Dean Jensen Gallerycurrently offers new work by photographer Sonja Thomsen in the exhibition “Re:Current” (through May 29). The displayed photographs represent Thomsen’s workfrom her 2008 residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat located on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Thomsen, her art aselegant as ever, creates masterful nature prints through otherworldly scenes.Thomsen’s new series, “Proscenium,” features 12 interrelated images, eachframed by a drawn curtain that puts the coastline, shore and sky on a stage.Light and shadow change in each picture in accordance with the time of day, asnatural drama unfolds in serene, still scenes.
A large-scalephotograph titled Henry poignantlyrefers to the passage of time by capturing one day’s messages written in chalkon a blackboard. The photograph catches fleeting events: bridge, pinochle, golfand, appropriately for a picture about the cycle of time, the fact that “HenryMastie died today 10 a.m. with his family by his side. Funeral is Fri.”
In the HistoricThird Ward, Tory Folliard Gallery presents “Dennis Nechvatal: New Paintings andDrawings” (through May 29). Nechvatal, a well-established painter, mesmerizesviewers with his acrylic images and metalwork.
Nechvatal’s Face/Mask #1 (80 Mask Series) attaches80 small, hand-cut and hand-formed tin masks to a wooden panel. The abstractface markings on each mask display individual, primal energy. When the paintingis viewed from a distance, another personality emerges from behind the masks. Thelarge-scale hidden portrait is vaguely unnerving, with its pensive pair of lipsand piercing eyes that stare directly at the viewer. Mysterious and modern,Nechvatal’s face series stretches the imagination.
The artist’slandscapes and still lifes vividly recreate surrealistic idealism, thepaintings attuned to nature’s peaceful presence. Nechvatal’s numbered“Landscape Study” seriesreveals thisnotion with delicate details provided by every stroke of the brush.
Thomsen andNechvatal may work in different mediums, but they both demonstratesophisticated, creative concepts that are worthy of multiple viewings.
