Review

"The Finest Posy 2," Ink and Marker on Paper.

Lauren Brunk
Wayward Migrations

9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Apex Art Space
(Crossroads Dentistry)
1819 Wyandotte Street
Kansas City, MO
816.841.0206

Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday (except holidays), 6-9 p.m. First Fridays.
Runs through: Sept. 15.

Artist's site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurenbrunk
Gallery site: http://www.apexartspace.com

It might sound like a paradox, but  the key to successful art (of any sort) is knowing when and where to leave a space unfilled: the dramatic rest at the climax of the musical composition, the sudden freeze of dancing bodies, the beat before the punchline.

Wayward Migrations, Lauren Brunk's show of drawings, works precisely because she has a masterful grasp of where not to put ink.

I consider art a form of experimentation, a sort of self-imposed logic problem, writes Brunk, whose exhibition runs through mid-September at Apex Art Space (inside Crossroads Dentistry). It is a song and dance choreographed with timing of color, the beats of texture, and the melody of form.

Brunk clearly has her visual choreography down, her well-placed white space giving the effect of light reflecting off a curved surface. That, combined with her eye for (and skill in depicting) rich detail, gives her works an almost three-dimensional quality.

See The Finest Posy 2, today's featured piece, for an example. The dark spaces in the drawing infuse it with weight and depth, and the curves and colors provide a pronounced sensuality ... but the small, irregular bands of white on the petals give the drawing its spark of life. (It should also be noted that the online reproductions of Brunk's drawings pale in comparison to the originals.)

It would be tempting to see the title of Brunk's show as a metaphor for her chosen medium. Her BFA from the University of Kansas is in sculpture, and the delicacy of paper is a definite migration away from that.

Illustration, however, was her first artistic love ... and her approach to the form is anything but capricious, given the thought that goes into her work.

A prevalent theme in my recent collection of drawings is latency—the veiled meanings behind reality and the way everything seems to exist with potential, Brunk writes. Nature itself is a great example of this, a beautiful web of organized chaos where that which seems straight and fixed is really complicated and diverse. I am interested in the breaking point where delicacy and elaboration almost become gaudy, and am constantly trying to break this point down to reveal beautiful truths through patterns and imagery. In this collection, I have unearthed a means through which I investigate and question theories and memories; the answers are visual gems.

It's an apt analogy. Gems are at their best when their facets flash and sparkle in the light ... and Brunk's drawings do the same, thanks to those spaces left untouched by her pens and markers.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Updating...