Exhibition Reviews | Visual Arts

The Nature of Layers in the Art of Melinda and Joseph Ostraff

A large wall installation composed of numerous square panels with abstract patterns in muted tones of blue, purple, white, and cream. Each panel features unique textural effects and occasional small, dark squares scattered across the array.

Joe & Melinda Ostraff, “Aria,” oil and acrylic, 72 x 60 in.

A visitor to Phillips Gallery during what are becoming their annual showings of the art of Melinda and Joseph Ostraff (see last year’s here) might initially have the impression that the artists work in two formats. One, the more common by far this year, is about the size of a notebook page, presenting something akin to a scientist’s impressions from a field trip. The other is larger and more formal—25 or 30 times as large, and covered with images in rhythmic motion akin to a dance.

Ah, but take 28 of those small works and arrange them seven wide and four high, or take another 30, five high and six wide, and you have a large one. The first yields “Lincoln Park Arboretum,” the second “Aria,” which introduces another, very different distinction. Difficulty in art is usually taken to mean difficulty in interpretation. But “Aria” is, at least initially, difficult to see. Glanced at or from a distance, it looks like a geometric abstraction made of 30 densely patterned squares of subtly modulated color marked by circles and cut up into various-sized squares. But look closely and the visual noise is like a filter or a window through which an elaborate garden can be made out. In places it resembles those drone shots filmmakers have taken to so strongly, looking straight down into a forest or a city, only in this case it’s a field of monochromatic flowers. Contrast varies, but tends to be high, making the blossoms stand out, and individual squares may introduce orange, or blue, or green shades.

An array of small square canvases arranged vertically, each featuring intricate black and white designs with motifs of spirals, dots, and geometric patterns. The canvases showcase variations in texture and tone, creating a dynamic visual rhythm.

Joe & Melinda Ostraff, “Dies Solis #1- #5,” each 11 x 11 in.

A vertically aligned artwork made of multiple square canvases depicting stylized botanical prints in monochrome shades of gray and white. The central piece highlights a large, lime green leaf pattern that stands out against the subdued background.

Few disciplines can have as much in common as botany and painting. On the surface, of course, both involve countless hours of alert observation and analysis of form, color and underlying structure. Beyond that, each has much to say about the behavior and functions of plants in nature, in agriculture, and especially the many roles of flowers, from their physical part in reproduction to their significant, divergent meanings in cultures around the world. Joseph Ostraff, who moves freely between teaching art and collaborating with his fellow artists, finds his most rewarding collaborator in his wife, Melinda, who studies and teaches ethnobotany, a discipline keenly attuned to local and regional patterns and practices. Anyone who is alert to the parallel interest among students of world art will appreciate their timely alliance. Merely ask yourself, does this dictionary entry—“study of the traditional knowledge and customs of a people concerning plants and their medical, religious, and other uses”— better refer to art, or science?

At the Phillips opening, Joe gestured to a suite of flower studies that he said were all “drawn by Melinda.” He may have meant “drawn” in the traditional sense, in which a work of art starts with drawing and design, then moves on to more elaborate media. In their case, that work may reach extremes of elaboration. The most spoken-of concept among artists today is “layer,” and an Ostraff will have multiple layers, some translucent and others opaque, most often with stencils used to produce hard edges between them. Often the most elaborate designs are laid down, only to be largely covered by the next layer, and textures from lower layers are sometimes all that can be seen in the surface of what’s on top.

Then again, some exquisite drawing is included, and in “Bellagio,” the drawn flowers are repeated, here in black, there white, and in one, green silhouettes, in ghostly backgrounds, and in smaller forms that appear to be cut into the body of the paint. No surprise, really, that such sophisticated concepts deliver eloquent craft in response. The title, as is so often the case, refers to a place the couple visited and associate with the works they began there.

No explanation is offered for the partial focus, in this body of work, on flowers as specifically funerary totems. None is needed, of course; I’m writing this in the shadow of a tall spray of flowers we brought back from a family funeral that took place the day after the opening. The thing about using the same symbols to celebrate joy and grief is that the objects—in this case flowers—connect events that have little in common except when we realize that they may form a tapestry from a life’s events, or the lives of those who share them.

A textured artwork featuring a large, abstracted depiction of a flower, rendered in soft shades of gray and white. The flower emerges from a rough, patchwork background composed of variously sized and colored segments, creating an impression of depth and complexity.

Joe & Melinda Ostraff, “In Memory Of #1,” 24×24 in.

 

Joe & Melinda Ostraff, Phillips Gallery, Salt Lake City, through June 14

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