{"id":45595,"date":"2019-06-24T12:29:35","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T18:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=45595"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:39:32","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T20:39:32","slug":"capturing-the-ineffable-materiality-and-art-making-at-the-rio-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/capturing-the-ineffable-materiality-and-art-making-at-the-rio-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Capturing the Ineffable: Materiality and Art Making at the Rio Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art has long sought to capture the transitory and sensory in physical form. From the transformative capabilities of an artist\u2019s two-dimensional canvas to contemporary art\u2019s revolutionary experimentation with media, material doesn\u2019t just inform art, it is art. Or as philosopher Marshall McLuhan famously stated, \u201cThe medium is the message.\u201d Indeed, the artist\u2019s use of materials shapes the very nature of our interactions with the artistic creation and endows the work\u2019s creator with infinite possibilities.<\/h4>\n

And yet even the most durable materials face a certain enemy: time. While materials like stone often fool us with their guise of timelessness, they too are subject to the ravages of time; and the past century has demonstrated the unexpected nobility of those materials that boldly embrace their insecurity with time.<\/h4>\n

The Rio Gallery\u2019s latest exhibition Time + Materials<\/em>, featuring works by Heidi Moller Somsen, Jacqui Larsen, and Richard Gate, relishes in the liveliness and power of both concepts, however immense they may be.<\/h4>\n
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“Arch Support”<\/p><\/div>\n

Great art commands attention by interacting compellingly in the space in which it resides. Heidi Moller Somsen\u2019s arresting sculptures of found objects and bodily vestiges impart a powerful and haunting effect. While some of the works relish in the materiality of encasing found items in sculptural form, the majority of her contributions experiment in some way with disembodied feet. Placed strategically throughout the gallery space, the works mandate a sort of close and captive attention. Each work possesses a flirtation between weight and weightlessness, surely made possible by the artist\u2019s mastery over<\/em> and curiosity with <\/em>her materials.<\/h4>\n

\u201cConcrete and resin are new materials for me, and I am enjoying learning their characteristics and limitations,\u201d Somsen says. \u201cEach material or found object has a personality.\u201d<\/h4>\n

In some works, feet are bound to their concrete base, while in others the feet stand defiantly atop them. In \u201cArch Support,\u201d the feet are tethered firmly to a pair of warped structures. The result is jarring in the greatest possible way. One can\u2019t help but feel intrigued and perhaps disarmed by the forceful manner in which the smooth, mannequin-like feet are strapped to two misshapen sculptures. Conversely, \u201cEquillibria II\u201d depicts a pair of feet standing confidently atop a slickly glazed geometric base. \u201cMay the Clay Dance to Meet Your Lofty Stride\u201d similarly shows bright feet made of gold leaf floating above a green, mountain-like structure at their base. The comparison between the bound and free feet demonstrates the magnetism of material \u2014 its power to convey decidedly psychological effects \u2014 and the effective nature of Somsen\u2019s experimentation.<\/h4>\n
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“Equilibria II”<\/p><\/div>\n

While Somsen\u2019s fascination with material is evident, the connection to time is perhaps less obvious. The gallery\u2019s press release sheds a bit of light on this, informing us that in Somsen work \u201cthe texture of things \u2014 the responsiveness of the clay, the resiliency of rubber inner tubes, the translucency of resin \u2014 act as catalysts in the attempt to make peace with time \u2014 to slow it down, be still, and preserve the moment.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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“Beauty Archive”<\/p><\/div>\n

Jacqui Larsen\u2019s dynamic collages and paintings also demand our full attention. Her work is materially diverse, ranging from collages, found photographs, paint and sewn stitching. Like in Somsen\u2019s sculptures, a striking psychological force is evident in her work, albeit through the use of photographic and textual markers from the past.<\/h4>\n

