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

Web exclusive: The Carmel Gallery Walk

Bustling galleries and empty chairs

 

The Evan Lurie Gallery hosted an impressive sampling of the work of five internationally recognized pop artists during the May 23 Carmel Gallery Walk. At the same time, a number of neighboring galleries featured quality work. The pop art theme, whether by coincidence or design, flowed into other galleries. But there were also talented artists of all mediums and styles — as well as elementary school artists at the World’s Smallest Children’s Art Gallery — showcasing their work.

The night of the exhibition was overcast and drizzly but the interior of the Lurie Gallery couldn’t have been brighter. Incandescent 3-D paintings of slot machines, the work of Burton Morris, popped off the walls, greeting visitors as they walked in through the doors. His iconic paintings of coffee cups, in particular, are instantly recognizable thanks to his artwork’s placement at Central Perk on the set of the now-syndicated “Friends” sit-com.

Brad Howe’s abstract geometric sculptures, scattered throughout the gallery, seemingly took the oddly shaped dimensions of area calculation problems from an advanced calculus textbook. Said sculptures were painted in brightly colored designs — acknowledging abstract artists from Piet Mondrian forward. They also recalled the energy and vibrancy of Howe’s native Los Angeles and San Paulo, where he studied international relations.

A quartet of John Leaser Speed Racer paintings were equally bright, placed strategically behind the aqua-blue Soho Hoochie Lychee punch offered gratis by D’vine a Wine Bar. A Northwest Indiana native and a licensed painter with the company that owns the Speed Racer copyright, Leaser has been painting the character since 1991. Many of his paintings correspond with specific episodes of the ’60s era animated TV series. He paints the star character in a straightforward manner, achieving Day-Glo brightness. With the recent release of the “Speed Racer” motion picture almost coinciding with the 2008 Indy 500, it seemed like Leaser’s moment. 

Leaser was not the only represented artist who drew on Speed Racer for inspiration. Leonardo Hidalgo, who, according to gallery director Evan Lurie, “brings a Latin flavor to pop art,” invites Speed Racer into his canvases as one of the many subjects that preoccupy his work at any given time. You might, for example, in one of his paintings, see Speed Racer sharing the canvas with a voluptuous nude. Superman also cameos in his work. In the enormous two-piece canvas entitled “Star Race,” Superman shares the canvas with exploding cars and falling stars to a significantly darker backdrop than those found in the works of the other pop painters exhibited.   

Keith Grace may be the most compelling of all the painters represented. Incorporating text, sometimes random, sometimes not, into subjects painted with classical precision, his mixed-media approach involves acrylics, oil-based paint and individual pieces of typography. His painting “Standing Watch” features a dog with a noticeable erection standing on his hind legs. The background is yellow and even the shadow the dog casts is laden with random text. Coating the dog’s fur are images of numbers and timepieces, and the title of the piece thus takes on a deeper significance. 

Evan Lurie continues to flaunt his curatorial skill by presenting artists in such a way that their work adds up to more than the sum of the parts. His gallery attracted a diverse crowd ranging from Generation Y to Baby Boomers (although some of the older folks seemed frankly mystified by the work on display). Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard, the originator of the drive to transform Old Town into the Arts & Design District, a goal that generated no small amount of skepticism in certain quarters, was on hand to observe. 

A number of other galleries are worth mentioning. In the Art & Soul Gallery, owner Wes Dwyer displayed the work of Hamilton Aguiar, whose oil over silver-leaf paintings of natural landscapes conveyed a fascination with the way light interacts with nature. 

In the Magdalena Gallery, John Reynolds was displaying his naturalistic work. Reynolds is revered in the greater Indianapolis area as a teacher of art and many of his students have gone on to paint at a professional level. His painting “Looking At You,” hanging in the front window, featured a white cow peering out with a dumbfounded but curious expression. In such paintings you can see both evidence of Reynolds’ masterful skill and his warm sense of humor.

The pop art theme bled into the newly reopened Grosser & Co. Master Jeweler where artist Eric Rivers was exhibiting graffiti-inspired canvases on the walls of the store. Rivers is a self-described “appreciator of graffiti.” His canvases are clearly the work of a talented artist.  But in the confines of a high-end store his small graffiti canvases came off as a tad domesticated.

The Blue Egg Gallery, exhibiting in the empty store space at 2 W. Main, had some talented local artists on display, but the presentation didn’t add up to more than the sum of its parts. Perhaps this was because there was no overarching theme binding the artists and their work together.
    
In the Deborah DeFazio Lyons Gallery, Lyons herself was conducting a portraiture demonstration. Lyons was also exhibiting the paintings of Carmen Hurt. Her oil paintings are connected thematically to the servicemen and veterans of the war in Iraq. She paints soldiers’ favorite chairs in a pop art style somewhat akin to the work of Burton Morris, but working with a much smaller canvas. 

Her son, Specialist Ian Reeser, suffered traumatic brain injury in Iraq but is recovering. She has another son, Specialist Austen Hurt, currently serving in Iraq. She had paintings of both of their chairs on display in the gallery. “When he [Ian] was in Iraq,” she said, “I would look at his favorite chair and think … it looked really empty.” She found herself unable to paint. All she could imagine painting were black canvases with red streaks running down them. “And then I got to thinking about all the families with empty chairs waiting for the guys to come back,” she said. For servicemen who will never return from the line of duty, she paints love seats. 

Hurt is organizing The Empty Chair Project as a tribute to the servicemen in Iraq. Artists are encouraged to donate paintings of soldiers’ favorite chairs to the project; the only restriction is that these paintings must be 10-inches-by-10-inches-by-half-inch. For information, e-mail Carmen Hurt at cihurt@aol.com or check out her Web site at www.Carmen.boundlessgallery.com.

In the grouping of galleries in Carmel’s Arts & Design District, Evan Lurie Gallery may offer the most cohesive shows, but for curious gallery visitors, unexpected surprises await around the corner or across the street.

The show at the Evan Lurie Gallery runs through June 21. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Evan Lurie Gallery, 30 W. Main St., www.evanluriegallery.com, 844-8400.