COLOR X 6 Exhibit Review
BY JOSEF WOODARD
NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
November 18, 2011
ART REVIEW : Six Degrees of the Color Wheel - Six artists with a strong connection to color and the abstract impulse gather in the current exhibition at the UCSB Faculty Center, 'Color x 6.'
Curated by Pamela Benham
Contrary to some reports, the art of color-filled — and color-fueled — abstract painting is still alive and well, and fairly well woven into the fabric of available public visuals. A century-plus after Kandinsky, and a half-century-plus after the mostly America-based Abstract Expressionists finally put our nation on the artworld map, we find abstract paintings in banks, lobbies and, yes, gallery spaces and collections.
It may be a testament to the ubiquity of colorful abstract art, in fact, that the current exhibition at the UCSB Faculty Club, a six-artist affair dubbed "Color x 6," serves the dual function of being interesting or ignorable, depending on the needs of the beholder. On a recent lunchtime visit, diners could carry on with their business without being unduly distracted, while others among us (well, me) found much to zero in on in a concentrated way.
As a subtext in this show, the six artists demonstrate the variety of ways to parse a palette and personalize a relationship with the abstraction muse. An artist whose intriguing work has shown around town lately, Karin Aggeler, for example, has a strong sense of expressive self, but finds ways of changing up the scenery and approach. Her "Unexpected Guests" is grounded in bubbling colors and vibrant gestures, but that action is washed over with a layer of pale yellow paint. Mystery is enhanced by the containment/detachment tactic. But that piece is in sharp contrast with the rough red forms of "Red Blocks" and the dreamy blue hue in the large "Kona 5."
Bursting at the seams in their own way, Francis Scorzelli's untitled mixed media pieces, verging on friendly chaos, are busy assemblies of tumbling forms, visual buzzes and a lending toward earthiness over the overly cerebral. We might expect a similar vibe from a painting titled "Holding Back the Maelstrom of the Random," but Pamela Benham's so-monikered work combines the vigor and intensity with a liquid, seeping character. It's a maelstrom with manners.
Also fluid in spirit, and somehow quasi-cosmic, Jim Bess' "Pretty Please with a Cherry on Top" — quite possibly the best of show winner — boasts an expressionistic muscle and intrigue belying its giddy title. The friction between the recognizable (yes, including a "cherry on top") and the non-representational aspects energizes the painting, one of the stronger and stranger items here.
Moving in yet another aesthetic orbit, Wayne J. Hoffman's large canvas "Allegory" asserts itself with a bold while somehow subtle, Diebenkorn-ish patchwork of irregular geometric shapes. Orderliness meets spontaneity, in the right, measured degrees. Elsewhere, Hoffman ratchets down in scale and visual volume, with impressionistic impressions of places traveled.
Wisps and snippets of the real world sneak into the picture in this show, even as the abstracting impulse and passion for color account for the main event. Even more fundamentally, on display here are six degrees of artistic diversity, from locally made sources.
All Content Copyright © 2011 Santa Barbara News-Press / Ampersand Publishing, LLC unless otherwise specified.
NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
November 18, 2011
ART REVIEW : Six Degrees of the Color Wheel - Six artists with a strong connection to color and the abstract impulse gather in the current exhibition at the UCSB Faculty Center, 'Color x 6.'
Curated by Pamela Benham
Contrary to some reports, the art of color-filled — and color-fueled — abstract painting is still alive and well, and fairly well woven into the fabric of available public visuals. A century-plus after Kandinsky, and a half-century-plus after the mostly America-based Abstract Expressionists finally put our nation on the artworld map, we find abstract paintings in banks, lobbies and, yes, gallery spaces and collections.
It may be a testament to the ubiquity of colorful abstract art, in fact, that the current exhibition at the UCSB Faculty Club, a six-artist affair dubbed "Color x 6," serves the dual function of being interesting or ignorable, depending on the needs of the beholder. On a recent lunchtime visit, diners could carry on with their business without being unduly distracted, while others among us (well, me) found much to zero in on in a concentrated way.
As a subtext in this show, the six artists demonstrate the variety of ways to parse a palette and personalize a relationship with the abstraction muse. An artist whose intriguing work has shown around town lately, Karin Aggeler, for example, has a strong sense of expressive self, but finds ways of changing up the scenery and approach. Her "Unexpected Guests" is grounded in bubbling colors and vibrant gestures, but that action is washed over with a layer of pale yellow paint. Mystery is enhanced by the containment/detachment tactic. But that piece is in sharp contrast with the rough red forms of "Red Blocks" and the dreamy blue hue in the large "Kona 5."
Bursting at the seams in their own way, Francis Scorzelli's untitled mixed media pieces, verging on friendly chaos, are busy assemblies of tumbling forms, visual buzzes and a lending toward earthiness over the overly cerebral. We might expect a similar vibe from a painting titled "Holding Back the Maelstrom of the Random," but Pamela Benham's so-monikered work combines the vigor and intensity with a liquid, seeping character. It's a maelstrom with manners.
Also fluid in spirit, and somehow quasi-cosmic, Jim Bess' "Pretty Please with a Cherry on Top" — quite possibly the best of show winner — boasts an expressionistic muscle and intrigue belying its giddy title. The friction between the recognizable (yes, including a "cherry on top") and the non-representational aspects energizes the painting, one of the stronger and stranger items here.
Moving in yet another aesthetic orbit, Wayne J. Hoffman's large canvas "Allegory" asserts itself with a bold while somehow subtle, Diebenkorn-ish patchwork of irregular geometric shapes. Orderliness meets spontaneity, in the right, measured degrees. Elsewhere, Hoffman ratchets down in scale and visual volume, with impressionistic impressions of places traveled.
Wisps and snippets of the real world sneak into the picture in this show, even as the abstracting impulse and passion for color account for the main event. Even more fundamentally, on display here are six degrees of artistic diversity, from locally made sources.
All Content Copyright © 2011 Santa Barbara News-Press / Ampersand Publishing, LLC unless otherwise specified.