Emergings at Gallery 6000
By Tom Wachunas
EXHIBIT: Emergings: Captivating Paintings from Four
New Artists. Elizabeth Dallas, Josh Humm, Jennifer Jones, Jennifer
Northcut, at Gallery 6000, located in
the University Center Dining Room on the Kent State University at Stark campus.
OPENING RECEPTION on Wednesday, Feb. 19,
5:30 to 7:30 p.m. On view through April 4.
On the face of it,
the title of this exhibit might suggest that the four participants have never
exhibited before or are newborn to the art world. But to clarify, my intent in
calling them “new” is to celebrate the youthful emergence of their individual
approaches in the context of either completing, or being on the verge of
completing, work toward their undergraduate degrees in fine arts.
In their advanced
painting development, all four have worked under the steady guidance of Jack
McWhorter, Associate Professor of Art in the Fine Arts department of Kent State
University at Stark. And I think the outcome of their collegiate studio
practices here has clearly generated artistic visions as captivating as they
are diverse.
In
gathering and mounting this show, I was prompted at one point to consider the
decisions a painter makes about the relationship between physical size of the
picture plane and its underlying idea.
Scale can be effective in how we discern or interpret artists’ intent.
The three abstract
works on wood panels by Elizabeth Dallas (two mixed media, one acrylic), for
example, have an impromptu, child-like energy about them. Varying shapes and
textures seem to simultaneously converge into patterns and disperse into
softly-colored air. Fleeting, or retrieved memories? Their small scale –
approx. 11” x 12” – intensifies their sense of personal intimacy. And her
titles, such as Playroom Study and Bedtime Study, enhance a sense of
private meditation.
Two of Josh Humm’s
three oil paintings here (the third work, Blink
2Infinity, is an unabashedly murky foray into gestural abstraction) are
similarly-scaled, but in this case their
smallness doesn’t so clearly exude lyrical cordiality. Yet despite their stark,
“minimalist” appearance, their painterly manner gives them an expressionistic
aura. His black and white Data Deconstruction:
Reprogramming, and Data Deconstruction:
Navigating a Void, are loosely
delineated grid patterns of fuzzy-edged squares. Metaphors for microchips? The
imprecision of the linear elements and variable blotchiness of the shapes, when
considered with the titles of the paintings, seem to imply searching for a
personal, maybe even emotional connection to the arcane technology of
cyberspace.
In contrast to
Humm’s monochromatic palette and structural regularity, the three abstract oils
by Jennifer Northcut are larger, exquisitely organic compositions of
mellifluous shapes infused with a variety of saturated hues. Her brush work is
sure-handed, broad and fluid, particularly in Lotus, wherein the spectacular dynamic of push-pull between hot and
cool colors brings palpable motion to the floral configurations.
In looking at the
four large mixed media works on paper by Jennifer Jones, I imagined her being
an avid doodler. I don’t mean that in any demeaning way, but rather in the sense
of how unconscious or “automatic” drawing can ultimately generate coherent visual
fields. On a purely formal level, Jones unifies the expansive busy-ness of her
pictures with an astute sense of colors and shapes rhythmically organized…as if
dancing.
There is a playful, flow- of- consciousness
feel about these pieces – panoramic, ornate, and executed with joyous abandon.
This is drawing, joined with the physicality of paint, unfettered by the weight
of overly-precious illusionism, yet still representational of specific memories
or cathartic moments. Exclamatory epiphanies, or celebrating rites of passage.
Certainly among those would be the emergence of a compelling aesthetic.
PHOTOS (from top):
Lotus, by Jennifer Northcut; Bedtime Study, by Elizabeth Dallas; Data Deconstruction, by Josh Humm; The Day Guests Arrived, by Jennifer
Jones
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