Obsession takes many forms
The spring show at LaFontsee Galleries, “Slightly Obsessive,” opens this Friday, with a reception from 5–8 p.m., reminding us to make time for the contemplative in the midst of a rushed world.
What some might call borderline neurosis, LaFontsee Galleries calls an excellent idea for a show.
This Friday, they’ll celebrate their fifth iteration of a show celebrating that work with “Slightly Obsessive.” A mash-up of miniscule marks, layered materials, laborious processes, and more-than-a-little compulsive repetition, the exhibition features artists with unadulterated dedication to their craft.
“Back in 2014,” gallery co-owner/art consultant/artist Linda LaFontsee says, “we were planning our exhibition schedule for the year. As we were working out themes for the shows, we realized that there was a clear separation in the art that we carried in our gallery. On one side we had more representational pieces and on the other, more intricate, detailed and time-consuming work by some of our other artists. We became very excited about having an entire show with the unconventional work that we were personally drawn to ourselves as collectors and artists. When brainstorming on titles, we began to throw out descriptions of the work itself, and I said, ‘Well, it’s slightly obsessive!’ We all laughed because it couldn’t be farther away from ‘slightly.’”
Obsession takes many forms.
Joel Berry paints black and white acrylic spirals on rocks. At first his cartoon-like high contrast and circular precision recall the over-the-top humor of a Looney Toons episode on LSD. But the fun totters into insidious fetish: these spirals consume each rock like a leprous disease. The multitude of stones, precious and tiny, lay prisoner under Berry’s mark.
The bold quilts of Elizabeth Brandt meld geometric abstraction and meditative uniformity. Endless lines of stitch penetrate every inch of cloth, attesting to Brandt’s incessant sewing. She describes her process as a practice of presence, recording the passing moment as she sews.
Marissa Voytenko’s thick smathering of encaustic blues differs from the meticulous work of many artists in the show. In her “Boats and Bridges” paintings, layers of wax encrust waves of half circles. Surface scrapes reveal the strata of previous colors and the artist’s unrestrained deposits of pigment.
In “Mountain Painted by Rain,” Saul Gray-Hildenbrand zip ties small wooden squares into belted rows of gray. Each chain of identical slats buckles and snakes in mechanical motion.
Ann Chuchvara, Marianne Menger, and Maureen Nollette stand out as three of my favorites. Chuchvara’s whispy graphite orbs silently vibrate on the page, and Menger’s threaded watercolors transform into a series of lunar phantoms. As for Nollette’s stitched grids on tea stained paper, I can’t help but wonder when she has the time to eat or sleep, or live outside of the studio.
I think this question of time is the strength of the show. How are these artists able to consecrate so much of their lives to contemplative monotony in such a rushed world?
This is just a short sampling of the many talented and slightly obsessed artists included in the exhibition. All of the work functions as a hushed dissent to our fast-paced society. Studio-seclusion becomes the equivalent to a sacred, hermetic withdrawal.
So, what is it these prophets have to show us?
“Slightly Obsessive” 2018: Show Opening
Friday, April 13
5–8 p.m.
LaFontsee Galleries
833 Lake Dr SE
Free and open to the public.
RSVP and more information on the Facebook event.Exhibition runs through May 25.
Disclosure: The author is also an artist exhibiting in the spring show at LaFontsee Galleries.
