Swirls of graphite envelop apparent animals in exhibit
Animals seem to both inhabit and come out of clouds, waves, objects or merely swirls of graphite, in the large drawings of Haley Prestifilippo.
Prestifilippo has a show of her “Powdered Graphite” drawings, with an exhibit by Douglas Shaw Elder, at JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N Walker.
“Heavier Than First Imagined” is the typically ambiguous title for her drawing of a gray floating cloud in which big cats and predators devour big game.
In her “We Can’t Be Seen,” a lion crawls over balls in the sky on which a dead waterbird is lying, and a horse leaps heavenward in “We Can’t Stay.”
In Prestifilippo’s “We’ve Just,” predators chase deer in a motley mass of celestial materials, including one leaping into white space, as if to escape.
In one of her smaller drawings, the beak of a waterbird, with wings spread, seems to have just “Caught” a thread from a dark plume of water or fabric.
The Norman artist, born in Georgia, said her images “expand while collapsing,” evoking “a sense of harmony,” but revealing “only upheaval and uncertainty.”
She teaches at Firehouse Art Center, where Elder, who received his master’s degree at Boston University, has been executive director since 2007.
Repetitive, rhythmic rips and gouges in their layered, richly tinted surfaces, create a strong yet abstract sense of landscape in the works of Elder.
Rusty, deep reddish-brown fields seem to mirror pale bluish, greenish clouds, pouring rain on the long horizon line, in Elder’s “Scape XXI (21),” for example.
Eliminating the horizon line, so they resemble underground rock formations, as much as landscape, are his roughly worked “Scapes” 15 and nine.
Elder describe his work in his “OKecoScapes” series as “organic and dark in character,” conveying a “sense of the raw, unalterable power of nature.”
Both the Haley Prestifilippo and Elder shows are highly recommended
during their run through April 1 at JRB.
Also on display and worth visiting, through that date, will be an exhibit by about 10 artists who are professionals in other fields, of work done “After Hours.”