|
|
The Buffalo News
APPLES AND ORANGES
|
|
Hoover's large and audacious abstract oils -- collectively
titled "Paintings" -- seem the very antithesis of the quiet
monotone photo transparencies that make up Opera's "Soup." A female
artist I know suggested that Hoover's cheerfully colored panels and Opera's
introspective science-tinged installation make up the art show equivalent of
chick and guy flicks, respectively. Nonetheless, for those who crave commonality between exhibits that might
only be related through proximity and the fact that they share a printed
invitation, there are similarities to be found. Hoover and Opera both utilize elemental shapes that function as evocative
signifiers referencing various aspects of human experience. Each also
distances the viewer through constructed ambiguities that limit
comprehension. The comparison abruptly ends, however, with the artist's
individual methods. In her paintings, Hoover makes repeated use of vibrantly colored circles
and dots, often to abstractly represent familiar objects such as bubbles,
flowers and pollen. In her artist's statement, she refers to the resulting compositions as
"fantasy worlds," a concept typified by the ebullient "Cotton
Candy," which draws the viewer into a defused atmosphere of billowing
pinkness of considerable ocular intensity. In other pieces, Hoover introduces patterns into the foreground; a formal
device intended to obscure the underlying painted "world." In
"Martini" for instance, she places pale vertical lines over
lyrically interwoven circles of cool greens and blues. This alternating theme of revelation and suppression often seems more
limiting than liberating. When Hoover avoids such formulaic devices, as with
the multihued "Bubble Up," she delivers a more complex and
intricately interwoven arrangement of components, brusquely executed in
confident brushwork. After a while, Hoover's exuberant works seemed a bit relentlessly cheery
to my eyes. My artist friend might say it's a "guy thing," but soon
I was yearning for something dark and restrained. John Opera's dimly flickering backlighted transparencies of primal organic
forms -- installed as they are in a pitch-black gallery -- met those needs.
Opera's 24 postcard-size light-box images encircle viewers who, in the
darkness, inhabit this primordial "Soup." Opera's enigmatic forms provide several dilemmas in attempting to unravel
their significance. Warmly glowing, the ghostlike objects seem alien, yet
oddly familiar, like basic organic archetypes that we intuitively know. They might pass for minuscule spores revealed through an electron
microscope, or they could just as easily be hand-constructed objects
optically "dumbed-down" through the use of primitive photographic
techniques (as hinted at by the artist). As viewers strain to resolve issues of scale and context, Opera is
rummaging through their psyche. One form appears cellular but then seems to have a face; several are
nipple-like. Another resembles a black hole vortex; others suggest sex toys. Darkness shrouds all sensory reference points but one; the passage of time
is revealed through the presence of a softly lit clock hovering above. By allowing this sole means of quantification, Opera seems to remind us in
his powerfully evocative way of the ephemeral nature of photography and life
itself. REVIEW WHAT: "Ani Hoover: Paintings" and "John Opera: Soup" WHEN: Through Saturday WHERE: Buffalo Arts Studio, Tri-Main Center, 2495 Main St., Suite 500 ADMISSION: Free INFO: 833-4450 |
|
|
|
All content © The Buffalo News and may not be
republished without permission. All archives are stored
on a SAVE (tm) newspaper library system from MediaStream Inc., a Knight
Ridder company. |