Artist on the ‘write’ path
NORMAN — A kind of handwriting is on the wall, hard to decipher, but fun to explore, in a show at Mainsite Contemporary Art, 122 E Main.
Calligraphic, graffitilike swatches of mostly purple paint and white words swirl between rectangular panel paintings in the show by Sarah Clough.
She said her works “begin as words” before “taking on a chaotic but … orderly quality further twisted by use of fluorescent and phosphorescent paint.”
She said they can be viewed in sunlight but also “under ultraviolet light or in the dark,” with a special ultraviolet flashlight provided to uncover their layers.
Clough said this lets viewers control “what is illuminated, what is unearthed and what remains buried … not unlike a game of hide and seek.”
A longtime Oklahoma resident living in Baltimore, Clough just finished her Master of Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
In addition to the gallery-wide mural, her “The Bright Side” show contains two much larger rectangular works, done on thin (yupo) paper, tacked to the wall.
In one 11-foot-wide work, “No Such Thing as Nothing,” swirling swathes of orange paint seem to spell out something over a fluorescent yellow and pale violet backdrop.
In the other, 9½-footwide work, “This Is All,” double lines of bright blue-white letters pop off of a purple-blue background with a lot of pizzazz.
Running through Friday, with a closing reception from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. that night, Clough’s exhibit is well worth visiting. Also on view through Friday is a second show, by Justin Hogan, in Mainsite’s Library Gallery.
— John Brandenburg,
for The Oklahoman