A boy and girl stand back to back, arms crossed, in Michael Foster's three-panel oil painting titled Siblings. The body language gives viewers an immediate sense of psychological tension. Clouds of dissension in the background symbolize the stalemate between the 13-year-old boy and his 10-year-old sister, both fixed in their stances.
More than 15 oils on panels and two charcoal drawings are included in the current exhibition "Michael Foster: Transitions" in the Ploch Art Gallery at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts. Each piece delves into emotions revealed by facial expressions and body placement that transcend the traditional realm of portraiture.
Whether Foster depicts women with arms raised in exultation, as in Inner Flight, or two women locked in disagreement, displayed in Speak Your Truth, his titles offer clues to the connections between human posture and psychology. In all but two paintings women are rendered as substantial figures with chiseled, shadowed cheekbones and limbs, posed as statues in distress. His painted edges rarely soften. Instead, Foster's figures visually confront viewers, forcing them to examine and interpret their own body language to uncover internal conflicts.
The subdued color palette heightens this mood of introspection, with Foster's figures informally clothed in opaque blacks and earthy browns that contrast with the gently shaded golden hues behind them. Contrasting with these tones, They'll Meet Again in Thirty Days is composed of flesh-toned arms against lake blues and watery greens. Depicting the same figure in a mirror image, Foster's brush-strokes blend into the distress visible on the women's faces.
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Foster's paintings also encourage viewers to explore the minds of his figures, adding an intense, profound component to the exhibition. The fact that each picture is dissected into two or three panels creates another element that develops the subconscious space. This intensifies the interplay of positive and negative space between the figures and the surrounding frames with which Foster infuses each portrait.
The work offers visual clues to the mind-set not only of the figures, but of the artist as well. The inside/outside duality of these paintings emphasizes personal body language, often overlooked, that reveals suppressed human thoughts and desires. Foster's portraits will be shown at the Wilson Center through Nov. 21.
Michael Foster will be present at an artist's reception on Oct. 24, 6 to 8 p.m., and at a portrait-painting class on Nov. 1 at the Wilson Center. For more information, call (262) 781-9520.
