‘Audrey Fox: Ephemera’
Thunderbird Coffee, 1401 W. Koenig, 420-8660
Through Aug. 31
A bee performing a waggle dance to indicate to its hivemates where the best nectar is doesn’t give a damn whether the relevant flowers are in the middle of a sun-dappled meadow or busting through the floorboards of a rusted-out, postapocalyptic Ford pickup. Similarly, we’re not going to eschew highlighting a small exhibition that’s on display in a neighborhood coffeehouse instead of a dedicated gallery. We’re going to tell you about the mixed-media works of Audrey Fox, in her show called “Ephemera” at Thunderbird Coffee on Koenig Lane.
You’ll see bees, actually, depicted gathering nectar in a few of Fox’s delicate and colorful paintings. You’ll see cicadas and thistles and roses and moths against variegated backgrounds of what the artist calls “decaying geometry.” These works are rendered in paint – watercolor? tempera? very thin acrylics? – on wood-composite panels, the flat background shapes in a muted spectrum of colors, the insects and foliage in the foreground more often monochrome: dark red, faint umber, ghostly white, with rare touches of one more distinguishing color.
Don’t miss the three smaller vertical pieces, each about the size of a legal folder, resembling nothing so much as a series of gorgeous, nature-celebrating postage stamps issued years ago by an obscure principality somewhere in Europe and now writ large on panels for greater appreciation. You could experience that appreciation yourself the next time you’re thinking about grabbing an espresso or a cappuccino on the town – or just lingering in that Thunderbird to enjoy the artwork itself. We recommend all these tasty nectars, reader, metaphorical or otherwise.
This article appears in August 12 • 2011.