Sequencing Modernist Hybridizations

In the early twentieth century, William Sommer (1867-1949) became one of Cleveland’s leading modernist painters exploring European avant-garde concepts and the relationships between reality and imagination. Hearing about new techniques and styles being executed in Europe from fellow artists Abel Warshawsky and William Zorach, Sommer immediately dove into abstraction and impressionism in 1911. One hundred years later, Mark Keffer re-examines Sommer’s paintings into a new body of work which gives a nod to a local history and speaks to Sommer’s lasting imprint on Cleveland’s artistic heritage.

The work in Sommer Sequence at Arts Collinwood shows Keffer’s stylistic continuity of mixing organically layered spray paint with hard edged geometric forms that continue his search for a futuristic landscape, however this time they reach for the past. Keffer reflects on these paintings, “I see his work as having many of the same directions and sensibilities that I try to explore. I love the existential openness that I get from his best work… He is simply addressing observable reality and handling it in such a way as to touch on human truths that can’t be communicated in any other way. There is an agnostic mindset at work, which simply acknowledges that ultimate truths regarding the nature of reality are unknowable. Everything is filtered through our subjective, individual points of view. To try to touch upon these realities (and love, hope, fear, desire, memory, the fringes of consciousness, etc.) is what painting is about.”

Mark Keffer. Viaduct. 2010.

William Sommer. Viaduct at Sunset. 1914. Cleveland Museum of Art.

Referencing the nearly century old works, Keffer attempts to invoke the spirit found in Sommer’s paintings into his own. Viaduct takes its composition from Sommer’s Viaduct at Sunset. Here, Keffer lays down a static-like linear background upon which he applies the geometric shapes that takes Sommer’s fluidity into a gaseous yet stiff construction. The reductive qualities transform representations of the man made structure and river, as well as plants and animals, into hard edge circular and rectangular shapes. This translation allows Keffer to use a set framework while maintaining his own stylistic experimentation of combining clean precision and foggy grit as a means of probing the diverse ways the human brain functions.

Working in a similar color palette adds to the compositional appropriation that connect the two works. However Keffer’s painting gives a stronger sense of weight than the lighter more spontaneous Sommer. Forms in other works in the series also appear heavy, yet without grounding his geometric shapes, they still appear to float above the surface of organic haze. This balance and counter balance creates what the artist calls a “secular mysticism” revolving around the unknowable realities that Sommer set out to capture through much the same means as he paraphrased the Vorticist’s, “Combinations of organic and inorganic forms give unity and variety to the picture.”

Mark Keffer. White Goat and Trestle. 2010.

William Sommer. White Goat and Trestle. 1942. Cleveland Museum of Art.

The selection of works Keffer chose to work from is also an interesting exploration of Sommer’s personal emotional experiences. One such work is White Goat and Trestle. Keffer loosely bases his painting on Sommer’s of the same title from 1942. While Sommer’s work became more locally focused with the onset of the American Scene movement he continued to interpreted his subjects in the modernist style. Feeling connected to the land on which he lived, Sommer said that, “the glorious state of Ohio gives all it has to the artist – ever rolling hills, miniature valleys, old farm houses, cattle grazing around great barns with splendid towers that do away with the straight line, towers that simply must be put on paper – they are not high but beautiful in form, and eternal in simplicity.”

Cattle having become a recurring theme in Sommer’s paintings, his wife purchased a pair of goats to pique his interest. While he executed several drawings and watercolors of the goats, Sommer was afraid of them and didn’t trust them. Keffer’s interpretation of the painting emits this sense of fear that Sommer must have felt through dark murky splotches that invade the composition. The geometric forms contribute to a sense of unease through their sharp diagonals cutting through the lower portion of the painting like blades. Confusion or bewilderment is another state that could be read into this work through the transformation of a tree in Sommer’s painting into overlapping colored oval shapes in a way that resemble seeing spots as if from a head injury (Sommer suffered from head injuries that often resulted in an exotic crystalline experience).

Mark Keffer. Blue Vase. 2010.

Mark Keffer. Corn and Fruit. 2010.

As Keffer’s work relies less on Sommer’s compositional elements to inform his creative process, the paintings become more truly his own. Blue Vase and Corn and Fruit both have roots in Sommer’s work, but through simplification and a broader interpretation they communicate more of Keffer’s personal esthetic that relates strongly to his previous works. These paintings successfully display his desire to create a perceptual interpretation of an unknowable reality, “Our daily lives are so structured by logic-based systems, it’s nice to have art as a force that doesn’t have to adhere to any of that.”

Woven together, Keffer’s concepts and those he identifies with of Sommer’s, result in an exhibit that tells of the continuity in Cleveland’s artistic past and reaches into its future. Further, it expresses an artist’s ability to reference the art that came before and revision it to make a statement of confidence in an artist’s own perspective. Sommer Sequence is on view at Arts Collinwood from August 12th through September 3rd, 2011. For more of Keffer’s work, visit markkeffer.com.

