The beginning of September marks the start of the Fall art season, and there are many new shows to be excited about. Artists now confirmed and dates set, galleries roll out their previously secret upcoming exhibits and debut new work, artists, and spaces. So it was at 65GRAND, one of Chicago's best alternative galleries. The gallery was shuttered over the summer for renovation, the end result of which was about twice as much gallery space. The larger area for display was taken full advantage of for Brian Kapernekas's exhibit "deadfall" that displayed both paintings and sculpture.
One of the big strengths of this exhibition is its tight attention to displaying related work from Kapernekas's output. Together the works on view creates a quiet, contemplative and distinctly Midwestern space, a welcome change from the headline-grabbing, quick glance, single punchline art that was making international news this week (I refer of course to Damien Hirst). Of particular interest to Kapernekas are mysterious natural settings that in paint take time to reveal themselves just as they do in actuality. While the paintings dwelled on aspects of nature, the sculpture's primary interest is wood both as a medium and idea.
Brian Kapernekas, Woodsman's Eclipse. 2008. Oil, wax, and enamel on canvas. 54 x 60 in. Image courtesy of the artist and 65GRAND.
To begin with the paintings, the work that elicited the most reaction from myself was Woodsman's Eclipse, the largest painting in the exhibit (seen above). Initially this painting, like many in the exhibit, read as an abstraction. There is a jumble of dark triangles and other polygons set against a red and white field. From this jumble rises a white half circle. Upon sustained viewing these abstract elements reveal themselves to be the sun and a pile of stacked wood. Sunsets, or sun rises, are one of the most tricky subjects to paint in the twenty-first century since they can so often fall into romanticism, sentimentality and nostalgia. Kapernekas successfully avoids those traps, by showing the image as a culmination of independent shapes, polygons and one half circle. He presents an image that the viewer can approach in a number of ways: as abstraction, as realism, as symbolism. If it becomes romanticized it is not from what he has done, it is from what the viewer has projected upon the canvas. I almost wish he had left it untitled to push the mystery of the image and further implicate the viewer in the assignment of meaning.
Brian Kapernekas, Conjuror. 2008. Enamel, twine and found wood. 13 x 28 x 21 in. Image courtesy of the artist and 65GRAND.
Kapernekas's sculpture is equally engaging and interesting. A theme running throughout much of the work (both painting and sculpture) was the material wood, both as a medium and idea. Kapernekas seems to approach wood by way of Empedocles, as an elemental force. In Conjuror, a pile of of brightly colored twigs lies atop a pile of sticks, as if it were a rainbow colored fire (seen above). In Dusted, an old time broom with twigs for the sweeping bristles likewise becomes rainbow colored at the bottom. In each, a natural element is added to and becomes something else, in this case an art object.
"deadfall" took advantage of the newly renovated gallery space as well as the seasonal change. Each piece had enough space to itself for viewing, but the links between related pieces were also clear. Kapernekas's thoughtful and nuanced treatment of Midwestern and rural subjects is a welcome updating from the usual realism-only approaches plaguing so many others. The between-abstraction-and-representation style he is evolving was also particularly interesting, it will be interesting to see what direction he takes it in future work.
--Abraham Ritchie
(top inset image: Brian Kapernekas, Harvest. 2008. oil and wax on burlap. 14 x 10 in. Image courtesy of the artist and 65GRAND.)
