Artists continue search for innovation
The search is the thing in a show by seven longtime city-area artists who still seek “novelty and innovation” in their creations.
The “Unquenchable Search” exhibit opens from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at Artspace at Untitled, 1 NE 3.
Showing work are George Oswalt, Tony Dyke, Susan MorrisonDyke, David Crismon, John Wolfe, Marc Barker, and Klint Schor.
Oswalt combines realism with subtle, popsurreal touches, and maybe a bit of social- and self-satire, in one large, and another even larger oil canvas.
A curvaceous blonde looks over one shoulder as she ties the bottom of her red bikini, meeting our gaze with her own near leer, in the bigger oil.
Also staring back at us in Oswalt’s “Virtual Beach 2” is another blonde, wading in the surf with what may be two daughters, protectively holding their hands.
More neutral are Tony Dyke’s well-handled wash drawings of nudes on paper, plus a study of three subjects, punctuated with black scribbles and speckles.
Almost totally abstract is “Mirage,” a twopart, horizontal oil by Dyke, in which rich color and rough rectangular shapes, interact well.
Equally abstract is “Matchstick,” a fourcanvas oil by Susan Morrison-Dyke, which uses a blue background grid to enhance the impact of red, yellow and orange shapes.
Art historical, yet modern, are Crismon’s oilacrylic on metal works, depicting a river scene in “Hudson River Reformat,” and nearly cubistic columns in “Capriccio Reconstruction.”
Open, off-white, corroded looking ceramic structures, on wood blocks, supported by tall steel bases, leave a strong impression, in four sculptures by Wolfe.
Old, found, formally posed portrait photos, displayed in black frames, often behind broken glass, intrigue us and makes us think, in the “Redacted Immigrants” series of Barker.
On view outdoors at Artspace, and powerfully totemic, are the “stack” sculptures of Schor, made from the mundane material of concrete.
The group “Unquenchable Search” show is highly recommended in its run through Aug. 19.