Closes August 11, 2007

By Jen Eberbach

Reprinted from The Ryder Magazine. (Bloomington, IN). August 2007

Each summer, the Prima Gallery hosts an invitational group show, which features works created by artists who work in a variety of two-dimensional and three-dimensional media. Most of the artists are from the Bloomington area or have ties to the local art community, including IU Fine Arts faculty members and local artists who are represented by the Prima Gallery and galleries throughout town. Gallery owner Fratianni and director Marcy Neiditz invited the artists to contribute works that would bring “a nice balance of subject matter” to this summer’s show, states Neiditz.

Neiditz calls Hot and Sizzling: Summer 07 at Prima Gallery “a strong show,” and explains that the new title is more than “a catchy phrase, it was helpful to the artists – to help them decide what to show.” She claims that the title’s “ambiguity allowed them to reach out.” Most of the works on display are newer works that showcase the current talents and interests of the artists. For Neiditz, “strong art” makes her “think and feel.” She explains; “It’s not just a one-liner. It is engaging enough that you want to come back and find new meaning in the artwork.”

The show includes figurative paintings and mixed media works of people, animals, and still lifes that reveal a diverse set of aesthetic and stylistic influences. Jim Sampson contributed two works that exemplify his Pop Art sensibility, while ceramist and painter Sabine Rodatz’s mixed media work that depicts dancing figures borders on abstraction. Jim Jur’s black and white oil paintings capture the energy of musicians and wait staff within their environments, with striking contrasts between light and shadow. In order to create Wisdom I Loved (Alcuin’s Epitaph) Anne Marie Mahler used layers of brightly colored acrylics to present age old subject matter in a highly contemporary style. Jim Andrews small still lifes showcase the artist’s talent at creating texture and expressive effects with pastels and charcoal on rough paper.

Several works highlight printmaking techniques, including David Johnson’s figurative etched and linocut portraits, which exhibit interesting relationships between the foreground and background. Amelia Johnson’s fold-out books of etchings feature an aesthetic taxonomy of different species of birds and fish and Sarojini Jha Johnson’s intaglio prints image birds with a deep awareness of color, pattern and texture.

Many of the ceramists featured in the show consider the cultural and personal meanings that people associate with functional and aesthetic objects. Malcolm Mobuto Smith’s stoneware works incorporate aesthetics inspired by his experiences with a diverse array of cultures. Jamas Brooke contributes a selection of his hand built, raku vessels, which he creates utilizing ancient traditions in Asian ceramics. Several ceramists are showing a variety of functional housewares. Bowls, teapots, pitchers and other service wears created by Prima director Marcy Neiditz, Nan Coffin, Ashley Kim and Andrea Christie express the artists’ interest in the ceremonial and personal meanings that we attach to everyday objects. Scott Cooper, who primarily creates wheel-thrown works, experimented with new techniques and produced a set of coil built vessels from hand.

The show also emphasizes many artists’ interest in the natural world and impressions of the landscape. Several works challenge the viewer to interpret visual forms, like Russell Smith’s abstract acrylic paintings, which examine the geometric forms that industry imposes on the landscape, and Neil Taylor’s woodcut, which exemplifies the artist’s crosshatching technique. Anneke Herrold contributed a series of mixed media boxes containing fiber weavings, which allude to landscapes in Holland and Kansas. Tim Kennedy’s oil paintings image intimate encounters with natural features around domestic spaces, while Bonnie Sklarski’s watercolor highlights the artist’s engagement with the environment around Lake Griffy.

Betsy Stirratt’s oil on panel paintings consist of bold colors and abstract forms, which allude to movement and change within the natural world.Helle Barnstone also captures a sense of movement within the natural environment, with her acrylic works that establish a connection between nature and spirituality.  

Photographers contribute works, which examine the formal qualities and aesthetic beauty of the natural world. Roger Pfingston’s ultrachrome prints emphasize the formal qualities and patterns found in the natural world, by imaging rock formations in Utah and a field of flowering mustard plants. An interest in naturally occurring patterns also can be gleaned from Kay Westhues’s digital prints, which include an image of a Glowing Yellow Bean Field, as well as an image of a crowd of people at the Kewanna Fall Festival.  

Artists working in a variety of other media also are represented in the show, including David Ebbinghouse, who contributes conceptual found object sculptures consisting of hundreds of hanging keys on sprockets. Gail Hale’s mixed media work consists of a series of metal frames containing designs that are reminiscent of Rorschach tests, which she created using a process of iron oxide transfer. Textile artist Susan Sammis’s silk sarong exemplifies her use of iron oxide printing to create handmade clothes. The show includes works by sculptor Amy Brier that investigate family resemblance, including several plaques containing portraits and a limestone “Roliquery” ball which creates imprints of the faces when rolled across sand. Works in limestone, soapstone, and marble, created by Karl Schiefer, are on display, including his spiraling sculpturePentacost, which expresses spiritual themes with smooth forms.

Several of the artists on display will be represented in upcoming Prima Gallery exhibits, including Suzanna Hendrix and Lorriane Merriman Farrell, who will be featured in Paper and Stone, on display August 17 – September 29. For the current show, Hendrix contributed a watercolor that reveals her impressions of life on the city street and Farrell is showing a large number of necklaces, earrings, rings, and bracelets that she created using materials like ammonite, jade, and selenite. Rudy Pozzatti’s Recent Works will be on display at the Prima Gallery, from October 5 – November 17. Pozzatti contributed two very different works to the current show, including a highly intricate color relief collage depicting a Gothic Window and a watercolor of a bright orange poppy against a white background.