Bob Peck’s Pink Elephants

According to his third person press release for his latest exhibition, Bob Peck often felt abstraction was a scam. However, this has not deterred the him from using its visual vocabulary. The Elephant in the Room at the We Gallery in Akron exhibits work typical of the artist. Brightly colored canvases adorn the walls with bursts of movement that linger above broader strokes of splotchy color fields. From a distance, many of the works appear simple, but upon closer inspection intricate layers are detected that demonstrate a keen skill of mixing a variety of textures. Smooth thin lines appear to lift off of the surface with a more gritty brushwork and even flat spray paint underneath.

Bob Peck. Chain of Command

Striking works like Chain of Command, show Peck’s ability to direct the eye with repetition of form and delicate balance of varied line weight. What works particularly well in this piece is the use of negative space. While centrally composed, the image divides the paper into four quadrants, and leads the eye from left to right by shifting scale in a diamond like symmetry. Line quality is crisp and interwoven, relating back to the title of the work. A swift uplifting movement in cool blue breaks the chain in the middle of the page as the horizontal line trails off in green brushstrokes completing the rise and fall of its dramatic narrative.

Differences in quality vary between Peck’s canvases and works on paper. On paper he generally seems to be much more tight and purposeful in relating shape to negative space. However, several of his newer works on paper display odd placement, overcrowded line work, along with the interesting addition of staining. The canvases on the other hand are loose and often with rough paint quality sometimes exhibiting a sloppy painting technique with bold flat areas of color that don’t completely cover the primed canvas.

Bob Peck. The Simple Notion of 11:20

Several pieces do not work as well as others, and this is where a curator would have come in handy. The Simple Notion of 11:20 is one such painting. The color palette seems to have been a struggle for Peck, who is usually very adept at color selection. There is conflicting line work, compositional imbalance, muddled paint application, and awkward diagonals that make the painting a quagmire of shape and form. Every aspect of the work is in conflict, and not in a positive way.

The statement accompanying the exhibit says that Peck wasn’t just thinking outside the box, but that he had “torn the box into fragments and began gluing them back together into a new form.” Perhaps for this graffiti artist Abstract Expressionism never took place in the 1940’s through the ’60’s, but fortunately for the rest of the art world, it did. Peck’s paintings offer nothing new, least of all in form. Had he investigated the movement he thought of as a scam, perhaps he would have realized that his work recalls that of Jules Olitski among other artists in the canon. He also might begin to understand why they did the work and how it relates to his creative process. Hopefully it is a misunderstanding in the description of the exhibit that he opened up to a “less solid and more static frame of mind,” because there is nothing static about the movements needed to create what would be labeled as “action painting.” The motion of the artist’s mark is strongly felt in all the works, be it the slick glide of the pen or spay can, or the forceful stroke of the brush. Further, these marks often enhance one another, creating a strong direction in which the eye is forced to read the paintings.

In a recent interview, Peck notes that much of his work is created out of frustration, but it can seldom be seen in the end result. While the creation of the work may be emotionally charged, the lack of communicating that feeling to the viewer weakens the overall experience. This establishes a void that disconnects Peck from his admirers who have connected to a work believing they can empathize with the artist emotionally. The works then are seemingly about nothing. There is no content but technique, which he has perfected to a point where there is a lineage throughout his body of homogenized work. This is not necessarily a negative quality, as the Abstract Expressionists found how they communicated with marks most effectively and then repeated it throughout their careers. What is lacking in Peck’s work that they imbued in theirs is an existential exploration of personal experience.

To an extent, Peck does understand what he is doing. His work is based on method. He knows what pleases his fans and gives them what they want time and time again. What makes Peck’s work a success is its safeness. It owes its edginess to being labeled “urban graffiti turned fine art.” Overall the work, while colorful, is bland and thus perfectly suitable as background in upscale restaurants where it won’t offend the clientele. As “street art,” it is far from innovative, in style or technique. This brings about a sense of ease in those interested in the scene but not daring enough to go out and see the more controversial and ground breaking work being executed by artists like Cayman Robson and others who question traditional graffiti marks.

There is potential in Peck’s work which depends less on his willingness to experiment with technique, and more with his willingness to allow his work to make a statement. That he took the phrase “The Elephant in the Room” on which to base the work in the exhibit on does not come through, nor is it a very strong concept. His using someone’s remark that even an animal could do this work is not relevant enough to warrant building the exhibition in the fashion in which it is presented.

The exhibit runs from July 16th to the 27th at the We Gallery. To view more of the artist’s work visit his website, Wake Me When I’m Profound. For the time being however, Peck will remain asleep.

John Nativio’s Changing Environments

John Nativio: Encompasses Transmission II.

In an age where the comfort of mankind has been seen to trump that of the environment and sources of energy to maintain the ever expanding growth of human consumption have become increasingly expensive or dangerous, John Nativio takes a moment to step back and attempt to examine how our progress effects both our psyche and the world around us. Transmutations, an exhibit of Nativio’s paintings, drawings and sculptures at the Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery, presents a body of tightly connected work all devoted to the purpose of understanding human existence within a manufactured landscape.

