Thursday, August 5, 2010
Visual arts: Contemporary Abstraction
Posted by Dan Grossman on Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 9:53 AM
Four stars
Garvey|Simon Art Access. This venue is in Carmel's Arts & Design District, which probably isn't the first place you think of when you hear the term "contemporary abstraction." But the fine art prints on display in this show are as edgy as anything you might see in the contemporary wing at the IMA. (Tara Donovan had a major exhibition at the IMA until last Sunday and you can still find Ingrid Calame's work there.) Donovan makes art out of everyday materials like rubber bands. Or bubbles. In her untitled "bubble etching" she blows bubbles into a mixture of ferric chloride and liquid bubble soap, and places these bubbles on aquatinted plates. The bubbles corrod, or "etch" their way into these plates and then they are printed, and the result is contemporary abstract art that my six-year-old daughter Naomi can relate to. Perhaps the medium isn't so much the message in the work of Ingrid Calame, who traces tire marks and stains and adds brash hues of color. In "Tracings from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 1" (etching and aquatint) random tire marks become things of beauty in a reconfigured map of the world while, in the world of Dan Walsh, all randomness has been banished. In such works as "Intaglio print Folio A II," he draws you into the eye-bending world of geometric minimalism. Through Aug. 30; 917-796-2146, www.garvey-simon-art-access.com. — Dan Grossman
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