Seven is a symbolic number. It’s heralded as lucky in
games of chance, represents the seven chakras, and refers to the
figurative number of seas, the traditional number of Wonders of the
Ancient World, and the number of days in the week. And, from Nov. 19 to
Dec. 19, seven is the number of artists showing work in the exhibition
Seven Perspectives, at the Stremmel Gallery.
The artists in this show are a diverse group, and the work ranges
from realistic painting to large-scale sculpture. Even thematically the
work might seem disparate. However, for the most part, the work of
these artists fits together in the gallery, offering a wide variety of
styles and approaches—perhaps illuminating each artist’s
perspective in relation to the others.
Ann Weber’s sculptures are arguably the most remarkable pieces
in the exhibition because of their size and location in the gallery.
Towering above the heads of gallery visitors, they demand attention and
interaction. At first glance, they look like woven baskets that have
taken on the forms of larger-than-life chess pieces. Once you walk
among the sculptures, which seem on the verge of toppling, they reveal
themselves to be made from cardboard strips that have been woven and
stapled, then lacquered.
“My abstract sculptures read as metaphors for life experiences
such as the balancing acts that define our lives,” Weber writes
in an email about her work.
Just as eye-catching are Marc Kantano’s large, colorful
paintings that occupy the walls around Weber’s sculptures. The
paintings are essentially color fields with errant yet deliberate and
repetitive lines that begin to form football-like shapes.
Shape and color also play a role in John Belingheri’s
paintings, which are comprised of colorful circles layered in random
patterns. The paintings contain rich textures of canvas, and some areas
give the impression of having something stuck to them while the paint
was still wet. It’s almost as though plastic wrap had adhered to
the surface and then been removed. The paintings give off an illusion
of depth even though they merely represent geometric shapes.
Similarly, Catherine Courtenaye’s large oil paintings
experiment with mark making and repetition. Her paintings evolved from
the stylistic vocabulary of the Victorian age, taking imprints of
letters and signatures and layering them on brightly colored surfaces.
The paintings, in an abstract way, are reminiscent of hand-drawn
maps.
There’s a relationship between Courtenaye’s work and the
work of Gordon McConnell.
“Both of us are absorbed with material and subjects from the
19th century,” writes McConnell via email. His paintings depict
typical Western cowboy scenes as represented in film, mostly in black
and white. Occasionally, he will add in a color panel in the style of
comics, but in all of his work, the paint application is done in a flat
and graphic way.
“When they look at my work, I hope people will think about how
image-making itself is a way of thinking about and transforming an
experience,” writes McConnell.
Related to this idea of transforming an experience are the realistic
paintings of Gregory Thielker. Thielker’s pieces simply show the
view from a car while driving through the rain. While they copy the
visual reality of the scene, they also explore the sensation of the
blurred view through the glass.
That brings us to the pastel drawings of Leonard Koscianski.
Koscianski’s drawings of flowers are colorful, beautifully
rendered, and because of their large size and the way they occupy the
entire frame that contains them, seem almost confrontational. This show
truly is comprised of seven perspectives that, while distinctly
different, share common ground.