by Rebecca Levy
Remember Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, and that song Fred sang as he
prepared for a comfortable half hour of learning and fun? “It’s a beautiful day
in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor…” I found myself humming
the tune last week as I visited Austin’s best Art Neighborhood. It is not quite
an “Arts District” – three galleries don’t constitute a district. But each of
the exhibition spaces – Lyons Matrix Gallery, Women & Their Work Gallery,
and Galeria Sin Fronteras – routinely presents contemporary talent worth
walking around the block to see. An air of serious play, child-like on occasion, but never childish, permeates
Lyons Matrix Gallery’s presentation of Tre Arenz’s work. There are ducks
swimming in striped sinks, pony-boys (broomstick “horses”), striped dishes and
bowls stacked in striped sinks, and ceramic heads perched on top of striped
brooms, swaying ever-so-slightly as you walk by. And then there are the cast
iron brooms. But what are these things about? Arenz says they speak to the
notion of “comfort” (the show is called “Souvenirs of Comfort”) and the
perpetually sliding scale that defines the word. For some people, being able to
have a glass of water when thirsty is the ultimate comfort. For others, it’s
purchasing one of Kohler’s top-of-the-line, fancy fixtures for a new house.
Many of the artist’s most comfortable moments came in childhood, and the
memories that persist have been given (ceramic) form and a jazzy surface.
Arenz’s sculpture is also about formal elements common to all art, like color,
texture, and pattern. Some of the objects were made at Kohler Industries in
Wisconsin where Arenz was an artist-in-residence earlier this year. Her
shiniest glazes and plumbing fixtures come from this time. The scruffy,
rough-surfaced heads represent Arenz’s return to an earlier mode, away from the
seductively slick Kohler aesthetic.
Sydney Yeager’s formal concerns are the same as Arenz, and some of their
images and ideas overlap as well. Yeager’s paintings are also on view at Lyons
Matrix. Her exhibit is called “Comfort Zone.” Both artists use pattern and
surface texture with uncommon skill. There is a friendly dialogue between their
work that neither was sure would happen when they “chose each other” last year
for this exhibition. Gallery director Camille Lyons says that instead of
pairing her stable of artists for a second round of exhibitions since the
gallery opened, she suggested that they bring two-person exhibition ideas to
her. Arenz and Yeager made brief forays into each other’s studio, and then
quickly turned back to their own work once the date was set.
Yeager’s painted surfaces, while as rough and “scumbly” as they have always
been, also have a glossy sheen – a result of mixing more varnish and medium
with her paint. On first glance, the largest paintings have an ornate elegance
about them that belie the murkier messages lying just beneath the surface. Her
work has always been about multiple layers of information, allowing the viewer
to dive in deep or float on the surface of each work. Yeager’s imagery –
repetitive patterning, sinks, faucets, tubing, body parts – relates just
closely enough to Arenz’s to make their interaction compatible, though not
predictable. Perhaps the biggest common denominator between the two is that
both are dedicated studio artists. Each is currently showing new work in San
Antonio as well as Austin.
Next door to Lyons Matrix, at Women & Their Work Gallery, Susan kae Grant
has curated an exhibition of artists’ books. Eighteen women contribute an
incredibly diverse assortment of objects based on the notion of “book.” It is
nearly overwhelming to sort through the various approaches, which range from a
gigantic, walk-in, tent-like construction made with printed pages and tape by
Janet Tyson, to Beata Szechy’s sensitive, folded constructions. A brilliant
blue wall gives form to Beck Whitehead’s installation, which resembles a
three-dimensional Matisse painting. The color drew my eye, as it did in Julie
Waranch Fleschman’s cut, colored, and pasted, wall-mounted books.
Grant, in her curator’s statement, describes “the representation of
alternative and experimental bookworks.” She also uses words like
“re-contextualization” and “oppressive dichotomies and entangled metaphors.” I
am happy to report that you don’t have to read at all, if you don’t want to, as
you wander through this exhibition called The Book Reconfigured. These
artists have captured the essence of the book as object – a sometimes
user-friendly and sometimes-not source of information, escape, and
entertainment – in purely visual terms. Whether the medium is drywall and latex
(Susan Voelpel) or memorabilia encased in beeswax (Letitia Huerta) or crepe
myrtle twigs (Sherry Owens), the viewer is permitted (in most cases) a gut
level, purely visual, and tactile response, rather than having to read the
words to “get it.” What a wonderfully old-fashioned concept for an art exhibit.
Teachers and students from Austin schools will have a special opportunity to
respond to the exhibition. W&TW, in keeping with its pledge to expand
educational programming in the new space, has planned a “comprehensive program
of gallery tours and gallery talks… and hands-on workshops” surrounding this
show and others during the coming year. This builds on eight years of
substantial artist-in-residence programming that placed performing artists in
the schools. Susan kae Grant provided a private orientation session in August
for teachers from six AISD schools. Classes from Anderson, Johnston, and
McCallum High School, Mendez Middle School, Martin Junior High, and Woolbridge
Elementary will come to the gallery during the course of the exhibition. Women
& Their Work Gallery will then exhibit student “books” in late October. The
program gives new meaning to the phrase “book learning” and all that it
implies.
Around the corner at 16th & Guadalupe, Galeria Sin Fronteras presents
El Retorno a lo Sagrado (The Return to the Sacred), an exhibition of
drawings, paintings, and sculpture by Luis Guillermo Guerra. A series of small
pencil drawings that are architectural in nature – but also project a
vulnerable, flesh and blood nature – hang in the front of the gallery. They are
sensual, soft, and appealing. Familiar and yet perhaps forbidden. The artist’s
small-scale goauche paintings on rice paper, part of a series called Entre
el Cielo y la Terra, make a similarly private connection with the viewer,
whispering rather than shouting an enigmatic verse. Guerra is a master of
intimate dialogue within the small format. As he expands his picture frame,
however, the cohesiveness, the uniqueness of the work, begins to fade. This is
true as well for his three-dimensional objects, which are mysterious when
small, yet boring and predictable as they expand in size. Some ideas make
better poems than blockbuster movies.
Mr. Rogers’ half-hour forays into the “Land of Make Believe” came to mind
again as I left the third gallery. Entering a world created by artists through
their work has always been fun for me. Once again, it was a “beautiful day in
the neighborhood.” You should visit some time. n
A two-person show of new works by Sydney Yeager and Tre Arenz is on view
through November 4 at Lyons Matrix Gallery. The Book Reconfigured is
featured through October 7 at Women & Their Work Gallery. And El
Retorno a lo Sagrado, works by Luis Guillermo Guerra, is on view through
November 9. Guerra will present a gallery talk on Sunday, October 8, exploring
the origins of his work.
This article appears in September 22 • 1995 and September 22 • 1995 (Cover).