Imagination


IMAGINATION, CRAFTSMANSHIP SHINE IN EXHIBIT November 15, 1998 Section: ARTS & CULTURE Page: F2 Wesley Pulkka For the Journal The "Built" exhibition, at the Dartmouth Street Gallery, blurs the imaginary boundaries between fine art and craft. The entire gallery installation, featuring more than 80 works by more than 25 artists, is made up of three parts: "Built," "Artists' Plates" and "Small Paintings." This review will focus on the "Built" exhibition. Steve Madsen's "Picasso Discovers the Garden of Eden" is a lathe-turned extravaganza made of dyed maple. Its large scale, bright colors, strange shapes and obvious homage to a 20th-century master of modernism conspire to elevate a piece of fantasy furniture to the vaunted realm of fine sculpture. Madsen pursues his quest for fine craft with perfectionist finish, fetish vigor and a cartoonist's eye for the bizarre. His work has found its way into the permanent collection at the Albuquerque Museum and many private collections. Ken Leap looks to Greek mythology for inspiration in "Laocoon Sans Serpent," a cut glass and steel relief sculpture. The story of Laocoon involved a priest who tried to warn the Trojans about the threat posed by the Greek Trojan Horse. As punishment for his efforts to save the Trojans, Laocoon and his sons were sent ravenous serpents by the angry Greek goddess Athena. Leap's layered glass and steel sculpture of a standing male torso is transparent like the ghost of a memory. His technique involves using a computer program to determine the cut of each profile that is part of a stack of profiles that create the images in each sculpture. He contains the stack of cut-glass pieces in a frame that can be free-standing or set on a table top. His style is actually more conducive to expressing the nature of water, his other theme. One large and two small pieces are renderings of ripples, waves and eddies. The transparency of the glass and its ability to catch light cause the water pieces to shimmer in the lights of the gallery and come alive. John Suttman, the nephew of the late Paul Suttman, has taken on some of the irrational surrealistic aesthetics of his sculptor uncle. In "Chest of Drawers" John Suttman has stacked uniquely constructed drawers in catawampus fashion to create a beautiful and functional piece of furniture. Two legs and a briefcase support Suttman's Rube Goldberg chest. A steel and glass clock case adorns the uppermost reaches of the stack. Each drawer is lined with impeccably finished wood stained a different color for each drawer. Despite its quaint design, the fit and finish elevate this thingamajig into the fine arts realm. Nearby is a beautifully painted sculpture titled "Flowering Vine," by Kevin Zuckerman. The piece is composed of disparate metal elements that are arranged in a columnar fashion. The scale of the vertical piece reminded me of Picasso's "Glass of Absinthe," a small painted bronze made during the 1930s. Zuckerman's assemblage is an abstract expressionistic painting on an oddly composed object. Zuckerman's sculpture is a refreshing direction for an artist who is so talented in figurative realism that he is bored by it. He has been searching abstraction on conventional-format canvases with mixed results. His foray into sculpture looks to me like the proper direction for Zuckerman's facile imagination. Greg Reiche offers two constructions, which are also fountains. In the front gallery a mixed-media fountain bubbles water over a bed of glass crystals. The sculptural design and the jewel-like glass lend a hidden-treasure ambiance to these pieces. Reiche is now devoting his time to sculpture after selling the Mirage Gallery (now known as Art is OK). The show also features tapestries by Nancy Kozikowski and Amy Weber and sculptures by Ed Haddaway and Melissa Zink. Overall, the show is brimming with strong work by intelligent artists. If you are very busy on ArtsCrawl night and are pressed for time, "Built" offers the possibility of a one-stop crawl. "Built," at the Dartmouth Street Gallery, 3011 Monte Vista NE, through Dec. 31. There is an ArtsCrawl reception from 5-9 p.m. Friday. Call 266-7751. PHOTO: b/w "LAOCOON SANS SERPENT," a float glass and mild steel sculpture by Ken Leap at the Dartmouth Street Gallery, is inspired by Greek mythology and created with the aid of a computer program. All content copyright © 1995-2004 Albuquerque Journal and may not be republished without permission. Send comments or questions to newslibrary@newsbank.com

November 15, 1998
Section: ARTS & CULTURE
Page: F2

Wesley Pulkka For the Journal

The "Built" exhibition, at the Dartmouth Street Gallery, blurs the imaginary boundaries between fine art and craft.

