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Bukang Kim.
Mountain #1, 1987. Acrylic on paper, 42x42in. Photo courtesy of the artist.
As the year turned, I realized with more than a modicum of surprise that I have been going to art exhibitions at galleries, arts centers, non-profit spaces, museums, and artists' studios for forty years, in Greater Cincinnati and across the country. It seems a fortuitous time to remember the art that has really stuck with me, even altered my perceptions of things, over this period, and to share these observations with readers.
Rather quickly into my meditations and ruminations, I became aware that the majority of art that's impacted me were in shows I saw before I went into the art business. That unbridled delight changed when I was looking as a critic, a curator, an art advisor; parts of my intellect detach when I've looked for professional reasons. I've generally lost the ability to look at art viscerally. I also know myself well enough that I've always been more engaged by content than by technique, and that I'm a Romantic rather than a Classicist or Duchampian. My original art history professor in college (1964-1968) also turned out to be correct on a number of points: one's taste doesn't change that much over time, although one's appreciation and understanding of other art may and usually does. (He also predicted that I'd become a collector: bear in mind, I was a political science major).
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Rob Anderson.
Apt, 2009. Oil on boad, 48x31.5in. Photo Courtesy of the Sandra Small Gallery.
While one might assume that the dictionary definition for 'interior' would be simply 'inside,' it is not. In the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, it is "lying, or functioning within the limiting boundaries," followed by "belonging to mental or spiritual life" and then "belonging to the inner constitution or concealed nature of something."
Daniel Brown (full disclosure: Brown is a contributor to ÆQAI) knew that when he chose five area artists for the exhibition 'Interior Views' at Sandra Small Gallery, through February 12.
The four representational painters—Rob Anderson, Marty Cooper, Daniel P. O'Connor, and Tina Tamarro (and the lone sculptor, Margot Gotoff)—reveal their own interiors, their own artistic personalities as they strive to depict the inner lives of their subjects and invite viewers to go into their own 'interiors.'
All of Rob Anderson's realistically rendered figures' intense expressions signal that they are engaged in deep contemplation, but what are they thinking about? That is unknown, especially in his series of Small Portraits, which are installed as a group. With one exception, these men—and they are all men—look away from the viewer. There is no more information than the intent looks on their faces. Can viewers discern what is so concerning to them, or do they default to whatever is of concern to them?
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Marc Leone.
Mighty #1298, 2009. Mixed media, 60x60in. Photo Courtesy of the artist.
Marc Leone's exhibition at The Carnegie, continuing through February 19, is an object lesson in multiplicity resulting from limitations. Having determined to use specific sizes, very specific materials, and what might be thought of as an absence of color, Leone proceeds to show us that restriction breeds invention.
The eight works come from two series, “Carbon and Crust” and “The Mighty,” the differences between them being size and shape of the paintings and, for “The Mighty,” the addition of one element, a potent one: volcanic ash. All the works are fashioned from “carbon, graphite, latex paint, earth, acids, and burlap, applied to canvas and mounted on wood” their labels tell us.
In The Carnegie's upstairs Duveneck gallery Leone's paintings are aligned with a nice consideration for size relationships. The long walls, one interrupted by the entrance door, each show multiple works while the shorter end walls face each other with single, identically sized, 60”x72” paintings. The only other piece of that size is directly in the center of the long wall facing the door, flanked by the two paintings from the Mighty series. They, in turn, are the only square pieces in the show, at 60”x60”.
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Forty Years of Looking
