What does Pantone #18–3838 Ultra Violet mean to you?
Tasked with submitting work that responds to the Color of the Year “as a point of departure and as a major component of execution,” local, regional, and national artists are included in the new UICA show, opening this Friday.
Before entering the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art (UICA)’s doors to its “Color of the Year” exhibition, the artist Brianne Farley has already treated its viewers with storefront murals of violet flowers, painted directly on the windows that are at the perimeter of the front reception area and gift shop of the Urban Institute. The shop at the entrance is also full of tempting ultra-violet goodies to buy and take home. These larger-than-life window flowers have been quickly applied with an air of temporariness appropriate to the snowy spring day I first witnessed them while passing by on the street. They serve their purpose well as visual hostess for the entire exhibit inside.
UICA’s “Color of the Year Presented by Pantone and X-Rite” sets the record straight on the most meaningful color of the year. As the arbitrators’ of all things color, X-Rite Pantone tell us, “Color of the Year is a symbolic color selection; a snapshot of what we see taking place in our global culture that serves as an expression of a mood an attitude.”
In an interesting installation that does not separate the works by designers from those selected from a fine arts category of invited local, regional, and national artists, the works range from photography to wall murals to small 3D sculptures to room environments. 18–3838 Ultra Violet flows from work to work, and even window treatments and architectural details in the UICA space itself.
In one of the more challenging but interesting architectural spaces at UICA, the long ramp leading to galleries below, Heather Day has produced a vibrant wall mural. Painted to capture the whole space from floor to ceiling, (and also to be seen from passers-by outside) this work has large dominant blocks of colors, applied with paint rollers, brushes, and thin washes of paint. The mural’s composition appears to have its origins in landscape or mapping of a sort, and succeeds in a vibrant movement that follows as you descend the ramp along its course. Ultra Violet holds the composition from upper left and continues to show its presence in successful areas that retain the viewer’s attention to the assigned function “as a point of departure and as a major component of execution.”
While the exhibition has its pre-assigned goal firmly based in what popular culture has shown as the years’ color trend, the show is not drawn into politics, which one would think may have been a major mind-fulfilling trend itself in 2017. One work, “Disquietude” by Sarah Nguyen, has tracked with small watercolor paintings a daily record of each morning’s sky since the President Trump took office. Although some of the small intimate scenes are filled with an orange/yellow cast, or the twinkling whites of a starry night, most derive from a dense and dark violet sky that greets the artist each day. Coincidence… I think not.
One of the most blatant works of political commentary but truly dynamic pieces is the poster by Conduit Studio. The work is hung with clips at the top and let to curl freely, as if quickly or casually placed in the space. Its rich yellow surface at first seems to have only the words “status quo” floating on the surface. But with a hand-held searchlight, words emerge in the ultra violet light, bringing forth a visible and poignant quote by the Rev. Martin Luther King.
Meredith Olinger’s “Cut from the Wall #2 (Ultra Violet)” wins the award for an artwork fashioned at the right place and the right time. Olinger has continued to expand this work from year to year, adding the Pantone Color of the Year each January as it’s announced to the public. Amazingly, her patterns, wallpaper surfaces, and abstracted elements hold together in a visually striking composition from year to year.
Local design firm Via Design has captured the use of Color of the Year with a rich interior, entitled “Dressing Room,” composed of rugs, lounges, hand painted walls (in violet of course), and a shelf of books and small objects befitting a contemporary lavish interior. While the space has an almost tongue-in-check richness to its objects and atmosphere, it does show the ways in which color can enhance our experiences in meaningful ways, and perhaps calm our unsteady lives.
As Pantone notes in its gallery text that accompanies the show, “historically, there has been a mystical or spiritual quality attached to ultra-violet.” These associations seem more related to a late ‘60s sense of freedom and experimentation, both chemically and spiritually, than to the cultural, social, and political splits we find our daily lives entrenched in. There has been resurgence in mindfulness practice that has continued from the baby-boomers to today’s hipsters. With the help of 18–3838 Ultra Violet, it may be the best coping mechanism one generation has learned from another to survive the frenzied reality of the present.
“Color of the Year Presented by Pantone and X-Rite”
Visit the work pictured here and more at the opening this Friday night.
UICA, Fulton & Division
Friday, April 6, 5:30–9 p.m.
Music, food, admission is all complimentary.
Cash bar available.
