Essential detours

Artist and gallery owner John Domont continues to expand his repertoire. Domont Studio Gallery now represents a dozen or more artists, from the known to the new, the Indiana-connected and beyond. Art on Paper, on view through May 1, exhibits the work of 11 artists (including Domont), connected, as the title would suggest, by a medium rather than message. Each artist has delivered his or her image onto paper (with the exception of James Wille Faust, who, in addition to works on paper, contributes three-dimensional bird sculptures in wood).

Sam Sartorius’ ‘Departing the Status Quo’

It isn’t clear, though, that paper is what carries this show; rather, it’s a solid group of artists exploring vastly disparate aesthetics held together by a contemplative, even ethereal, mood. As is often the case with Domont, the works here suggest a spiritual other-worldliness, even when the subject matter is concrete and figurative. In other words, as my companion pointed out, these are not edgy, political works of art. Rather, by my observation, they’re reflective of intimate, interior places.

Red Rohall’s unoccupied diner tables, for instance, rendered in exquisite detail and brilliant color, convert the mundane into the symbolically sublime by virtue of their shimmering golds and reds. A pepper shaker becomes an icon; a chair becomes a throne.

John Domont’s own works, and there are several in this show, are reflective of the artist’s own depths, or heights, as it were. In this case, they are clearly ephemeral places. Domont’s “Journey” series is just as spiritual (to use the term loosely) as his previous series of begging bowls and landscapes, and yet they are more pronounced in their nod to the unconscious as a gateway to higher consciousness. What can I possibly mean by that? Domont is more direct here in his suggestion that through art one can capture the essence of the self and the spirit. “Journey #4,” a large, vertical image of a tender flower hovering in an empty doorway, is abstracted in whites, spring purples and other tones made diaphanous through the layering of paint.

Sam Sartorius is also in her element with her psychologically complex abstractions that only suggest figures or images. What may emerge as a fish to one person may suggest a flower to another. Sartorius’ abstractions are home to many ghosts; welcome ones, though, the kind that call us to visit our own reflective pools in which we may rediscover an all-but-forgotten memory or feeling. “Wistful in Heaven, Happy in Hell” is wonderfully indulged in an overtone of orange laid down in thick layers of like colors, scored with a palette knife or perhaps the other end of a paintbrush. In this vibrant place I easily lose myself, and I’m not even sure to what. It’s like finding yourself lost on a country road when you only meant to take a detour — you’re lost, but exhilarated; you never knew such a place existed so close to home. Art is, after all, the essential detour, the alternate route we find ourselves craving as we plod along the same well-trod paths day after day.

Not all work included in Art on Paper suggests such lofty realms. William Rasdell’s images of dancing women in colorful dress is celebratory and light, while Magdalena Segovia’s images of mother and child or man and woman are beautifully simple and grounded. Brian Myers’ image of a plastic “Thank You” bag painted as if it were floating in the space of a large sheet of blue paper is complex for its simplicity — again, we return to beauty in the mundane.

Perhaps that’s the real thread here: a celebration of well-trod images explored anew, connecting us, ultimately, by virtue of an aesthetic detour.

Art on Paper at Domont Studio Gallery, 545 S. East St., features the work of Harry Davis, Lois Davis, John Domont, Brian Myers, Bill Rasdell, James Wille Faust, Red Rohall. Sam Sartorius, Magdalene Segovia, Sandra Falcone and Irena Kononova. The exhibit runs through May 1. Call 685-9634 or visit domontgallery.com for hours and information.