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Courtesy of the Philadelphia Art Alliance
Courtesy of the Philadelphia Art Alliance
Courtesy of the Philadelphia Art Alliance
Vanitas
May 27 - Aug. 12,2010
By JoAnn Greco
Feminine grace, wiles, frippery, domesticity, imagination, and, yes, angst, have taken over the serene rooms of the Beaux Arts confines of the Art Alliance. This joint show features five female artists who work in widely diverging media and who tackle a variety of issues. But oh how nicely it all blends together.
Walking up the building's sweeping staircase leads to the galleries that are hosting Vanitas — Latin for life's transitory nature. First, there on the landing: a teaser; one piece laid out on top of the grand piano. It's a copper chafing dish that Myra Mimlitsch Gray has manipulated so it's come to resemble a. . . grand piano.
The work sets the stage for what proves to be a surprising assemblage of the ordinary writ extraordinary. To begin, the first gallery lies ahead, beckoning with crinkly cellophane, plastic hair accessories, crystal beads and Christmas ornaments alive in candy tones and stacked into towers of fantasy. The point of Gae Savannah's "cakes" isn't hard to grasp — our focus on easy prettiness and the saccharine is shallow and transparent — but that doesn't make them any less compelling.
Gray's work takes over the next room. At first, the elegant silver platters and copper pots displayed in vitrines resemble those arrayed in any fine arts museum. Upon closer inspection, though, they drip and "melt," their classic form's in slight disarray even as their finishes remain perfect.
Continuing the fascination with the workaday stuff of life that captures each artist, Candy Depew's work interweaves paisley-adorned bone china washing bowls and floral-motifed skateboards seemingly coated in porcelain with vinyl cutouts, wall etchings and digitally printed fabrics. Diamonds, flowers, and fish prance across the walls in lively "still lifes" that pay homage to the 17th-century Dutch painting tradition in which the origins of "vanitas" lie.
The last gallery showcases the sugar-coated (literally!) world of Katherine Kaminski, a world where carefully arranged faux flowers are glazed with sugar and recurring deer imagery runs rampant. Once you've eyed the waxen cast at the center of one tableau, you'll never call someone "deer heart" again without recalling this disturbing image.
Finally, Audrey Hasen Russell's unadorned compositions of cheap "souvenir" Depression-era and milk glass bowls and cups impart dignity and beauty onto these inexpensive staples. Steeped in solid Americana — and backed with the European traditions which so many immigrants brought to the Midwest's glass factories — the pieces ask us to think about the fleeting nature of childhood and its memories.
For more information, please visit: The Philadelphia Art Alliance
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