Striking three-dimensional works like \u201cBeauty Archive\u201ddemonstrate the true possibilities of multimedia sculpture. In each, Larsen combines geometric patterns with found images to form a lively origami-esque creation. In \u201cQuotidian,\u201d Larsen artfully incorporates a series of book covers into her geometric formation, showcasing the beautiful artistry of books from decades passed. \u201cAlmanac of Hope (+Despair),\u201d a larger scale iteration of this geometric low relief, is not to be missed. In \u201cAccidental Constellation\u201d and \u201cNegative Capability in Five Acts,\u201d Larsen incorporates found objects into a series of stitched collages. In each, circular holes with sewn edges dissect the work and amputate the photograph\u2019s figures while small round mirrors are nestled within the collages so as to invite us to reflect on them. The old photographs capture, in a ghostly fashion, the intricacies of past lives and summons viewers to closely inspect their contents and the delicately ornate artistry that Larsen frames them with.<\/h4>\n
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“Negative Capability in Five Acts”<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s easy to see the connection between Larsen\u2019s experiments in collage and low relief and what Somsen is doing with sculpture. According to Larsen, \u201cthe idea for this show began as I was thinking about the many ongoing experiments lying around my studio,\u201d including \u201csewn collages, wood constructions made from destroyed paintings and cut up found photographs.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Larsen\u2019s use of old photographs renders the exhibition\u2019s connection to time properly tangible. \u201cI thought about why I am so drawn to these artifacts from the past \u2014 discarded family photographs, paper ephemera, even my own sanded down paintings,\u201d she says. To Larsen, the collages and sculptures are her way of \u201cunderstand[ing] this whole business of mortality \u2014 the physicality and decay of all the things we make and touch, how time and memory factor into who we are individually, right now, at any given moment.\u201d<\/h4>\n

In a series of works comprised of graphite and paint, the underlying theme of Richard Gates\u2019s work relates to a deep captivation with prehistorical symbols. His works, ranging in style and scale, seem to ground the three-dimensional works of Somsen and Larsen. In his series of untitled graphite works, Gates sequesters the large panel into various geometric sections, each comprised of petroglyphs and archetypal symbols and patterns. The works are striking and monochromatic, reading like an ancient text of visual codes. Elsewhere in the show, Gates replicates the patterned works into smaller 12 x 12 inch pieces. While the association between Somsen and Larsen is logical, Gate\u2019s connection to the two is less obvious. With material as a driving and evident force in both Somsen and Larsen\u2019s work, applying the theme to Gate\u2019s inclusions requires additional elaboration and context, particularly when considering the painted portraits geometrically aligned and numerous, along a wall prominently facing the exhibition\u2019s entry. To the extent that Gate\u2019s work relishes in symbols of the past, the time prong of the exhibition\u2019s theme is satisfied, yet we\u2019re left perhaps less clear on how materials factor into the equation.<\/h4>\n

As a whole, it is the artists\u2019 use of material that renders the exhibition a visual feast. It\u2019s easy to get lost in the work of each artist, particularly in one\u2019s attempt to decipher their meaning and ponder the process undertaken by each artist to arrive at the result. In an image-saturated culture based on immediate visual satisfaction, it\u2019s refreshing to work for our artistic satisfaction and to relish the labor and power of materials.<\/h4>\n
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“Lilly Dragonfly Sun” by Richard Gate<\/p><\/div>\n

Time + Materials<\/em>, Rio Gallery<\/a>, Salt Lake City, June 21 – Aug. 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Art has long sought to capture the transitory and sensory in physical form. From the transformative capabilities of an artist\u2019s two-dimensional canvas to contemporary art\u2019s revolutionary experimentation with media, material doesn\u2019t just inform art, it is art. Or as philosopher Marshall McLuhan famously stated, \u201cThe medium is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":45631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[274,605,3387],"class_list":["post-45595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-heidi-moller-somsen","tag-jacqui-larsen","tag-richard-gate"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Moller-Somsen-Equilibria-II.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 05:47:34","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\/45595","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\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45595"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45649,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45595\/revisions\/45649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}