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Uneven show provides opportunity to see great art
(by Dickson Beall - June 25, 2008)
Those shiny, black coffee bags aren’t just for carrying home the beans anymore. Thinking outside the bag, so to speak, an artist might envision another way to recycle those espresso bags — like sewing them together and wearing them.
Morphing coffee bags into a woman’s power suit, displaying the creation on a department store rack and offering it for sale as a work of art is exactly what artist Christine A. Holtz did.
An exhibit of Holtz’s creations, with the witty title “Professional Artist,” is now the window decoration for Art St. Louis’s inaugural exhibition at its beautiful new downtown space at 555 Washington Ave.
Previously at 917 Locust St. and accessed by an elevator ride up, Art St. Louis was founded more than 22 years ago by well-known local artists Peter Marcus, Mary Sprague and Bill Kohn for the purpose of exhibiting artists who lived within a 200-mile radius of St. Louis.
All Art St. Louis exhibitions are juried, and two local professors of art — Ken Anderson from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Mark Douglas from Fontbonne University — selected the 42 artists presented in the current exhibition, which includes Holtz’s work, titled Patterns and Pixels.
The exhibition is characterized by the imaginative use of diverse materials designed to grab the eye. In addition to using coffee bags, exhibited artists employ cut paper, India ink, digital photography and yarn, among other things.
For example, M. J. Goerke shreds books, perhaps causing some dismay on the part of tree huggers and book lovers. Goerke gives additional meaning to the word “deconstruction,” as he reconstructs books into sculptural patterns that may be more interesting and better-crafted shapes than the destroyed words. However, his “Transgressions” gives this book-lover a bit of a chill.
In his “Artist with Forest Creatures,” Benji Rowan has patiently cut colored construction paper into tiny rectangular tiles and pasted them onto a board, thus forming an undulating and mosaic-like flat pattern of rich yellow ochre, greens, blues and violet.
Amy Firestone Rosen makes good use of India ink, acrylic, lithography and silkscreen on paper in her large piece, “Kimono II.” She searches for the connections between human touch and machine touch. Rosen’s repetition of pattern and color, similar to the designs on ties or wallpaper, is fresh and a delight for the eye. The paper droops at the top, as if it has come unglued or is still a work in process, with yet more to be done. I like the sketchiness and spontaneity of this work, which is more carefully executed than apparent at first glance.
A colorful and attractive piece by Carol Stewart seems to be all about the show’s titular pixels and patterns. Stewart’s “Pink Fabric” is an image of a floral fabric pattern. Stitched together in Photoshop and repeated in beautiful digitized pinks, oranges, reds, greens and violets, it demonstrates the luscious range of beautiful colors and patterns that can emanate from pixels.
In their work, Janice Nesser and Lydia Brockman scan images of ducks, lambs, letters and children’s furniture onto canvas squares pieced together with yarn and upholstery material. Their collaborative work results in an intriguing wall hanging with a mysterious anticipation in the title, “…and her name shall be…”.In their artist statement, Nesser and Brockman write that they intend to investigate identity and the cultural acceptance of gendering — how it informs our identity through objects and play — but I found the delightful experience of their very personal art more enjoyable than the act of trying to decipher some deeper social meaning.
While the aforementioned artists received Awards of Excellence for their works, three more were given Honorable Mentions by the judges: Daniel Scott for his “Milk Thistle,” done with ink, gouache, and watercolor; Marceline Saphian for “Une Deux Trois,” her repetitive, tropical-flower pattern; and Holtz received Honorable Mention for her dresses. Her slip dress made from cloth measuring tapes used by tailors may be the most imaginative of all the works in the show. Called “Size 2640,” the sewn-together tapes would look smart on just about any woman, whatever her size.
Although the exhibition is uneven in quality, Patterns and Pixels provides a splendid opportunity to view a great variety of inventive work by local artists.
Patterns and Pixels continues through July 24, 2008 at Art St. Louis, 555 Washington Ave.
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