The PortraitSociety’s Gallery B space cohesively integrates several artists, includingowner Debra Brehmer. Under Kendall Polster’s direction, Brehmer welded talllanterns illuminating the ledge outside the south window wallthree primal,ever-changing electrical votives corroding in the cold and snow to symbolizelife-changing forces.
These lanternsfocus attention on a painted low chest used for an altar and surrounded bywalls framed in ebony sheets of tar paper striated with roof markings. Thetextured paper adds continuity to the adjacent earthy brown walls lined with MarshaMcDonald’s acrylic paintings recalling Lake Michigansunsets and sunrises.
McDonald’slandscapes meld the abstract and realistic, creating images with smooth, sandedfinishes that harmonize with the room’s design. Their Zen-like presenceenhances Gallery B’s subtle rectangular benches, which provide relaxing seatsfor meditation.
David Niec’snaturalistic beaver sculptures, placed around the chapel’s perimeter, recallthe solitude of northern Wisconsin.The sculptures reveal actual beaver-chewed wood that Niec collects and theneither pieces together or additionally carves. One piece with a hollowed-outtop resembles a baptistery and makes for a sublime finish to the gallery space,with lanterns glowing in the background.
The complementaryexhibit in Gallery A affords alternative contemplation. In Boris Ostrerov’ssolo show, “Boris Ostrerov: New Work,” the recent Milwaukee Institute of Art& Design graduate presents nine new images. His wall-size artwork mountedin the painted black gallery characterizes the juxtaposition in negative andpositive space, contrasting the spontaneous and the controlled.
Compositions usingspatters and drips together with opaque inky patches faintly recall a traditionperfected by Helen Frankenthaler, only more restrained and primitive throughthe use of sophisticated black and white. Ostrerov’s ink paintings continue todevelop while his lyrical, calligraphic smaller-scale drawings seek to definean intriguing personality and artistic process still in progress.
The tiny exhibitin the Portrait Society’s hallway is called “The Fred Bell Show,” a fascinatingexercise that keeps oil painter Fred Bell creating fresh, themed images eachmonth. January and February’s creations include self-portraits and doorknobsseen from distorted perspectives, revealing silly, serious and spiritualpaintings to coordinate with the two primary exhibitions.
Portrait SocietyGallery’s “A Winter Chapel” and “Boris Ostrerov: New Work” continue throughMarch 13.