The paintings, with little contrast and a common red hued color pallet create a comforting, and naive sense that is enhanced by reoccurring colorful blocks recalling those that children would play with. The sharp rendering, odd combination of construction materials with everyday objects and furniture combine in the still life compositions that could be found randomly scattered in a shed or basement. This is a staple of magic realism which had become a leading stylistic tradition with mid-twentieth century Cleveland artists like Paul Riba and John Teyral.

Nativio goes further than representing the oddities of the everyday by combining these compositions with views of the natural world diminished in scale by our product driven lives. In these surreal glimpses into nature, he conjures landscapes with brooding storm clouds, and choppy waters. When it is calm, nature is typically depicted as isolated in a box, being covered by a blanket, or devoured by construction equipment. The latter becomes interesting when put into the context that Nativio owns a home construction company. Repeatedly, he also returns to imagery of nuclear power plant cooling towers as reminders of not only the required energy to create the world we live in, but also how we remove the natural world to make way for more expansion while changing the environment in unforeseen ways.

John Nativio: Transmutation V

What is lacking in this examination of a man made world is imagery of man. While architecture and furniture are regularly shown, only two of the still life paintings represented include a human figure. In Transmutation V, a farmer can seen reaping his crop by hand, however, the blocks on the table below suggest the industrial nature of today’s farming and food industries with gear and belt like shapes. This leaves an ambiguity for the viewers that is also found in other paintings and forces them to think about whether or not our progress is positive or negative. Perhaps Nativio is suggesting it lies somewhere in between.

John Nativio: Collapsing Mass

When Nativio does turn to the figure in his paintings, they appear more like figure studies lying across a flat platform with sectioned off panels depicting interior and exterior spaces. The figure doesn’t become powerful until he transforms it into his sculptural work. Here, his figures are off balance and on the brink of falling. In Collapsing Mass, the figure is appears to be made from corroded man made pieces showing that Nativio has taken position against consumer progress which is even more strongly felt in his busts. Unearthed Amalgamation III consists of the same corroded texture. The segmented pieces that make up the bust appear to be separating as the head drops its gaze to the floor. The sense that the bust is about to roll off the pedestal and fracture into pieces exemplifies the artist’s interest in the psychological effect the modern world has on humanity, though it appears to be devoted to those that get lost in it.

John Nativio: Unearthed Amalgamation III

Transmutations, on display from May 20^th through July 2^nd, comes together to form a cohesive and poignant exhibit that subtly debates environmental and consumer issues. It is curious though that these works are not fresh to the market. This exhibit could easily be titled Pre-Visions III as the work had been previously exhibited at the Beck Center for the Arts in a show titled Pre-Visions II that ran from January through February. As that title suggests, the work was also shown earlier in an exhibit called Pre-Visions from October to November of 2010 at Ohio Northern University’s Elzay and Stambaugh Studio Theatre galleries.

This brings up a good subject for discussion in the local art world. How often should work be re-exhibited? How much time between showing a piece, let a lone an entire exhibit, is appropriate? Going to openings of group shows, it is obvious some artists rely on exhibiting pieces multiple times. While this is an easy way to stay in the public’s eye, viewers will remember what they see and end up thinking those few pieces are all the artists’ have. Perhaps the worst case of reshowing work recently, Transmutations begs the question, how and why does the same work get shown so often, so quickly?

We Don’t Need No Stinking Gallery – 6/11/2011

Deep in the heart of Cleveland’s conformist suburbia called Parma lies a geodesic dome on a wooded lot built in the 1960’s by some hippies. Their daughter, who now resides in the dome, invited her friends to take over her living room to exhibit their artwork and hold an opening reception filled with a potluck dinner and an evening of live music. We Don’t Need No Stinking Gallery! presented a low key and informal display of approximately eighteen artists. With few labels, and odd groupings, it was difficult to tell if all the listed artists were present, but that was not a deterrent from enjoying the work. After all, this exhibit was more about being outside of the gallery system, enjoying the company of friends, meeting new people, and having a good time while being surrounded by the creativity hanging on the walls.

Unfortunately there was not much worth discussing further beyond the observation of the common illustrative mainstream embrace of low brow art. This does not mean that there were not stand out artists. Perhaps the most interesting for this particular venue were the drawings of houses by Amber Esner.

The grouping titled Home is Where You are the Happiest consisted of ten works on paper depicting dwellings that can be found in the area and representing locally common architectural styles. Esner, who is currently studying at the Cleveland Institute of Art, makes use of flat planes and slightly off perspective.  While her work tends towards commercial illustration, the thought of exhibiting drawings of homes in a home provides a witty commentary on the dual meaning of art.

Amber Esner: 2406 Turrington Ave

From the gallery to the collector’s home, art often changes from making social commentary to being decorative. Here, the work is already in the home but displayed exhibition style in an alternative gallery setting. The decorative aspects of the work however do not overshadow the cheerful feeling that is brought on by the color pallet and loose drawing style. This gives the work a familiarity and nostalgic quality that fit quite nicely with the title of the series. If there were one thing that would enhance the work further in this presentation, it would be matting and framing.