| By
Jim Duncan
Travis Rice in one of his "Contamination"
houses. |
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
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