The thesis for ART MATTERS at gallery neptune & brown speaks to using art to synthesize a complex moment and challenging the status quo and sounds an awful lot like the manifesto to an overtly political show. The work on display, however, is more of a respite from current affairs. It is a collection of art that is unbound by present-day discourse or the need to respond to the “now.” Spanning decades, disciplines, and local, national, and international artists, ART MATTERS features art that insists on its right to exist for its own sake, and that ultimately proves timeless.
Many of the works are prints, which have the benefit of being more affordable for collectors, as well as a way for big-name artists to be disseminated to a wider audience. The printmakers in ART MATTERS also make the argument for printmaking as a celebration of craft and expertise. David Nash is perhaps better known for his land art installations and monumental natural sculptures, but the same taming of organic forms is evident in “Serpent Egg,” a stencil print showing an egg cut out with twisting voids. Frenetic mark-making that appears abstract but begins to coalesce into recognizable forms is emblematic of Oleg Kudryashov’s drypoint prints, which are also imbued with hues of watercolor or gouache paint. Though energetic, the linework also contains a calligraphic elegance.
Photogravure is the process of applying a photographic negative to a printing plate used for etching, which can then be used to print near-perfect reproductions of photographs in ink; this process is deployed along with drypoint etching in two works by William Kentridge. The artist was the son of a leading anti-apartheid lawyer in South Africa, but has sought not to depict politics head-on, preferring that background to be seen only around the margins of his work, imbuing it with politics in a more subtle way. The gallery also contains two smaller etchings by the artist, as well as a collage that uses chine-collé, or thin paper being added to a print as it goes through a press. These five works are united by confident strokes of linework, as well as a fascination with tools and concrete materials.
Mel Bochner, “Four Color Quartets, Third Quartet,” 1990; part of ART MATTERS
Aside from technical precision, geometry and logical arrangements underpin several of the works, pieces that suggest an order to an unruly world. Mel Bochner’s “Four Color Quartets, Third Quartet” features four lithographs with an underlying grid structure that aligns through the four prints, which are arranged in a pinwheel formation around an empty square of white space in the middle. Mathematics is both the subject depicted as well as the driving principle behind the arrangement of the different planes. Paul Inglis’ small, bright woodblock prints are neat yet assertive, creating a Tetris-like satisfaction of forms snapping into place and fitting just so. Like many geometric painters, Erick Johnson is influenced by mathematical patterns, architecture, and design from various eras and parts of the world, but there is a softness underlying this plotted rigidity. The vivacious color palettes, which bleed together, throw movement and optical illusions into their grids, and rough-hewn geometric forms stop short of perfectly ordered layouts.
Still, other works seem to revel in the pleasure of making and the process behind the artists’ work. A large photographic print by the artist team of Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin is cropped close on Gerlovina’s face, which is crisscrossed with tendrils of hair and marked with the word “believe.” The artists call these works “photoglyphs” or “still performances,” and they carry the feeling of performing a sacred ritual. Carol Barsha’s airy painting of a blossoming landscape, “Studio View in Spring,” takes the viewer directly into the space where the artist works and into her point of view. On a chilly January day, it feels like not just a celebration of nature, but a testament to the vibrancy of art that can be enjoyed even when it doesn’t match the weather outside.
ART MATTERS runs through Jan. 17 at gallery neptune & brown. Wednesday through Saturday; noon to 7 p.m. galleryneptunebrown.com. Free.