view of Robert Quackenbush's "Load Bearing" at the Kansas City Artists Coalition Mallin Gallery. Pictured are "So… What Holds Up Your Sky? #9" and "So… What Holds Up Your Sky? #7." Photo: courtesy of the gallery

The latest series of paintings on display at the gallery, all of which are entitled So… What Holds Up Your Sky?, occupy the rest of the gallery space. Comprised of two smaller panels and four large, unstretched canvases, So… What Holds Up Your Sky? can be read as the newest venture of an artist who enjoys being a few steps outside of his comfort zone.

An element of the fantastical emerges within these paintings. The trusses remain as a character in Quackenbush’s work, but they have developed an almost fairytale-like quality — as whimsical as steel I-beams can get, anyway. The first small panel depicts a web of girders supporting a pink sky replete with billowing, cartoonish clouds. The second panel seems to be more of a study of the supporting structure itself. The sky element has been eliminated, which leaves the support beams complete reign over the picture plane. They surge to and fro, connecting to each other in the most unlikely of areas.

Robert Quackenbush, "So…What Holds Up Your Sky, #9," mixed media on canvas, approx. 4' x 8', 2010. Image: courtesy of the artist

The four large canvases allude to the storytelling aspect that flows through this series. The upper portions of these pieces do the talking, from a single black bar with the word "Faith" printed in iridescent paint, to the side of a shipping crate that hauls the load bearing frameworks to their current locations. These canvases are fun to look at and contextualize. It seems as though Quackenbush has let loose a bit, stepping into unfamiliar territory.

Robert Quackenbush, "So…What Holds Up Your Sky #2," mixed media on jute on panel, 12” x30” x2”. Image: courtesy of the gallery

Risk is a place Quackenbush enjoys. He speaks highly of innovation, points out that he relies on an assortment of homemade substances in which to paint with, and explains his multiple upcoming projects with an air of confidence and exploratory excitement that attests to his desire to endeavor. Load Bearing is a solid example of a painter’s process, as well as an interesting look into where one concept, the idea of structure, can branch into an array of separate conclusions.

-re-

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