With its toweringceilings, high windows, effective lighting and Baltic birch flooring, thepristine space superbly illuminates the artwork. The warmth of the WPCA’s frontgallery further enhances the show’s small-scale impressions.
The featured trioAmandaGerken, Josie Osborne and Heather Wiedemandisplays distinct images withinintimate, cohesive groupings. Gerken’s acrylic reliefs reference architecturalterminology in titles beginning with “Core,” the name for samples taken fromthe Earth before the building process begins. A series of four, Core No. 41, 45, 44, and 43,presents a monochromatic rendering ofan atmospheric environment.
Wiedeman’smixed-media pieces incorporate acrylic, cold wax, graphite, inks and silverleaf on paper or wood. These textural expressions appear to apply abstractrepresentation to arches, bridges and roofs, the sculpted wax achieving depthand the graphite overlay adding perspective. These techniques create shadows inWiedeman’s nuanced imagesespecially on the deckle-edged paperwhich in turnreference ancient wall reliefs or frescoes using ultramodern applications.
Osborne’sassemblages often bear the title Schematicand become mixed-media studies where graph paper, pulleys and found objectscoalesce into imaginative images. Specific titles provide viewers with clues asto the artist’s observations. Her assemblage Rhythmic Sound(Silence)diagrams sound, or the vibrations that sound creates, on the page, as atechnician might. Yet Osborne asks how one could or would describe, express orrepresent silence? This creative interplay sustains a tension in Osborne’sartwork that viewers will find intriguing.
The exhibitioncreates an unusual balance between the three artists, with Gerken’s colorserving as the exception to the others’ neutral tones. The WPCA’s new spaceserves the artwork extremely well, enhancing the current exhibit and creatinghigh expectations for the future.
“In the Balance” continues through May 29.
