A review of Icebreaker3 by Christopher Fox

From Christopher Fox an artist who shows regularly at Abend Gallery, a review of the work posted on his website http://www.denverdart.com/ http://www.denverdart.com/tag/christopher-fox/.

Icebreaker3: Review

Raise your glass to Ice Cube Gallery on 33rd & Walnut, because Icebreaker3, on display through February 25th, deserves a toast. With over 500 submitted works to choose from, juror Gwen Chanzit (curator of modern and contemporary collections at the Denver Art Museum) certainly could have taken any perspective she wanted. But it’s clear that she worked closely with Ice Cube and wisely chose artistic vision as the thread that ties each artist to the next on display, and the mix works.

Adam Milner’s offering, “Letters to people that should never read them,” is hilarious and engaging. It’s two rows of five letters, all addressing scorned affection, but executed in a way that explores censorship, anonymity and the sometimes painful process of human interaction with great results. You’re left wanting to know more: who were they and what happened? Did she really call him that? It’s raw and engaging, without being lewd or overtly hateful.

Lydia Riegle’s piece “Audacity” is beautiful. The staccatos and adagios of her brushwork are exquisite.  The color palette is restive, grounded with rich ochre yellows, dove greys and deep umbers to keep the piece substantial and dignified.

We’re still processing Mai Wyn Schnatz’s “Splitting wood: Walnut,” and “Splitting wood: Pine,” but we know we love them. She floats a painted film of chopped firewood on brushed aluminum panels, and as a collection of graphic images they pack a lot of personality–not an easy task when your subject is firewood. But she pulls it off, and the panels stake a claim for their space in a worthy way.

We were also glad to see that Gwen Chanzit juried in “Diane Arbus photographing the Doppelganger twins,” by Sally Stockhold. Stockhold’s “Myselfportraits” series, with new works in the series displayed almost annually at Spark Gallery since 2006, is in our humble opinion one of the most significant bodies of work in the genre of photographic self-portraits a living Denver artist has produced. That’s primarily because the scope of her project has been an immensely time-consuming affair, but also because she’s fabulously talented when it comes to self-analysis. The amount of energy and time she puts into each scenario is admirable, and they always reveal different aspects of her personality in a slightly humorous, self-mocking way—she’s always engaged and actively analyzing, but it never feels tortured or burdensome.

Bonnie Ferril-Roman’s handmade paper and wire installation, “Continuum/Interrupted Conversations,” is an absolute jaw-dropper. The central figure of the grouping, or continuum, is an illuminated handmade paper sculpture of what we believe is the artist’s rendering of her own body while pregnant. It is stunning. She’s surrounded this form with tightly coiled handwritten notes (interrupted conversations) held within floating spheres, and punctuated this hovering and magical universe with spiraled trails. The overall effect is dazzling at minimum, and Ferril-Roman turns an otherwise unfortunate placement in the show into a vortex of self-revelation, life-giving intimacy and dialogue. You are seeing the work of an artist who has clearly made the passage not only into motherhood, but into a new phase of conceptual maturity and mastery of her medium.

Other works that caught our eye were Sharon Bond Brown’s “Family Portrait,” Carol Browning’s “Simple Truth,” and Tyler Vorhees’s “The Lector.” All three are wonderful efforts that deserve a second look.

The show’s great. Go, already.

Today’s Feature Artist- Peter Illig

an excerpt from the artist’s website:
“Peter Illig’s works are analogies for human emotions and experiences - American psychological landscapes - reflecting how we think of several things at once. He layers images borrowed from film, TV and cyberspace and his own experience like a coded language of symbols to express his ideas and feelings.”

“Illig is a realist, and a surrealist at the same time. “Once upon a time, the task of the artist was to portray and interpret the ‘real world,’” says Illig.  “Now it is to discern if there is a reality behind the appearance of things. Reality is created by observation. This search through the ‘stuff’ of the world, matter and flesh, is inherently erotic. And so is the act of drawing and painting. By immersing ourselves in the physical, material world, we can see the path to the higher realm, and find the spiritual meanings behind the physical objects.”
“These meanings and objects intersect and overlap - in life, and in Illig’s art. Where does one object end and another begin? Where does one idea end and another begin to form? Can theory become visual?”

And from his Plus+Gallery show:

“Total immersion.

In dream symbolism, water is a metaphor for the depths of human emotions; travels across oceans through water represents an emotional journey. Likewise, shipwreck and immersion are metaphors for emotional turmoil and crisis.  My mind sifts through a pastiche of images, creating a two-way dialog between past and present, order and chaos, art and everyday life.

Like changing channels on a TV, or surfing the web, images move like a sliding puzzle, a gridwork of cultural meanings  –  elusive, oblique references, innuendo, erotic symbolism, implications, metaphors, unclear boundaries, non sequiturs, incongruities, romantic ideas.”

Today’s Feature Artist- Kelton Osborn

 

IceBreaker3: Tara’s Pick

Icebreaker3: Owen’s Pick