3 stars
Stutz Building
This year, like the
last, the Stutz Artists' Open House presented a mixed bag in terms of the
quality of the work shown. But this annual event, which features the more than
90 artists with studios in this former automobile manufacturing plant, is still
a must for anyone who wants to take the temperature of the Indy arts scene.
Certainly there was a wide range of work on hand—everything from Stutz
Resident Lydia Burris' colorful fantasy landscape canvases and sculptural death
heads to the tightly packed walls of Victoria Gillieron's studio space, where I
found a somewhat off-kilter portrait of a woman with an oversized sword,
quasi-impressionist takes on ballet dancers, and a golden-framed portrait of
C.W. Mundy. I certainly got the impression, as I walked through the Stutz last
Friday night, that impressionist-style landscapes do a good business in this
town. But selling doesn't necessarily mean selling out. Jerry Points, for
example, is a painter who builds on Impressionism with his own style that owes
something to his previous history as a graphic designer. Of course, there was
more than just art going on at the Open House. There was plenty of wine and
cheese and pesto torts from which to partake in just about every studio. There
was also flavored vodka being served at the studio of Susan D. Brewer, who
doubles as a bar manager at Meridian (indicative of how many in the Indy arts
community wear two or more hats). Brewer's abstract diptych canvas "Two are
One" was inspired by Stutz Open House featured performer Cynthia Layne who was
hand with her band Friday night performing her all-original (and very funky,
very groovy) R&B compositions.
