A solo show featuring the paintings, drawings, and sculpture
of Jacquie Alberga Germanow opened at Geisel Gallery (1 Bausch & Lomb Place) on First Friday. The
overarching theme in Germanow’s work is water,
whether expressed in figurative work, portraits, or symbol-heavy sculpture.
“Clearly the glass forms I have created are for me translations
of water energy, and their fluid transparency a metaphor for truth and clarity,”
she says. But the portraits she paints also have an aquatic element as well,
sometimes in unpredictable ways.
In “Transition,” a painting of a reclining man, Germanow has given her subject a yellow shirt that is seemingly
made of waves of light. The bright, undulating material is as kinetic and chaotic
as the sea, while its translucence reveals the powerful form and warm skin underneath.
“The human form is the most complex organization of water
than I have drawn into focus,” she says. She also links human expression and gesture
to flowing water. “Water and spirit are metaphorically inseparable in this
works.”
Though some of Germanow’s art seems
to have religious undertones — such as three crucifix-looking, mixed-media sculptures
in the rear space of the gallery — the artist says this is not intentional. The
concepts she’s working with are much more universal. One of these, a
staff-shaped work, “Forgiveness,” can be interpreted as a body distorted by the
weight of hate, but striving toward a state of grace. Finger and talon-shaped
protrusions sprout from the carved and painted oak form, but as the eye follows
upward, the acidic colors calm.
See the show through November 30. Gallery hours are Monday
through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information,
email jeangeisel@gmail.com, or visit thegeiselgallery.com.
Richard Harvey and Nancy Valle both have work showing
in the Little Theatre Café (140 East Avenue) through November 30. The
exhibition, “Reveal,” includes Harvey’s figurative paintings, collages, and
sculptures, and Valle’s ceramic sculpture.
“As a figurative artist, I explore the psychological and
emotive potential of the human face and figure in a contemporary
expressionistic style,” Harvey says.
His subjects are less people than they are embodiments of
emotions and states of mind, and each confronts the viewer with pared-down
countenances of vortex eyes and weatherworn hides. Moon-shaped faces preside in
atmospheric skies, features sketched out expressively and conveying a sense of
calm unease.
Valle’s hand-built work is even more pared down, her
figurative forms often composed of head and bust shapes but covered in patterns
and textures also representative of human conditions.
“Since beginning in sculpture with clay, a broad theme has
been central to my work: the relationship between the physical cycles of the
natural world and our place within it,” she says. “My new work is informed by
observations, memories and ideas about who we are as individuals and how we
reveal ourselves within nature, community, and culture. These ceramic figural
forms are reactions to traditional portraiture: people represented at
milestones in their lives from birth to the obituary photo.”
See “Reveal” when the Little Theatre Café is open: Sunday,
noon to 8 p.m.; Monday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m.; Friday, 5 to 11 p.m.; and
Saturday, noon to 11 p.m. For more information, email zanne@thelittle.org.
A small exhibit of stencil and spray paint work by Rochester
street artist Ax opened at Surface Salon (658 South Avenue) on Friday
night to celebrate Surface’s 7th anniversary. “Lost Axiom” features eight large
paintings on wood panels, each with a not-so-subtle poke at humanity.
In “It’s okay, I don’t want to
admit we are related either” a chimp covers his eyes in shame while holding a
sign that with the title on it. Another piece features a beaming graduate in
cap and gown, presenting her diploma with the words “Crippling Debt” in austere
calligraphy. A painting of an iPhone locked screen shows a line of “Ax News” headlines,
all topical tragedies, with the opportunity to “slide to ignore.”
It’s cool to see Ax pull together work for a gallery show —
you can usually spot his art painted on walls around Rochester on cardboard
that he leaves zip tied to fences and posts for people to find and take home. Ax’s
work will remain on the walls at least through the end of the month. For hours
and more information, call 360-4446 or visit surfaceonsouth.com.
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2015.
