Suffolk University Art Gallery
75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116
Gallery is free and open to the public:
M-Th 9am-9pm, F-Sat 10am-5pm
Gallery is free and open to the public:
M-Th 9am-9pm, F-Sat 10am-5pm
(After 7pm and on weekends enter thru main lobby at 10 Saint James Ave.)
James Hull, Gallery Director www.jameshull.com
James Hull, Gallery Director www.jameshull.com
Contact: 617-994-4283 gallery@suffolk.edu
Suffolk University Art Gallery is The School of Art and Design’s main exhibition space. Located in the heart of the School of Art and Design, The gallery exhibits a wide range of contemporary art in all media. The gallery provides an important link between faculty, students and visitors and some of the most important artists living and working in the region. Top quality, cutting edge artwork is presented in a friendly, engaging manner to attract audiences from both inside and outside the university community. Annual spring exhibits of faculty, alumni and current student work provide student artists and educators with valuable exhibition opportunities in a supportive, critical environment.
Current Exhibit:
Construction
a group exhibition of new sculpture made in Boston
Curated by James Hull
October 15 - November 21, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, October 16, 6-8:30 PM
Artist Talk: Tuesday, November 10, 1:30 PM
Isabel Riley, Construction in Yellow (2009), wood, fabric, paint
Exhibiting Artists:Laura Evans
Peter Evonuk
Arthur Henderson
Ellen Rich Isabel Riley
Jeff Smith
In this exhibition of six Boston area artists the studio process is on display. Because of the
way these sculptures are created we can witness the key choices made by each artist in the
final product. Not all art works this way. The transparency of the construction techniques
underpins the connection between an otherwise visually divergent group. In the same way
that the ad-hoc repairs and homemade contraptions reflect the personality and
inventiveness of a previous resident of a home, the artworks on view reflect the creative
ingenuity of the artists. Choices of how to put things together, what media to use or where
to get materials reveal much about the artistic strategies at play. The raw materials chosen
might just as easily come from a hardware store as an art supply store. What does that tell
us about the artistic intentions? Using materials to test and explore the boundary between
art and craft or the overlap between painting and sculpture closes the gap between
everyday experience and contemporary art. The confident generosity of all these artists
allows us to see more of the creative process in the exhibited artwork enriching our
experience as viewers.
Laura Evans short-circuits any expected outcomes by cutting, gluing and redirecting tubular
material literally turning them into drawings. More like the lines in Brice Mardenʼs looping
paintings than a Joel Shapiro sculpture these segmented, articulating cylinders are like
improvisational vectors that donʼt seem to get anywhere or describe anything specifibcu t
through thoughtful choreography express the elegant successes and fitful frustrations of
making art.
Peter Evonuk uses his sense of humor and technical training to try to locate the dividing
line between art and craft (if there truly is one). He uses stone carving and cutting, one of the
oldest, most revered processes, to raise a basic construction object to the status of high art.
He carves white marble into a perfect cinder block, which he playfully positions
contrapposto to make the classical sculptural references clear. Evonuk labors using
traditional methods in direct contradiction to Marcel Duchampʼs “found object”. The
irreverence of the subject matter paradoxically underscores the time-consuming processes.
Arthur Henderson uses traditional and nontraditional materials to create anything but
classical sculptures. His cast and fabricated objects are often painted to look exactly like a
cigarette butt or a truncated cartoon character in his own updated version of Pop Art.
Henderson carves text and uses humor to poke fun at the artworldʼs seriousness. The use
of contemporary materials like pink insulation foam and contact paper in addition to acrylic
paint or plaster gives his work a broad zone of reference to both mimic and critique trends in
contemporary art.
Ellen Rich combines found materials with painted finishes but her compositions are more
minimal and less culturally specific than Hendersonʼs. This is surprising considering that she
collects most of the parts for her wall sculptures from a dump. The collage process and
formal restraint of these low relief works is modulated by Richʼs use of found and applied
color. The humble aged surfaces relate them more to Modernist artworks or to Alexander
Calder or Louise Nevelson than to artists known for using cast-off materials like Thorton Dial
or Howard Finster.
Isabel Riley selects hardware store materials with a painterʼs eye for color and texture. Her
materials are new and her colors vary from out of the can to exacting faux finishes. This
variety is both coherent and playful as it engages the viewer all the way around these
objects. Connections between one form and another reveal the logic and cagey solutions
Riley uses to move us between elements of each sculpture. Riley has a keen sense of
materials using anything from faux fur to plywood to vinyl flooring to create surprisingly
elegant structures. Balance, tension and color work interdependently to create complex
visual relationships.
Jeff Smith takes the term “playful” literally. He often makes sculptures that function as adult
sized rideʼem toys or building blocks. Almost everything is on wheels. He may paint
something or sand or round off the edges but he tries to keep the history of the surfaces
intact. The sturdy construction of these works make them feel attractively interactive (in the
analog sense of the term). They movement sets the stage for a “happening” or a
“performance” in the art world terms but Smith reminds us that when we were kids we just
called it play.