beyond topography at janice charach gallery
“Beyond Topography is an exhibition of works that deal with the American landscape beyond the physical representation of our surroundings. These paintings, sculptures, and installations delve into several topics, including but not limited to Nature, Culture, and the Individual. To understand our current climate, it is essential to look at how humans relate to our world, imagine the future, and interpret the past.” -Clinton Snider, curator
Although afforded an expansive American Southwest vista, entry is obstructed by a manmade brick wall. Meticulously executed, one ponders implications of this simple yet powerful image. How many have only viewed this landscape on a blue-lit screen versus lacing up hiking boots and deeply investigating the terrain?
Denise Fanning brings her close connection with nature in this roughly hewn mantle. Woven from formerly reliable laundry baskets, spent plant material and birds’ nests complete with remains of eggs that once protected a developing being, the piece communicates tender care and nurturing. The barest of color presents a blush of blue in the eggshell fragments while braided strands finished in red cotton thread snake along the gallery floor toward the viewer.
Isolated during an artist residency at the now defunct Lee Paper Mill in Vicksburg, Michigan, Scott Hocking riffs on David Smith’s Voltri-Bolton series. Hocking works with line, shape and shadow bending and welding found objects with concrete embedded rebar creating freestanding talismanic hieroglyphics. The limited palette allows the oversized blue, rusty dish to take center stage with spherical satellites orbiting like planets.
Flawless perspective complemented with fastidious detail invite total immersion into this palpable environment. Impasto produces architectural grooves in decorative embellishments once indicating grandeur now reduced to topographical decay along with its aging curb.
Ordinary settings are rendered extraordinary through breadth of materials and perspective. Artists are highly sensitive, sensing and seeing more than most. Each artist offers an intimate narrative on significant components that not only contribute to expression in their work but in building a fulfilling and meaningful life.