AT NORTHWOOD: A BRILLIANT FOCUS
IN FOCUS, a photo exhibit at Northwood ARTSpace, 2231 N. High St. will run thru June 2006. This exhibition shines in its own specific way.--
In Focus is so pristine it's gorgeous!--The way Bach Etudes are gorgeous.
There are 32 photographs in this show, each of them is around 8 x 11 inches. Each hangs in a narrow black frame, and the affect is pleasing. Almost all of the photos contain one subject, or objet.
Entering the show one first sees Chuck Zelm's Stained Glass Sky, a haunting "cut" of a stone Madonna's face. Next to Her loiters Chuck Perry's amicable uncaged wolf from the front quarters up. Wolf stares into our eyes. His mood is inscrutable. This is a portrait. Farther down,
Perry's eagle soars against a wild environment. Wolf dominates his own color photo.
The In Focus photographers have mastered the basics of their craft: color, black and white, composition and cropping, and yes, focus.--Sometimes that focus elides into a form of abstraction, as in the case of many flowers, insects, and creatures.
GARDEN FOCUS
Rick Reiger has a treasure hunter's eye. He sees a butterfly on a piece of Chihuly glass (at Franklin Park, of course.) His two masked boobies, a la Darwin, are --I was going to say "the cats pajamas" --and he has internalized the patterns and paths of Inniswood Park.
Irene Verweij has created large magical "blow ups" in Green and Blue Green. As I recall, her pleasing abstracts portray a green mantis and a dragon fly. Verweij creates poetic earth tributes, whatever her actual subjects. Large up-close petals provide a self contained terrain for Yellow.--Tulips reign, and I do mean with lustre, as photographed by Mike Johnson and Dan Borzynski. Herbert Mirela's Bark 1 and Bark 2 provide rich textural environments, give us a sense of pre historic pasts. So does Chuck Zelms' Old Man's Cave. Henry Tan's
Munising Falls is a moment frozen in zen time; my eye traveled up and up, without traveling.
Earl English's Y50 and Y50 A take the art of flower abstractionism to new heights. And widths. William Blake's poetic ethos, that the infinite is found in the ultimately small-- "find eternity in a grain of sand"--is evident in English's striking abstracts.
Judy Fettman's flowers are absolutely gorgeous. No garden expert myself, I think she has chosen single camelias and peonies for her focused single subjects, and whatever they are, they are very very lovely.
The aesthetic of "large" as contained in "small" is evident in much of the Focus show.
Ah, yes, and soon we will be dreaming and walking in Dan Borzynski's Fall Colors.
ON THE FAR WALL
Will Brenner has captured a professional, brilliantly costumed
ballerina,--on stage, on pointe in a grande developpe as Sugar Plum Fairy. Farther on, Brenner's lovely "modern" dancer displays her own "extension." There is no blurr or whirr. One can enjoy the moment with simple choreographic joy.
Breaking out of the one subject format Doug Rutledge has exhibited recent examples of photo journalism. Working in black and white he has captured group images . Watching inDebaab and Waiting in Debaab offer a poignant look at people in the horrific refugee camps of Kenya. One man, Dyrios, gesturing on the moment, pontificates in his shop of touristy shamanistic wonders in the third photo, Dyrios.
Rutledge's austere groups congeal into a sobering whole. His visits to the camps in Kenya are beginning to bear witness, and he is writing about them.
Wen Tong Lin's haunting Pool Table, as well as his Looking Beyond in which a woman tourist rushes into traffic, provide high water
marks for In Focus. Excellence can express loneliness. Henry Tan's Late Lunch proves that a slice of ordinary life can be explosive.--Nothing will actually explode, however,with Mike Johnson's Queen's Guard standing watch.
AS I PREPARE TO LEAVE I think of how I'd like to award a blue ribbon to Dan Boryzsnki's Orchids. This photo manages to be: luscious, smart, representational, minimal, and very NOW, all at the same time!
In Focus shines in its own specific way. Despite a post holiday crunch I wanted to cover this show; I hope I didn't leave anyone out while I was writing fast.
My father, a musician, once told me that each concert pianist should "master Scarlatti's beautiful exercises and when you hear them they're more than exercises they're high art."--So it is with In Focus. The show will run thru June and is a don't-miss.
note: Veteran photo artist Abdi Roble is the founding member of In Focus which meets regularly at Upper Arlington Library. Call 294-5113 for more infiormaton about the group.
