Art Worth Experiencing

— a review by Terry Johnson, Prof. of Art, retired —

Two recent art exhibitions at the Orcas Center during October and November are deserving of commentary.

In October, “EDGE,” an invitational curated by Jeffrey Ludwig, presented a number of surprising works by local artists that I found to be exceptional. Brook Mienhardt’s “Abraham” is a hybrid of 2-D and 3-D and is wonderfully confrontational because of its size, skillfully executed with untold man hours and obvious passion for the concept.

J.R. Berry’s “Gang Warfare” is a contemplative piece that at once is entertaining, but also has a darker metaphorical undertone, and being monochromatic, it lends to open interpretation.

Deborah Jones’ series of the sea are representational without being realistic, and are formally beautiful in color and tonality.

Christa Smith and Sharon Ho have a collaboration piece that is sensually tactile and has a delicate sense of topography.  The medium invites touching to add to the visual, but the added ceramic pieces are a bit confusing.

Others in the exhibition that deserve mention are Sarah Mikolowsky’s “Untitled,” Anita Holladay’s “Brandoneon,” and, always, Susan Slapin’s engaging abstractions, “Family of Trees.”

The current exhibition of three artists, Kandis Susol, Susan Singleton, and Hannah Glass, is a must-see show for those who like to intellectually engage with concepts. Susol’s works of projecting wax imbued paper are so simple that they are very powerful, suggesting a deliberate movement in one direction and then, suddenly, a change or decision is made and the flow reverses itself. This makes for open, metaphorical interpretation that can change on a daily basis.

Singleton’s “Lexicon” series is like a book or diary where the words have been obscured and one is left to suppose the text’s narrative. The formal aspects of the series is a beautiful, clean, almost monochromatic (but with the subtleties of paper hues and charcoal/ink tones) that preclude the interferences that blatant color impose. I admire this series very much.

Glasser’s hands-on, one-of-a-kind ceramic and mixed media pieces ask the viewer to reconsider the  beauty of arcane objects that we walk over, around, or through on our sojourns of daily living. Most, if not all, of Glasser’s seemingly common objects are actually reconstructed copies of the original, and it is this careful examination down to the quantum level that beguiles the viewer and asks that we observe more closely.

The current exhibition needs to be experienced with enough time to think and “suppose” the possibilities. Exhibitions of this caliber don’t occur that often on the island, and effort should be made to experience this show.