Contrast found in show of paintings
There is a nice contrast between the more downbeat film noirish oils of George Oswalt and the “decidedly positive” acrylics of Elizabeth Hahn.
Their paintings and photos by G. L. August Loessberg are on view in a show by the three “longtime friends” at JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N Walker.
Veteran Oklahoma City artist and art teacher Oswalt said his realistic yet sometimes surrealistic oils deal with “weightlessness, loss and life transitions.”
In Oswalt’s “Noir Madonna #1,” a nude female, whose raised left hand has mysteriously caught fire, hangs suspended over people having car trouble at night.
Film noir-like, too, is Oswalt’s “Urban Anthology #2,” an interior of a woman in a black slip, staring at us, in front of a reflection of a man’s nude upper body.
Oswalt’s modern, clad and less clad “Three Graces” crowd the front of the picture, while “The Gazer,” a man, stands in a doorway, looking at women in a garden.
Staring at us boldly is the vampy, almost vampirish subject of Oswalt’s “More Passion Play,” a pale redhead in dark blue drapes, standing before a paintdabbed sky.
In another Oswalt oil, a nude lady holding a robe, checks her reflection in a mirror at a “Virtual Beach,” ignored by the seated young man lounging nearby.
Santa Fe and former longtime Oklahoma City artist Hahn’s smaller acrylic panels have a touch of surrealism, as well, coupled with realistic detail and eye-catching surface patterns.
Hahn also makes good use of naively appealing, partly cut-off figures, like the couple having coffee, gazing at vintage small cars, as they wait for “desserts” to make it “A Perfect Day.”
We see only the legs of two people “Dancing With Chickens” in the desert, or going down steps, presumably after getting married, in an acrylic Hahn calls “Everlasting.”
In two more works, Hahn offers us a glimpse of the legs of a woman, in jazzy attire, climbing a “Miraculous Staircase,” and those of two people holding hands, sharing “Spring” with park squirrels.
Regarding his “The Walls of Tuito” show, Oklahoma City photo and graphic artist Loessberg said he spends about half the year in the small Mexican ranch town, south of Puerto Vallarta.
Reading as nearly abstract, at first glance, Loessberg’s color photos also capture the “painted and repainted … lush, vibrant colors that echo
the pueblo’s identity over the centuries.”
An abraded, deep “Blue Wall” suggests a starry night sky, and scratched pinkish-purplish marks give a strong landscape feel to Loessberg’s “Cinnabar,” for example.
“Painting” is the deadpan ironic title of a third excellent Loessberg photo, portraying many layers of purple paint, dramatically flaking off of an agua-hued substratum.
The three-person exhibit is highly recommended in its run through Oct. 29.