In Focus is so pristine it's gorgeous!--The way Bach Etudes are gorgeous.
There are 32 photographs in this show, each of them is around 8 x 11 inches. Each hangs in a narrow black frame, and the affect is pleasing. Almost all of the photos contain one subject, or objet.
Entering the show one first sees Chuck Zelm's Stained Glass Sky, a haunting "cut" of a stone Madonna's face. Next to Her loiters Chuck Perry's amicable uncaged wolf from the front quarters up. Wolf stares into our eyes. His mood is inscrutable. This is a portrait. Farther down,
Perry's eagle soars against a wild environment. Wolf dominates his own color photo.
The In Focus photographers have mastered the basics of their craft: color, black and white, composition and cropping, and yes, focus.--Sometimes that focus elides into a form of abstraction, as in the case of many flowers, insects, and creatures.
GARDEN FOCUS
Rick Reiger has a treasure hunter's eye. He sees a butterfly on a piece of Chihuly glass (at Franklin Park, of course.) His two masked boobies, a la Darwin, are --I was going to say "the cats pajamas" --and he has internalized the patterns and paths of Inniswood Park.
Irene Verweij has created large magical "blow ups" in Green and Blue Green. As I recall, her pleasing abstracts portray a green mantis and a dragon fly. Verweij creates poetic earth tributes, whatever her actual subjects. Large up-close petals provide a self contained terrain for Yellow.--Tulips reign, and I do mean with lustre, as photographed by Mike Johnson and Dan Borzynski. Herbert Mirela's Bark 1 and Bark 2 provide rich textural environments, give us a sense of pre historic pasts. So does Chuck Zelms' Old Man's Cave. Henry Tan's
Munising Falls is a moment frozen in zen time; my eye traveled up and up, without traveling.
Earl English's Y50 and Y50 A take the art of flower abstractionism to new heights. And widths. William Blake's poetic ethos, that the infinite is found in the ultimately small-- "find eternity in a grain of sand"--is evident in English's striking abstracts.
Judy Fettman's flowers are absolutely gorgeous. No garden expert myself, I think she has chosen single camelias and peonies for her focused single subjects, and whatever they are, they are very very lovely.
The aesthetic of "large" as contained in "small" is evident in much of the Focus show.
Ah, yes, and soon we will be dreaming and walking in Dan Borzynski's Fall Colors.
ON THE FAR WALL
Will Brenner has captured a professional, brilliantly costumed
ballerina,--on stage, on pointe in a grande developpe as Sugar Plum Fairy. Farther on, Brenner's lovely "modern" dancer displays her own "extension." There is no blurr or whirr. One can enjoy the moment with simple choreographic joy.
Breaking out of the one subject format Doug Rutledge has exhibited recent examples of photo journalism. Working in black and white he has captured group images . Watching inDebaab and Waiting in Debaab offer a poignant look at people in the horrific refugee camps of Kenya. One man, Dyrios, gesturing on the moment, pontificates in his shop of touristy shamanistic wonders in the third photo, Dyrios.
Rutledge's austere groups congeal into a sobering whole. His visits to the camps in Kenya are beginning to bear witness, and he is writing about them.
Wen Tong Lin's haunting Pool Table, as well as his Looking Beyond in which a woman tourist rushes into traffic, provide high water
marks for In Focus. Excellence can express loneliness. Henry Tan's Late Lunch proves that a slice of ordinary life can be explosive.--Nothing will actually explode, however,with Mike Johnson's Queen's Guard standing watch.
AS I PREPARE TO LEAVE I think of how I'd like to award a blue ribbon to Dan Boryzsnki's Orchids. This photo manages to be: luscious, smart, representational, minimal, and very NOW, all at the same time!
In Focus shines in its own specific way. Despite a post holiday crunch I wanted to cover this show; I hope I didn't leave anyone out while I was writing fast.
My father, a musician, once told me that each concert pianist should "master Scarlatti's beautiful exercises and when you hear them they're more than exercises they're high art."--So it is with In Focus. The show will run thru June and is a don't-miss.
note: Veteran photo artist Abdi Roble is the founding member of In Focus which meets regularly at Upper Arlington Library. Call 294-5113 for more infiormaton about the group.
posted by Liz James at 1:10 PM
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