WLCMBKCB Review

To kick off the new school year Mason Gross faculty, staff, and second year MFA students all submitted works to be exhibited in the first group show of the year: WLCMBKCB (Welcome Back).  The show was  curated by the second year students and run along with a tribute room to Lyda Craig, a Mason Gross graduate who passed away, as well as another room with an installation by Jim Toia entitled Dissolving Gardens.

The call for work was general with the guidelines being that the work be a small or medium piece.  A guideline which, as Caetlynn pointed out, can be interpreted differently by each artist depending on the scale at which they work.   There was no intended theme, but with works ranging from sculpture, painting, print making, photography, video and installation, there was a lot to see and the space was full and in fact welcoming.  Even without a unifying theme the collaborative curation allows for attention to individual works and displays each piece in such a way as to highlight formal elements of each.

1.  Eileen Behnke, ... On the Grass

... On the Grass draws the viewer's eye in with it's bright warm colors.  Situated as the largest painting on one of the main gallery walls I found it to be the piece that brought me over to that wall.  The brushstrokes, the lines,  and the perspective of the painting keep your eyes constantly moving both throughout the painting as well as into the surrounding works. Each figure gazes in a different direction, with only one looking out at the viewer.  Those looking off take us out of the painting, while the woman in the red shirt draws us back in.  Looking at the piece from across the room, even the colors from the sculpture at the center of the gallery help to create a steady flow into Eileen's painting or perhaps out of it depending on which way you read it. The lines and brush stokes are very organic which provides a nice stark contrast to the surrounding works.  

(Alternate gallery view of ... On the Grass)

2. Traci Molloy, Prototype: Killer/Killed

The faces in this piece intrigued me from a distance.  I wasn't sure what to make of it but the haunting title gave me a much clearer picture in my head than the slightly blurred faces in front of me.  The detail in this piece, which was small in comparison to the works it hung with, really says alot.  Printing ever so faintly over the images of the boys are names.  While I don't know anything definitive about the piece, the names are presumably victims names as well as perhaps even the murders names.  The side by side comparison calls out many questions.  Which one is the killer? Which one was killed? Did one boy kill the other? The names over each face are repeated adding even more to be worked out.  The work is very provocative which is fitting when looking at the other work it hangs with, most especially the politically charged work of Ortiz. 

3. Anna Bushman, Untitled (Moire)
This is a work you could wind up spending a lot of time in front of.  It deals with perception.  At first glance I saw a radiator cover, somewhat of a vintage item.  Depending on your distance to it, there was much more to see.  With a mirror placed behind the screen the viewer is thrown off a good deal by what it is that is in front of them.  If you are close enough you may be unsure and even start to get cross-eyed trying to figure it out.  As you move back, it begins to be a little clearer although straight on it is never 100% certain.  The lights cast shadows, other viewers move about, and each of these movements changes what you are seeing.  With that in mind I really appreciate the juxtaposition of this work next to Annie Hogan's Double Vision #2 which deals equally with perception and a layering of images.  

4. Betsy Vanlangen Paige

Walking into the second room in the gallery, Betsy's photographs are not the first thing you see, but turn around and you are unable to look away from the intense gaze that meets your eye.  The eyes are so vivid, a bright color popping immediately.  Add in the vibrant green/yellow makeup and the combination is quite striking.  The fact that the work is really a pair of images lines up quite nicely with the other works in the space, especially the 4 images to the left and the grid of paintings across from it. The intensity makes me want to know more about Paige.  The lighting, the makeup, and the mood, all suggest that she has a lot to say.