52 pickup
For $15, connoisseurs on a budget can get 52 local artists’ works in pocket-size form: a pack of cards. That’s the premise of “Art Deck-O: DC Playing Card Originals,” a project of Touchstone Gallery. But not all these artists are playing from the same deck, and seeing the pieces on the gallery’s walls is more satisfying than shuffling the reproductions.
Only a few of the participating artists emulated the playing-card format, with images designed to be read either right-side-up or upside-down. These include Newton More’s “6 of Spades,” a pair of vividly red leaves, and Adam Bradley’s two-headed “Jack of Spades,” which evokes a playing card even though it’s a 3-D sculptural piece. At the other extreme, Tony Cowles seems to have simply slapped a four-of-clubs logo on an existing abstract canvas. It’s a fine painting, but not much of a card.
Some participants went for over-obvious local icons — George Washington, Abe Lincoln, the Capitol and Ben’s Chili Bowl. More cleverly, Jennifer Bishop personifies the seven of hearts as a man on a Metro escalator, holding seven heart-shaped Mylar balloons. Leaving D.C. behind, Jennifer O’Connell’s “The Late 8 of Hearts” shows a bear on a bike, arriving at a party at a Victorian-style house; these elements (especially the house) suggest the work of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki.
Most of the pieces that reproduce well are, not surprisingly, simple images in a hard-edged, magazine-illustration style. Emily Greene Liddle’s nifty “10 of Hearts” depicts a cherry with a heart stitched into it, and Chris Bishop’s elegantly stylized “8 of Spades” shows a woman who has just taken a bite out of a spade. These transferred to the card format nicely, but look even better in the original.
Playing the angles
It’s easy to spot the piece that doesn’t fit into “Creative Process,” a four-artist Longview Gallery show that closes after this weekend. It’s “Cloudy,” the only offering from British artist Patrick Hughes. Where the other three participants deal in abstract forms and subtle hues, “Cloudy” mixes pop art’s Madison Avenue hyper-realism with surrealism’s absurd juxtapositions: a series of red doors hang in mid-air, framed by blue skies and puffy clouds.
The trick — and it’s a good one — is that Hughes uses an accordion-fold format to bend the image outward in a series of panels so that it changes with the viewer’s vantage point. From the left, this hand-painted lithograph is all doors; from the right, it’s all sky.
On the adjacent wall, Sondra Arkin’s work performs a similar stunt, although more subtly. Using wax and shellac, Arkin builds membranes of amoeba-like forms on aluminum-composite panels. The sense of depth is intriguing, and the multiple layers ensure shifting perspectives, so the quieter work does relate to Hughes’s.
It also complements Eve Stockton’s wood blocks, whose floral and oceanic shapes and blue-heavy palette suggest Japanese art, and Natasha Karpinskaia’s monotype prints and collages, which have an early-20th-century flavor. On a second or third circuit of the gallery, “Cloudy” still stands out, but all four artists’ work flows together surprisingly well.
Jenkins is a freelance writer.
Academy 2011
On view through Aug. 22 at Conner Contemporary Art. 1358 Florida Ave. NE. 202-588-8750. www.connercontemporary.com.
Art Deck-O: DC Playing Card Originals
on view through July 29 at Touchstone Gallery. 901 New York Ave. NW. 202-347-2787. www.touchstonegallery.com.
Creative Process
on view through Sunday at Long View Gallery. 1234 Ninth St. NW. 202-232-4788. www.longviewgallerydc.com.
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