Visual artwork is usually created with a common set of tools and techniques; when an artist ventures outside the traditional boundaries of method and skill, their work must be viewed in new ways, with new approaches to commentary and critique.
An exhibit of such work, called "Materials, Metaphors, Narratives: Work by Six Contemporary Artists," opened this Saturday at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. The exhibit brings together the work of artists Petah Coyne, Lesley Dill, Ken Price, Tom Sachs, Jeanne Silverthorne and Fred Tomaselli.
For the exhibition, Albright-Knox senior curator Douglas Dreishpoon brought together artists he sees as "object makers first and foremost." He describes their creative process as a "hands-on proposition involving the empirical construction of objects and images that defy traditional categories of painting, sculpture, photography and ceramic art."
The opening coincided with a panel discussion entitled "Comic Relief: Humor's Edge in Contemporary Art." Dreishpoon hosted the panel, which included all the artists except Price.
Often straying from the topic of humor, the panel offered interesting insights, proving Dreishpoon's assessment correct. Dill's stunning "Language Extends Even to the Hair," created specifically for the exhibit, required nine months of tying thousands of threads that extend from a wire and copper-constructed poem.
A political sentiment along the same lines is evident in Sach's "Sony Outsider," comprised of a scale model of an atomic bomb emblazoned with a Sony logo and housing a padded climate controlled interior complete with television, DVD player and bathrooms.
"We don't just drop bombs. We drop culture," said Sach of his piece.
Avoiding Sach's brash ideology, Coyne's "Unforgiven" creates an environment that immediately envelops the viewer. The figures are obscured beneath piles of flowers, lace, candles, pearls and other objects, all coated with an immensity of encaustic wax. They suggest an interior identity while not allowing the viewer access.
The boundaries of these veiled figures are not clearly delineated, as spectators must maneuver around the wax-coated flowers scattered about the floor. These offshoots serve to unify the room and further draw the viewer into the melancholy nostalgia that Coyne masterfully creates.
Tomaselli's expertly designed and constructed collages and Jeanne Silverthorne's rubber creations are both thrilling inclusions that please aesthetically while addressing modern emotion. Tomaselli's work is vibrant and disorienting; Silverthorne's is somehow simultaneously miserable and playful.
The only pieces in the exhibit that completely disappoint, dwarfed both in size and quality by his co-exhibitors, are Price's sculptures. Dreishpoon ventures to call them "some of the most imaginative small-scale sculptures in existence today," but they come across as little more than props to a children's television program.
"Materials, Metaphors, Narratives" is clearly a departure from the gallery's last offering, "Masterworks from the Phillips Collection." A parallel shift in ethos can be seen in the Albright-Knox's permanent collection, which has consistently displayed more contemporary artists.
"Materials, Metaphors, Narratives" is on display at the Alright-Knox Art Gallery, located at 1285 Elmwood Ave., through Jan. 4.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
