First Saturday Art Logo

This Saturday October 2, the exhibition titled Radiance: Light, Space & Perception will open at the Conrad Wilde Gallery. The artists, Lori del Mar, Heather Hutchinson and Carrie Seid will be present and conducting a talk at 5 p.m. followed by a reception from 6-9 p.m.

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Below are statements by the artists about their work in their own words.

Realm by Lori del Mar

Beacon by Lori del mar

Lori del Mar- Artist Statement

My paintings represent an inquiry into aspects of time and perception, and the sense of beauty that I find in moments of awareness of time and of being.

Filter is a series of 10 paintings — each with subtle compositions of color, space, light, and structure. This particular series chronicles my perspective of experience regarding the phenomenological effects of light and space as observed through moments of solitude within the architectural space of my home and studio.

My subject through all of my painting is most often about “seeing”. This includes the viewer and the viewer’s attentive participation in looking and seeing the works. The works offer a space of discovery and reflection. As such the paintings request (and thus reward) ample time given in their experience. They shift, much like a freshly darkened room shifts, after a paused moment for optical adjustment. Their subtle modulations of dynamic pigment relationships invite the viewer to relinquish any immediate visual expectation – often evoking a question of uncertainty as to what is being seen/perceived.

At first glance, the paintings may read as subtle fields of silence. As time is given for the eye to adjust, submerged transitions of color and form begin to emerge. In this sense, the works are experientially time-based. Their seemingly visual absence performs much like a whisper, compelling sustained participation into an intimate, sensory encounter.

Still by Heather Hutchison

Still by Heather Hutchison

Heather Hutchison – Artist Statement

I have been exploring translucent media for 20 years. In these post-Minimal works, as much sculpture as painting, the shallow shadow box constructions of plywood and enamel literally capture light and allow it to resonate back through an attached plexiglass surface. The effect is depth and vibrancy of hue and value, where the thin layers of wax and pigment, brushed uniformly on the surface, act both to catalyze and diffuse the tempered light.  The resulting color-luminosity registers the changing natural light specific to any moment of a given day.

Original by Carrie Seid

Original by Carrie Seid

Carrie Seid_- Artist Statement.

In my work I attempt to convey the anatomy of human emotions and sensations through form, structure, and the glow of saturated color.

The human experience of being simultaneously tenacious and vulnerable is referred to through the use of silk, a material which is delicate yet possesses a tensile strength greater than steel. Tension is built, both physically and metaphorically, as two elements quite opposed in character meet to form the surfaces and contours of the work. By combining these translucent and reflective materials, I solidify and objectify ephemeral qualities of light.

The tension between geometric and biomorphic forms in my work allows me to explore the tension between order and chaos, constancy and change.

‘The physical description reduces their ephemeral qualities unjustly, failing to re-create the diaphanous veils of melting color, fusing from one space to the next. A simultaneity of resilience and vulnerability is created through the metal and membranes, like scars emerging from the interior of a cloud…
Painting and sculpture are too categorically limited for the emotional states of being that Seid so elegantly conjures up. Smoke and shadow, dissipation and loss, energy and anatomy- these physical references bring us closer to the ineffable life forces at the core of these mysterious assemblages.”

-Gerry Craig, Sculpture Magazine July/August 2000-

Conrad Wilde Gallery

439 N. 6th Ave. #171

Tucson, AZ 85705

520.622.8997

Open Tuesday- Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Website:  www.conradwildegallery.com

For more information: 520.622.8997

Other Galleries participating in the 1^st Saturday Openings October 2 are:

Contreras Gallery- www.contrerashousefineart.com – 110 E. 6th St. – 520.398.6557

The Drawing Studio- www.thedrawingstudio.org – 33 S. 6th Ave. – 520.620.0947

Fragment Gallery- www.fragmentgallery.com – Citizen’s Warehouse – 44 W. 6th St. – 520.310-8788

The Front @ Platform- www.the-front-gallery.com – 439 N. 6th Ave. – 520.882.3886

Raices Taller 222 Gallery & Workshop- 218 E. 6th. Street

Tucson, AZ 85705  (520) 881 5335 www.raicestaller222.org

Upon entering the gallery one is immeadiately drawn to the sole installation work in the show, Gwyneth Scally’s “Museum of Dying Giants”, which is composed of a fur-like tent stuffed with a scene of the great northwest complete with pine odors and mountain vista. Across the room from Gwyneth’s work is a pair of Angela Ellsworth sculptures entitled “Seer Bonnet III & IV” which are composed entirely of pins which display their heads looking like elegant beads, only to reveal the sharp pins underneath which would pierce anyone who would try to wear such a chapeau. What does this say about the dangers of vision?

Dominic Miller’s work on paper which appears at first to be a time-lapse photo of the heavens is in fact a pin-pricked, ink-covered geometric exercise which channels map-making, topography, astronomy and perhaps obsession – a curious companion to the Ellsworth piece just a few feet away. Further down the ramp at the museum the glowing red cub-like panel by Carrie Seid entitled “Full Scale” which sucks the viewer inside its translucent interior. Seid’s works beg to be touched, but don’t…please. Simon Donovan’s video work, “Lament of the mediocre regional mid-career artist” is a playful, self mocking monologue where the artist’s head is floating in a sky as the central sun/star element bemoaning his failure to make it big in the art world. Another sculptural work, Marco Rosichelli’s “Spring Fetus”, reminds us that art can be funny and stylish at the same time. Modeled after a playground kids toy, the giant spring is topped off with a fiberglass fetus shape straight out of a biology textbook –  inviting the viewer to climb on board – but again please do not touch.

What does al of this mean? Guest curator Tim Rodgers, chief Curator of the New Mexico Museum Museum of art offers a brief intro at the shows start urging viewers to look at what they like and don’t like together to perhaps gain a better understanding of the range of work being created. Sometimes opposites make more sense in the context of each other. Thought provoking work is always better than the work that is numbingly bland. Be sure to check out this show to for your own opinion.