Archive for May, 2010
Memor Matris : Reda Carr
Carr’s work, which stands in the median of Roe Boulevard just south of Interstate 35, is both severe and haunting. It was born of the sculptor’s own grief, but should hold personal resonance for anyone who has ever lost a protector, mentor and anchor.
The Gatekeeper: Michael McClanahan
The sculpture is an open and ongoing metaphor. Sometimes its gates will be open, sometimes not; as with the creator, so with the creation.
A World of Inspiration Beneath His Feet: Ronald D. Hicks
Hicks’ pieces are both solid and graceful, in the full measure of both, with that balance giving them a simultaneous sense of motion and contemplation.
REFLECT ART: ARTICLES OF DISCOVERY
What happens for you in that pause, the moment of viewing? An emerging patron offers the first in a series of inquiries into the perspective and involvement of the viewer, with essays about the process and exercises to challenge the way we all consider works of art and their place in our culture.
A Creative Change in Course: Jason Wood
As intricate as Jason Wood’s mixed-media work is, it would seem to be the product of long planning. Actually, the opposite is true.
FOURTH/FINAL FRIDAY CALENDAR DIGEST, MAY 2010
May 28: A new multi-sensory installation by James Woodfill opens at Review Studios Exhibition Space in Kansas City, Missouri, and out in Wichita, Kansas, it’s Final Friday gallery crawl night, with special emphasis on the River City Biennale. Events continue on Saturday, and museums are open usual hours over the weekend. Monday is Memorial Day, when we remember and honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. There are a couple of new exhibitions opening next week, before First Friday on June 4. Read on!
UNBOUND BY SPACE OR MATERIAL
Christina Dostaler’s and Matt Jacobs’s individual work translates well into installation; their use of plastics and color, fibers and found objects, joined with the humor found in the juxtaposition of ideas and misplaced utility, creates an energetic and sophisticated experience with “Tether.” Site-specific and well-balanced, it calls for more than just a glance. (On view through May 28 at Cocoon, open Thursday & Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.)
Moments in Balance: Bobbi Toyne
Bobbi Toyne’s pastel works are both strong and restrained, not so color-saturated as to overpower their subject matter nor so muted as to soften its impact.
MANIFESTING THE BAROQUE SALON
Objects with no apparent purpose but their strong visual appeal often appeared in the rooms in which aristocratic women would lead cultural and intellectual meetings with the greatest minds of the 17th century. These ornamental pieces were certainly not the subject of discussion: they were visual signifiers of elegance, taste, and wealth. Mary Ann Strandell’s current exhibition in Oklahoma City offers this very pointed type of decoration.
Chronicles of Compassion: Chloe Mann
Mann glosses over nothing in her photography. She has a keen eye for the telling detail in an environmental shot, and in capturing a sense of her subjects’ personalities. However … and this is important … she also doesn’t sensationalize, or depict people as pitiful.
Set Weapons to Fun: Guinotte Wise
Wise has tapped into a place where collective imagination meets a yearning for a return to a more innocent time — even if it’s a time none of us ever got to experience.
THE SCIENCE AND ART OF CONNECTION
Ian Shelly’s latest exhibition, “It’s Elementary My Dear Watson,” features artwork made of terra cotta, porcelain, rope, sand, and other materials. “I make by playing,” he says. “Afterward I sit down and think about what I made and why.”
Practice Makes Perceptive: C. Fred Schoell
Schoell has a strong eye for color, light and balance, and his photos convey those strengths … well, beautifully. For all of that accessibility, though, there’s still a challenge in Schoell’s work, both for the photographer and the viewer. The former is a challenge of presentation, the latter one of perception.
Sarah Reconsidered: Sarah Sutherland
The 11 oils on display through Tuesday at VALA Gallery are often dark, frequently raw and dominated by a black-red-white color scheme. That’s apt, given that they were born out of frustration and anger.
Sarah Considered: R. Scott Anderson
If there’s such a thing as a common fiber within a common thread, so to speak, it’s that the most powerful works in “All Things Sarah” match dramatic, insistent incidental light with subtle, unforced poses and motions. Those photographs unfold slowly, inviting repeated viewings.
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