Published August 3rd, 2007
Dan Tranberg
Special to The Plain Dealer
"Toxic Color," the new exhibition at Exit (a gallery space) in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood, is without a doubt one of the best local gallery shows of the summer.
Curated by painter and Kent State University art professor Martin Ball, it's layered with timely issues regarding the current state of visual art, not the least of which is a conscious use of non-naturalistic color.
One of several high points in the 26-work show is a roughly 3-foot-square melange of brightly colored fabrics by Mason Eubanks. The loosely formed wall hanging suggests an abstract composition that functions much like a flat painting.
he piece extends about 10 inches from the wall and is clearly made from distinct objects (bunched or folding fabric), the effects it exploits are largely painterly.
Color and pattern are used to lead the eye from one area to the next, endlessly circling back to other portions of the work -- or to nooks and crannies initially hidden by the boldly colored forms.
Not all of the works are this successful, but a good many are similarly unconventional, which is a large part of the show's appeal.
Many of the artists are pushing time-honored notions about painting, photography and sculpture in search of new approaches and, ultimately, new forms.
Rebecca Murtaugh's painting "Untitled (Raspberry)" is essentially two blobs of muddy pink latex paint, each containing hundreds of bubblelike forms made from an entirely different material, which she identifies as "thermoplastic."
While Murtaugh's technique is nowhere explained, she, like Eubanks, merges ideas from painting and sculpture, creating an in-between space.
Jen Omaitz also takes this approach, only she uses painting and photography. Her work, "Phthalo Lighting," is an oil on canvas, based on an abstract photograph of motion-blurred, colored lights.
As with many other artists in the show, Omaitz is exploiting aspects of each medium and blurring them together to create unexpected results.
Other artists in the show use subtler tactics to create works similarly charged with tension. Mark Keffer's painting on paper, "Half-Thought With ReVerb," relies solely on painting techniques. But his use of odd color combinations and juxtaposition of organic and geometric shapes suggests a playful world in which disparate elements simply coexist.
"Machine Marks," a small, highly textured oil on canvas by Darrell Roberts, somewhat resembles a cropped portion of an Abstract Expressionist canvas. Its quick, heavy brush marks stand on their own as objects of sorts.
But Roberts' painting isn't wildly erratic, like those of his historical counterparts. It appears more as a careful, measured study that draws from both past and present.
Cumulatively, the best artists in "Toxic Color" convincingly assert that exciting new work can come not so much from using an existing medium to do something that's never been done, but from creating provocative amalgamations of established forms.
Exit (a gallery space) is at 2688 West 14th St. in Cleveland. Call 330-321-8161 or go to www.exitgallery.com.
Tranberg is an artist and writer living in Cleveland. Art Matters is a column that runs weekly in Friday covering the area art scene. To be considered for publication, items about shows or openings must be received three weeks in advance. Mail to Plain Dealer Art Critic, 1801 Superior Ave., Cleveland, OH 44114, or fax to 216-999-6269.
To reach Dan Tranberg:
trandan@core.com