By Jim Duncan
Travis Rice in one of his "Contamination" houses. |
Coming this week — serious summer fun
July used to be the dead month for Des Moines fine arts. Not anymore. This
year the kind of big, brilliant shows that galleries used to hold back until
autumn is opening this month at four different venues.
Travis Rice's exhibition "Contamination" is the largest one-person
show ever at Moberg Gallery, taking up the entire gallery plus an outdoor wall.
A 1980 Italian cult film of the same name inspires it. That sci-fi classic was
about alcoholism, green eggs and coffee with the green eggs plotting to take
over the world. I don't make this stuff up. You can leave all expectations at
the door of the exhibition.
"I've always had issues with germs and bacteria. I became interested in
the way they move and multiply. I observed some bacteria that expanded into
aerial routes, detracting and retracting to new hosts. That's the way they are.
That's what I tried to capture in my prints, then in the paintings. Those are
my ideas about what a 3D diagram of a sneeze might look like," Rice explained.
Rice's meditations on bacterial growth also include neon sculptures, 3D paintings,
video monitors and several metal sheds filled with fluorescent lights and props
one might use in decontamination zones. Some of those are covered with metastasizing
green eggs. All are covered with textured fluorescent film and separated from
each other with shredded colored paper, a Rice trademark. This show is serious
summer fun. Through Aug. 20.
James Ellwanger's new exhibition "41 degrees/93 degrees W" presents
a series of 10 portraits of Des Moines. Each composition is printed on four
layers of Plexiglas stacked on top of each other. The background prints are
satellite photos of Des Moines while the top three layers consist of various
images within the satellite photo. Each set of prints is made in an edition
of five, and many have already been sold.
Ellwanger will also be showing a series of sculptures he's been making out of
motorcycle parts. Each portrays an animal, complete with a taxidermy tickbird.
"I like to think about what it might be like some day when our pets are
all robots. Plus it's a lot of fun to work with motorcycle parts," he said.
The show begins July 28 and runs two months in the former Fitch Gallery, 304
15th St.
Steven Vail Fine Arts' new exhibition also opens July 28 and studies "Selective
Color" in printmaking. Artists come from five different countries and use
minimal color for dramatic effect in reductive art. Works range from figural
to virtual abstraction and include Eric Fischl, Donald Sultan, Carlos Amorales,
Robert Cottingham and seven others.
Vail quoted Alberto Giacometti while explaining the inspiration for the show.
"My colleagues admonish me, ‘paint with more color.' Isn't grey a
color too? If I see everything in grey, and if within that grey I see all colors
that impress me and that I would like to convey, why should I use another color?"
Works range from a screen print with flockings from Sultan's seminal Poppies
series to black on black etchings of butterflies from Amorales. The exhibition
has already attracted interest from the New York City art media. One national
writer expressed hope it would travel to the Big Apple.
This Friday, Olson-Larsen Galleries opens "Three Takes on Photography"
demonstrating different approaches by Peter Feldstein, David Ottenstein and
Dan Powell. Feldstein uses cliché verre, a technique first practiced
in the 19th century, applying ink and paint to glass, film or translucent paper
by etching, rubbing and daubing. He then scans his "positive" and
manipulates it digitally. Ottenstein presents new prints from travels through
Iowa and the West. Powell's hand-manipulated photographs feature out of focus
objects blended with unusual scenes, enhanced by bleaching, toning and the application
of pencil and oil paint. This show runs through Sept. 3. CV
