A Funky Fraternity

A Funky Fraternity

Together, by Matthew George

Night Owls, by Matthew George

Figure Studies, by Matthew George

Research Facility, by Justin Pope

New Species, by Justin Pope

Bo Bo Dingle's Nightmare, by Justin Pope

Two Hearts, by Patrick Bell

Big Headed, by Patrick Bell

Torso 3, by Patrick Bell

By Tom Wachunas

   “The Old Soul is more inclined to be a lifelong learner, constantly feeding his thirst for insight through his own persistent efforts. His learning has not been forced into him through education or learned out of obligation, but has been absorbed out of curiosity and personal choice.” ― Aletheia Luna

EXHIBIT: Old Souls: Ceramic Sculpture, Prints & Painting by Matthew George, Justin Pope, Patrick Bell / THROUGH FEBRUARY 28, 2020 / KENT STATE UNIVERSITY AT STARK / THE WILLIAM J. AND PEARL F. LEMMON VISITING ARTIST GALLERY, in the FINE ARTS BUILDING / 6000 FRANK AVENUE NW, NORTH CANTON, OH 44720 / Gallery hours Monday – Thursday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., Friday 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

   Each of the three artists featured in this exhibit completed his undergraduate college work at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Matthew George is now an assistant director at Artists Image Resources, a printmaking workshop in Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, Justin Pope is pursuing his Master’s degree at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, while Patrick Bell is close to earning his at Kent State University’s main campus.

   The intriguing title of their wildly entertaining exhibit here at Kent Stark hints at something beyond their common academic past or ongoing friendship. These young “Old Souls” share a quirky psychospirituality. In some ways, the exhibit is a sympathetic nod to a much older era of artmaking that emerged during the 1960s and 70s in the form of “underground” and “countercultural” folk or pop art. Think Zap Comix, or the bizarre hilarity of Monty Python’s Flying Circus animations, to name just a few. Surreal, satirical, sobering and silly all at once.

   Half the fun here might be in making up your own narrative to connect separate works. Matthew George’s screen prints, such as his joyous “Together,” are loosely drawn and infused with bold colors that pop out from  subtle layers of implied textures. Elsewhere, are the strange birds in his “Night Owls” symbols of dream-time guardians, or sentinels of the subconscious? They stand at attention, silently watchful. Maybe they’re poised to converse with the very loud, contorted demons pictured in George’s charcoal and acrylic figure studies. Are these gargoyle-like  creatures threatening and dangerous, or are they simply laughing at their own whimsicality? 

  

   More untethered flights of edgy imagination continue in the works by Justin Pope. The delineated geometry on a black field in “Research Facility” (acrylic, screen print, and graphite) resembles an architect’s schematic for a shelter, or bunker, floating in outer space. A yellow light emanates from inside this cosmic outpost – a beacon, perhaps, symbolizing the artist as embedded in the limitless expanse of creative inspiration. And speaking of geometry, there’s Pope’s cheeky screen print and graphite “New Species (The Preservation).”  In parodying the mathematical symmetry of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man,” Pope’s humorously positioned figure looks as if he’s either desperately trying to become the Renaissance model of idealized anatomical elegance, or break free from it altogether. It’s a goofy sort of dance, transpiring in a vast field of undulating waves made with accumulated concentrations of obsessively tiny pencil lines.

   Patrick Bell’s approach to human anatomy is less overtly cartoonish. His ceramic sculptures are raw, somewhat jarring examinations of body parts and exposed viscera. Innards turned outward. The surface colors can simultaneously exude morbidity and vitality. This dichotomous character of clay as an art medium is most apparent in the piece called “Two Hearts.” One of the hearts is finished ceramic – fired clay made all shiny with glaze. Is this permanent, immutable statue true to real life? The other heart is simply dried-out clay, unfired, suggesting lifelessness. It’s a stark memento of mortality, of vulnerability and corruptibility, of dust to dust.

    In thinking about this show, I remembered that during the mid-20^th century, painter Jean Dubuffet’s art brut was a blunt rejection of many traditional Western art philosophies and practices, favoring instead the intoxicating power of pure expression, unfettered by academic rules. At one point he wrote, “…Let reason teeter! …Delirium!...Art must make you laugh a little and make you a little afraid. Anything as long as it doesn't bore.”

   So, then…boring art? You’ll not find it here.