Art Harvest debutes; Abbie Miller at Artlab

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-The inaugural “Art Harvest” at the Haworth Gallery will show work from eight artists – mostly local – in a casual, conversational atmosphere that might feel more like a barbeque than a gallery opening.

Attendees can meet the artists, hang out and have a beer, or get a personalized screen-printed t-shirt from the Anomaly Farm.

Haworth originally planned to open a show exclusively for Richard Harrington, who paints striking abstracts of barns, but then decided to include a stable of local artists making abstract and multi-media paintings, photo-collages, screen prints and punk rock posters in mismatched frames.

Some pieces will appeal to discerning collectors of contemporary art, but a wider selection of affordable art will also appeal to would-be collectors looking to class-up their home.

“If you want to come out and get some art for your place this is definitely the show to come to,” Haworth said.
What is really interesting about the show, though, is the diversity of art that Haworth has culled.

Painter Mike Parillo and the Anomaly farm – a “legend” and promising up-and-comers respectively – will be showing art that can’t be pigeonholed, but is born in a snowboarding culture. That style, which sometimes references graffiti and graphic design, is shared by artist Rocky Vertone.

Nichole Welch shows photo-collage that juxtaposes the female form with urban architecture. Mark Dunstan will be showing paintings that reference ancient mythologies with ideas palatable to a contemporary audience. Camille Davis’ floral paintings layer oil paint in an expressionistic style that uses good color and obscurity, but some of them include words like “energy, memory, dreamtime,” and “blood, bones.” Even though I don’t like expressionism, or words on paintings, “Day and Night Diptych” and “Day and Night Diptych Two” are fresh, and unavoidably intriguing.

Most of these artists exhibit styles that are under-represented in Jackson’s gallery culture, but will help set the tone for the future of its local artist scene.
Check out “Art Harvest” from 11 a.m. to dark on Saturday, September 20 and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday September 21 at the Haworth Gallery, 140 S. Main street, Victor.

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“Can a martini be art?” Some say everything is Art.
At the opening of Abbie Miller’s vinyl, zipper and wood sculptures, “In Proximity Tender: Render,” at Artlab this Thursday, the color-coordinated specialty cocktails by Michael Bills and hors d oeuvres by Joey De Luca can’t be overlooked. Black-andwhite food - and orange martinis - will match the color of the three sculptures to create what Miller called a “social, sculptural space.”

Miller’s sewed sheets of vinyl together with an evolving repetition. While building the sculpture, she sewed into it two-hundred-foot-long zippers that, when zipped up, spiral the fabric into cylinder-like forms that rest – or loosely teeter - on two built wooden frames. Each piece has two forms that counterbalance each other with a strand that reaches across the room like pulled taffy.

The texture is ribbed with folds of vinyl that sometimes bubble or pock with a vigor that has a mind of its own. The human-scaled forms help viewers relate to the “controlled chaos” or “organized erratics” they exhibit.

From the excesses of fashion to the repetition of cancerous growths (like berle wood), references can be drawn from the sculpture. But the artist refused to share her intention, other than to say she was exploring the interactions between materials and focusing on the “ambiguity” of the forms.

“The content is all exhibited through the structure and the form of the pieces,” Miller said. “It doesn’t come though symbolically or through a particular narrative. It literally comes through with the physicality of the materials … and the labor involved to sew them together.”

She said the works explore the interaction of three simple elements: a skin, a frame and a cohesion. In some places, the skin bulges like a bustle, in others the frame pushes through to reveal its location, and in others the zipper controls the tension of the piece. It will be interesting to see how people react to the sculptures, but I think at least a few will be entranced. And if for some reason Miller’s “social, sculptural space” doesn’t generate a buzz, the Martinis will.

The opening reception is, 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday at Teton Artlab, 135 N. Cache.

Detail from “Odd Sympathy,”  by Abbie Miller.

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Art Harvest debutes; Abbie Miller at Artlab | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

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