Free Falling on Main Street
By: Jane Hudson - Aug 16, 2006
The blistering heat didn't prevent local artists and arts supporters from showing up at MCLA's Gallery 51 to see and be seen at the opening of Sean Riley and Ven Voisey's two person exhibition.
Riley installed a variety of works from paintings and prints to sculptural objects. The imagery sources from snowflakes to lace patterns, delicate grass-like arrays, and the linear tracks of a kind of driven spider. The largest work, a painting of clusters of intersecting linear markings is impressive in its detail and scale. Having seen his show at Kolok gallery earlier this summer which featured black and white pieces very remindful of blown-up microscopic images of snow, this work has more depth and speaks of more heady perceptual phenomena. The prints are delicate, intricate and command a visual specificity that was lacking in the earlier pieces. They are almost like a residue left by the behavior of a small creature, like tracks. The scultural works have some of the same whimsy about them but are darker in affect. One relief work seemed to be the body of a bird splayed on the wall, while another sprung away from the wall in a burst of metal rods like a magnetic explosion.
Ven Voisey's wall pieces, miniature ladders colliding within box-like environments, address issues of aspiration, complexity and the colliding interests of a competitive world. Occasionally accompanied by little sacks of earth, which seem to represent a kind of production, the ladder environments fascinate on the level of imaginative, even child-like spaces. One has to wonder what they might be like at full-scale where the difficulty of actually ascending might be more palpable. In this case, they remain as somewhat propositional models. In addition to the ladder pieces, Voisey has filled the two store-front spaces with feathers, and using fans, attempts to 'fly' the feathers in a kind of faux snow storm. Unfortunately the physics of feathers seems to be more of a challenge than the Voisey's mechanics can address. Again, the idea is there, but the actualization falters.
These men are both important artistic forces in North Adams, Riley as artist in residence at Gallery 51 and supporter of many artist-driven projects in the city, and Voisey is resident designer, web-master and technical guru for the Contemporary Artists Center.
Riley installed a variety of works from paintings and prints to sculptural objects. The imagery sources from snowflakes to lace patterns, delicate grass-like arrays, and the linear tracks of a kind of driven spider. The largest work, a painting of clusters of intersecting linear markings is impressive in its detail and scale. Having seen his show at Kolok gallery earlier this summer which featured black and white pieces very remindful of blown-up microscopic images of snow, this work has more depth and speaks of more heady perceptual phenomena. The prints are delicate, intricate and command a visual specificity that was lacking in the earlier pieces. They are almost like a residue left by the behavior of a small creature, like tracks. The scultural works have some of the same whimsy about them but are darker in affect. One relief work seemed to be the body of a bird splayed on the wall, while another sprung away from the wall in a burst of metal rods like a magnetic explosion.
Ven Voisey's wall pieces, miniature ladders colliding within box-like environments, address issues of aspiration, complexity and the colliding interests of a competitive world. Occasionally accompanied by little sacks of earth, which seem to represent a kind of production, the ladder environments fascinate on the level of imaginative, even child-like spaces. One has to wonder what they might be like at full-scale where the difficulty of actually ascending might be more palpable. In this case, they remain as somewhat propositional models. In addition to the ladder pieces, Voisey has filled the two store-front spaces with feathers, and using fans, attempts to 'fly' the feathers in a kind of faux snow storm. Unfortunately the physics of feathers seems to be more of a challenge than the Voisey's mechanics can address. Again, the idea is there, but the actualization falters.
These men are both important artistic forces in North Adams, Riley as artist in residence at Gallery 51 and supporter of many artist-driven projects in the city, and Voisey is resident designer, web-master and technical guru for the Contemporary Artists Center.