{"id":25408,"date":"2014-04-03T15:00:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T21:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=25408"},"modified":"2025-10-24T12:49:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T19:49:46","slug":"draw-till-you-drop-kristina-lenzi-and-gretchen-reynolds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/draw-till-you-drop-kristina-lenzi-and-gretchen-reynolds\/","title":{"rendered":"Draw Till You Drop: Kristina Lenzi and Gretchen Reynolds"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Several features can characterize works of Performance Art. One is duration. Performance artists often (not always) push the boundaries of their audience\u2019s patience, creating a corner in time that proceeds according to the work\u2019s inner tempo. The artist\u2019s stamina can also be pushed \u2013 to exhaustion. Another feature that can so easily accompany works of performance art is a binary dynamic created between two participants. Here I think of the works of Gilbert and George, Abramavic and Ulay, Valie Export and Peter Weibel, Chris Burden and his anonymous assistant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such was the case on Friday evening (March 21st) at Artspace, where Kristina Lenzi and Gretchen Reynolds sat at opposing easles, drawing each other for over six hours during Gallery Stroll. Facing each other at 180 degree angles, one could have assumed that the easels were attached to each other. In fact, the artists studied each other\u2019s faces through a small gap between the boards and, with charcoal, graphite, colored and highlighter chalk undertook facial studies of each other \u2013 drawing each other.<\/p>\n

The resulting drawings were displayed on adjacent walls behind each artist, serving as a backdrop to the central action. The results varied from the sublime to the ridiculous. Some achieved such life-like naturalism that the subjects almost started breathing. Others were rendered with simple contour drawings, or the grand gestures of Willem deKooning. Some placed a realistic eye squarely in the middle of a nest of scribbles, barely decipherable as the structure of a face. And towards the end of the marathon, meditative concentration dissolved into childsplay and portraits descended into charicatures, revealing disfigured proportions and Picasso-like monsters.<\/p>\n

Forays into these drawing styles demonstrated the range of each artist, both of whom have taught drawing for several years at institutions throughout the valley.
\nThe results also invited comparison. Who was more skilled? Who posessed a steadier hand? Who was the master of naturalism, who was quicker to abandon the torch and embrace the lighter side of the discipline?<\/p>\n

While some observers are trained \u201cnot to judge\u201d the dynamic of one artist pitted against another invariably emerged for this critic. Did the coupling mirror a scenario of rivalry, which can so easily emerge between partners of any kind? Was this a competition? Or, was this a paean to cooperation, of working in tandem and symbiosis, in the true spirit of partnership? As much as the arrangment was a \u2018closed system\u2019, it was also entirely complementary, as the personal styles of each artist quietly unfolded, while spectators meandered through the event. Perhaps in this sense, the performance more closely approximated M.C.Escher\u2019s iconic work from 1948\u00a0Drawing Hands<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Kristina Lenzi and Gretchen Reynolds\u2019 Durational Draw Out took place on Friday, March 21. Geoff Wichert posted another take on the event\u00a0on our blog\u00a0earlier this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several features can characterize works of Performance Art. One is duration. Performance artists often (not always) push the boundaries of their audience\u2019s patience, creating a corner in time that proceeds according to the work\u2019s inner tempo. The artist\u2019s stamina can also be pushed \u2013 to exhaustion. Another feature […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1542,"featured_media":25409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[1357,325],"class_list":["post-25408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-gretchen-reynolds","tag-kristina-lenzi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/draw.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 19:20:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1542"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25408"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97430,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25408\/revisions\/97430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}