The entire gallery installation, featuring more than 80 works by more than 25 artists, is made up of three parts: "Built," "Artists' Plates" and "Small Paintings." This review will focus on the "Built" exhibition. Steve Madsen's "Picasso Discovers the Garden of Eden" is a lathe-turned extravaganza made of dyed maple. Its large scale, bright colors, strange shapes and obvious homage to a 20th-century master of modernism conspire to elevate a piece of fantasy furniture to the vaunted realm of fine sculpture. Madsen pursues his quest for fine craft with perfectionist finish, fetish vigor and a cartoonist's eye for the bizarre. His work has found its way into the permanent collection at the Albuquerque Museum and many private collections. Ken Leap looks to Greek mythology for inspiration in "Laocoon Sans Serpent," a cut glass and steel relief sculpture. The story of Laocoon involved a priest who tried to warn the Trojans about the threat posed by the Greek Trojan Horse. As punishment for his efforts to save the Trojans, Laocoon and his sons were sent ravenous serpents by the angry Greek goddess Athena. Leap's layered glass and steel sculpture of a standing male torso is transparent like the ghost of a memory. His technique involves using a computer program to determine the cut of each profile that is part of a stack of profiles that create the images in each sculpture. He contains the stack of cut-glass pieces in a frame that can be free-standing or set on a table top. His style is actually more conducive to expressing the nature of water, his other theme. One large and two small pieces are renderings of ripples, waves and eddies. The transparency of the glass and its ability to catch light cause the water pieces to shimmer in the lights of the gallery and come alive. John Suttman, the nephew of the late Paul Suttman, has taken on some of the irrational surrealistic aesthetics of his sculptor uncle. In "Chest of Drawers" John Suttman has stacked uniquely constructed drawers in catawampus fashion to create a beautiful and functional piece of furniture. Two legs and a briefcase support Suttman's Rube Goldberg chest. A steel and glass clock case adorns the uppermost reaches of the stack. Each drawer is lined with impeccably finished wood stained a different color for each drawer. Despite its quaint design, the fit and finish elevate this thingamajig into the fine arts realm. Nearby is a beautifully painted sculpture titled "Flowering Vine," by Kevin Zuckerman. The piece is composed of disparate metal elements that are arranged in a columnar fashion. The scale of the vertical piece reminded me of Picasso's "Glass of Absinthe," a small painted bronze made during the 1930s. Zuckerman's assemblage is an abstract expressionistic painting on an oddly composed object. Zuckerman's sculpture is a refreshing direction for an artist who is so talented in figurative realism that he is bored by it. He has been searching abstraction on conventional-format canvases with mixed results. His foray into sculpture looks to me like the proper direction for Zuckerman's facile imagination. Greg Reiche offers two constructions, which are also fountains. In the front gallery a mixed-media fountain bubbles water over a bed of glass crystals. The sculptural design and the jewel-like glass lend a hidden-treasure ambiance to these pieces. Reiche is now devoting his time to sculpture after selling the Mirage Gallery (now known as Art is OK). The show also features tapestries by Nancy Kozikowski and Amy Weber and sculptures by Ed Haddaway and Melissa Zink. Overall, the show is brimming with strong work by intelligent artists. If you are very busy on ArtsCrawl night and are pressed for time, "Built" offers the possibility of a one-stop crawl. "Built," at the Dartmouth Street Gallery, 3011 Monte Vista NE, through Dec. 31. There is an ArtsCrawl reception from 5-9 p.m. Friday. Call 266-7751. PHOTO: b/w "LAOCOON SANS SERPENT," a float glass and mild steel sculpture by Ken Leap at the Dartmouth Street Gallery, is inspired by Greek mythology and created with the aid of a computer program.