INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Fessing up

by Julianna Thibodeaux

The exhibition Phil Joanou: Art of the Apocalypse, on view at the University of Indianapolis’ Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center, comes to the city with much community relations fanfare. Phil Joanou, for instance, will offer workshops and public presentations during his stay here. Another offering brought to us by the worldly Katharine T. Carter & Associates, an institution linking promising artists who are on their way to make a name for themselves nationally to commercial as well as university galleries, Joanou’s presence here suggests a willingness on the part of U of I to venture into quasi-risky territory. An art school does indeed have an obligation to challenge not only its students but also the community at large. After all, this is where tomorrow’s artists are being shaped and their own creative visions are being nurtured.

Joanou, a California-based former ad executive who now pursues his passion for artmaking full-time — kids grown, nest egg in place — paints from what many critics have called a “visionary” place, but the artist insists that his vision is a neutral one; that is, if such a thing is possible. Joanou’s influences, as he himself has stated, come from his experience with mass communications and, as he puts it, “the psychology of contemporary society.” The field of advertising is a rich and potentially dangerous soil in which such stuff grows, as the intentionality is decidedly different from artmaking for its own sake.

It’s as if Joanou straddles two worlds: One recognizes the manipulative power of image and word — this, after all, is what earned him his bread for many years. Now, Joanou seems to speak from a world that celebrates all that is complex about our collective psyche, including its savory as well as unsavory aspects, without making an intentional commitment to a viewpoint — even if a suggestion of one is often present.

Joanou’s “Midas” depicts a couple standing before a golden pyramid — man in black tie holding a phallic cigar like a gun, woman with contained hair also in black, an austere suggestion of cleavage made by two black lines as if to refute any notion of authentic femininity. The painting is brilliant in its enigmatic suggestiveness while pulling forth a myth from the standard repertoire that suggests the enduring folly of false power.

“Woman I,” on the other hand, is suggestive of feminine power; and yet Joanou betrays a personal bias perhaps he didn’t intend. A nude woman reclines slightly against a backdrop of floral-patterned cushions and wallpaper — the painting’s almost cubist perspective casts the composition slightly askew — while cupping a miniature nude man in one hand. Perhaps Joanou invites us to believe she is the one with the power, and as such delightfully challenges the notion of “the gaze,” which has troubled discussions of nude women in art for decades. Such power, though, is ultimately superficial if it only goes skin deep.

Joanou, whose style and imagery are influenced by pop culture as well as German medieval and Expressionism, reveals a reflective quality, though, that is quite welcome. The artist’s brushstroke seems to tremble slightly under the weight of the classical forebears he so often pays aesthetic homage to, while his richness as a painter lies in the complexity of color and the depth of the individual and collective psyche that is reflected there.

Phil Joanou: The Art of the Apocalypse is on view at the University of Indianapolis, Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center, 1400 E. Hanna Ave. Joanou will discuss his work in a free presentation there on Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. in Room 115. Joanou will also give presentations to university students. Call 788-3253 for more information.