DRAWN BY COLOR - WINTER GROUP SHOW
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REVIEW
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by Kevin Nance
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There are at least two ways to interpret the title of “Drawn by Color,” Arts Connect’s winter group exhibit at Central Bank’s John G. Irvin Gallery. In the first, broadest and most obvious, the word drawn means attracted — and so indeed we’re pulled into this show’s vortex of swirling, vibrant color, as far from monochrome as it’s possible to be. In the second, somewhat narrower interpretation, a subset or outpost of the first, drawn could refer to drawing — the making of marks, with pens and pencils and brushes and palette knives, all of them, in this case, leaving trails of pigment. If this is overthinking it, forgive me. In any case, the title served as the prompt for these 23 Kentucky artists, so how they responded, however loosely, is worth noting.
The best of the first group here include Valerie Timmons’s exquisite oil painting “Variation on a Japanese Maple #1,” a series of overlapping angular shapes resting on a rich red background; two abstract acrylic works by Jimmy Hall whose intricately etched surfaces dissolve in shades of purple and mauve; a trio of slashingly energetic, all but violent untitled abstracts by John Bator that call to mind a series of smashed mirrors; and Shane Allan Smith’s untitled mixed media piece in which a number of eyeball-like shapes are linked by a red line of the sort I associate with evidence boards on TV detective shows. Someone’s connecting the dots. |
No less colorful but also more traditionally drawn pieces include wistful, sensitively painted portraits by Vinicius Alves Moura (“Blue Butterfly”) and Nick Walters (“Will You Wait for Me?”); Suzonne Bunch's delightful and hilarious acrylic painting of parachuting dogs (“Pipi Takes Flight”); gorgeous landscapes by watercolorist Connie Tucker (“Sky on Fire”) and fiber artist Kris Grenier (“Persistence — Star Lake, CA”); and two floral paintings, Adalhi Aranda’s vivid, surreal “Amapolas” and Yolanda Kennison’s eye-ravishing “Bouquet Bright,” which does a seductive tarantella on the line between abstraction and realism. If none of these works makes a big statement, they all are crave-worthy as decor; they would brighten and enhance any room in which they were displayed.
The curveballs in the show are thrown by Truman Miller, whose eerie photograph “They’re Everywhere” invites multiple interpretations, and Duane Keaton, whose medium of Lego bricks on wood (in “A Piece of Youth”) is drawn in a way that’s unlike anything else here. See it for yourself. (works mentioned are shown below) |
Variation on a Japanese Maple #1 ~ Valerie Timmons
Butterfly Blue - Vinicius Alves Moura
Amapolas ~ Adalhi Aranda
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Untitled#239 ~ Jimmy Hall (sold)
Will You Wait for Me? ~ Nick Walters
Bouquet Bright - Yolanda Kennison
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Untitled #2 ~ John Bator
Persistence - Star Lake, CA ~ Kris Grenier
They're Everywhere ~ Truman Miller
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Untitled #74 ~ Shane Smith
A Piece of Youth ~ Duane Keaton
Pipi Takes Flight - Suzonne Bunch
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Sky on Fire ~ Connie Tucker
