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When artists try something different
"Works on Paper' at LGTripp Gallery
Paper is a challenging medium, more fragile than canvas or wood. And when you work with watercolors, the mark you put on the paper is there to stay. The LGTripp Gallery's "Works on Paper" feels like a portent of spring: Its challenges create new endeavors and growth in several directions.
All of the gallery's dozen artists were invited to submit works on paper, not the usual medium for nine of them (two opted out) but a test they met with fresh approaches and vigor.
Plamen Veltchev is clearly the master of the medium. His two works are tightly constructed linear compositions surging with a vital burst of energy. Vestiges suggests a barrier of upright, metal poles behind exuberant russet cloud-like forms. Getting Through has an underlying composition of upright panels, through which a sunburst of rays has emerged.
Rebecca Jacoby's three works of acrylic, pen and collage on Arches paper felt very 21st Century with their dense, colorful, abstract designs on complex, cutout forms applied in active compositions on the white paper background. Pillow Talk felt most resolved, and Bishop's Throne bursts with energy.
Envelope linings
David Foss created three collage compositions from the lining of security envelopes—sensitive compositions of coordinated colors and their variations. (Artists save the strangest items!)
Jon Manteau's six Sumi ink drawings on paper evoke the inherent energy of the planets in motion or nature's markings. They're like footnotes to his large, expressionist paintings on panels.
Acrylic paintings on paper by Donna Usher are tightly constructed, colorful compositions, creating a universe far beyond the dimensions of each work. Tiny beads of paint in geometric patterns provide a focus for the abstract forms swirling in space. Although they're closely allied with Usher's large paintings on canvas, they speak with their own unique voice and expression.
Cityscapes without people
Abstract art dominates this show, but exceptions included Michelle Marcuse's five ink pen and pencil drawings on silver leaf alloy on paper. At first they look like subtle markings on etched paper, but look again. Find the woman sitting on the beach under an umbrella and active fish in Carrying the Dreamer, or the attenuated, standing figure in Extraction, Investigation and Experimentation.
Miriam Singer creates crowded urban landscapes with pencil, marker and monotypes on paper. Buses, automobiles, bicycles, umbrellas and billboards are visible against the architecture; only people are absent in her cityscapes.
Fuentes Ferrin's "Suitcase Series," Numbers 1, 2 and 3, are humorous commentaries on people's desire to travel. The pen-on-paper drawings include the figure of a woman pushing a man in a cart, as well as another male figure carrying a mannequin on his shoulder. A girl with pigtails perches atop a tower of suitcases.
The exhibition also includes two color pencil drawings on Mylar by Paul Fabozzzi, and three sculptures of welded steel and found objects by Stephen Blackburn: These are excellent works but beyond the scope of this review.
All of the gallery's dozen artists were invited to submit works on paper, not the usual medium for nine of them (two opted out) but a test they met with fresh approaches and vigor.
Plamen Veltchev is clearly the master of the medium. His two works are tightly constructed linear compositions surging with a vital burst of energy. Vestiges suggests a barrier of upright, metal poles behind exuberant russet cloud-like forms. Getting Through has an underlying composition of upright panels, through which a sunburst of rays has emerged.
Rebecca Jacoby's three works of acrylic, pen and collage on Arches paper felt very 21st Century with their dense, colorful, abstract designs on complex, cutout forms applied in active compositions on the white paper background. Pillow Talk felt most resolved, and Bishop's Throne bursts with energy.
Envelope linings
David Foss created three collage compositions from the lining of security envelopes—sensitive compositions of coordinated colors and their variations. (Artists save the strangest items!)
Jon Manteau's six Sumi ink drawings on paper evoke the inherent energy of the planets in motion or nature's markings. They're like footnotes to his large, expressionist paintings on panels.
Acrylic paintings on paper by Donna Usher are tightly constructed, colorful compositions, creating a universe far beyond the dimensions of each work. Tiny beads of paint in geometric patterns provide a focus for the abstract forms swirling in space. Although they're closely allied with Usher's large paintings on canvas, they speak with their own unique voice and expression.
Cityscapes without people
Abstract art dominates this show, but exceptions included Michelle Marcuse's five ink pen and pencil drawings on silver leaf alloy on paper. At first they look like subtle markings on etched paper, but look again. Find the woman sitting on the beach under an umbrella and active fish in Carrying the Dreamer, or the attenuated, standing figure in Extraction, Investigation and Experimentation.
Miriam Singer creates crowded urban landscapes with pencil, marker and monotypes on paper. Buses, automobiles, bicycles, umbrellas and billboards are visible against the architecture; only people are absent in her cityscapes.
Fuentes Ferrin's "Suitcase Series," Numbers 1, 2 and 3, are humorous commentaries on people's desire to travel. The pen-on-paper drawings include the figure of a woman pushing a man in a cart, as well as another male figure carrying a mannequin on his shoulder. A girl with pigtails perches atop a tower of suitcases.
The exhibition also includes two color pencil drawings on Mylar by Paul Fabozzzi, and three sculptures of welded steel and found objects by Stephen Blackburn: These are excellent works but beyond the scope of this review.
What, When, Where
“Works on Paper.†Through March 31, 2012 at LGTripp Gallery, 47 N. Second St. (215) 923-3110 or www.lgtrippgallery.com.
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