Moberg at 20

“The Flamingo” by Randal Ford

Moberg Gallery’s 20th anniversary show is up through Jan. 6. The gallery is a grand expression of Des Moines’ elevated role in the arts scene. 

When TJ and Jackie Moberg opened two decades ago, the gallery represented five guys from greater Des Moines. The new show’s artists come from Barcelona, Frankfurt on Main, Lagos, and both coasts of the U.S. 

What happened? Des Moines art collectors grew more sophisticated. They don’t just buy art once a year at the movable carnivals of art fests. The gallery itself was savvy marketing through the web, as it was called 20 years ago. TJ and current partner Ryan Mullan are smart, pleasant galleristas who attract worldly artists. 

There are more than 30 artists in the show. That is hard to cover and a big reason why the show runs longer than most. There will be a closing party on Jan. 5. But a thorough viewing requires several visits. 

Animal art here goes so far beyond the overly sentimental Blue Dog paintings and personal commissions of one’s pet. In this exhibition, its stunning, like catching a glimpse of something one does not expect to ever see. Randall Ford is among the best photojournalists in the world. His shots alone sell subscriptions of Texas Monthly, often considered the best regional magazine in the world.

Here Ford contributes two legendary birds. His “Peacock #2” is alluring and not just to female birds. The hundred eyes of this guy are a dazzling demonstration of the feathers’ lucky lore. Ford’s “Flamingo #2” looks so posed that it appears like sculpture. I read once that a National Geographic photographer shoots several thousand times for each one photo used in the magazine. I bet that Ford had to be patient as a deer stalker to get this guy to flaunt his wings while standing still. 

“From There to Here” a silk screen by Larassa Kabel 

His “Highland Cow” looks almost yak-like. You don’t see guys like this in Iowa. German impressionist Daniela Schweinsberg features similar subject matter in her “All I Need Is a Set of Wings.”

Larassa Kabel paints like a photographer. She made many of her bones portraying powerful animals in the instance of vulnerability — mustangs borne to flight by 18-wheeled trucks. Here she shows a young doe in the woods with the skull of a buck. This five-panel painting has what gallery archivist Makaela Mullan calls “mori” harkening to a Latin quote by Horace for honorable death. This doe is running away, for good reasons. 

New gallery artist, and former Des Moines Art Center director, Jeff Fleming, brings two drawings — of chickens and rabbits — almost Japanese in sentiment. 

Two of Des Moines’ most popular painters bring landscapes that make the environment look peaceful. Scott Charles Ross’ “First Snow” reveals a highway bordered by wire fencing and leading to what appears to be the end of the road on the shore of a lake, or is it a snow covered field?

Sarah Grant’s “Black Hills” is more figurative than her usual work. It reveals boulders, hills and washes in the artist’s usual full pallete. As Mullan notices, “Grant’s use of red is always both delicate and bold, and this work it is no different. Red marks spots of import while also working to stretch the eye out, beyond.”

Beyond animals and landscapes, there is something for every set of eyeballs in this show: nudes in painting by Swoon and in sculpture by Anick Ibsen; Marilyn Monroe by Mr. Brainwash; parody (of art fests and art journalism) by Robert Moore; Nigerian school girls, not kidnapped, by Esther Oyemyemi; a “Siege of Rats” by Alexandre Shiffer; plus balloons, blue jeans from the 1980s, and a take on Matisse’s studio. ♦