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    Details, Details. Summer 2015 Group Exhibition at Angela Meleca Gallery

    It’s good to remind ourselves that painting and sculpture often exert their own brand of physicality. They have a presence; a presence that stems in large part from the particular materials from which the objects are made. When it comes right down to it, painting and sculpture can be summed up as the deliberate and intentional manipulation of those materials. I suppose you could put it into a formula of sorts, materials plus process plus intention equals art.

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    That sounds self-evident, obvious even, when stated so explicitly. The fact is though that so much of our visual experience is now filtered through the lenses of screen and pixel that it’s easy to lose sight of the physical properties of art. Similarly, when we see a work of art in person, it’s often so completely realized and so completely self-contained that we don’t always consider the materials or process behind it.

    Mollie-O
    Migrated Laterally (Detail) — Mollie Oblinger

    That’s a shame, because one of the most rewarding ways to look at art is by looking closely, paying attention to the details, and keeping an eye fixed on materials and processes. To do that, I can think of no better exhibition than the summer 2015 Group Exhibition currently on view Angela Meleca Gallery. Whether by design or happenstance, gallerist Angela Meleca has curated an exhibition that invites viewers to get in close and really appreciate the material decisions that go into art.

    I hadn’t stopped by the gallery with the intention of putting work these works under the proverbial microscope. At first I was just looking. As I looked more closely though, telling details began to emerge.

    It started with Mollie Oblinger’s rightly named Migrated Laterally; a wall hanging sculpture of wood and fabric that modestly spans a far corner of the gallery. From behind an innocuous looking vertical support I noticed a faint blue glow. Was it a light? A shadow? Both? On closer examination I saw that Oblinger had painted the back of the support a bright blue. The blue glow I’d noticed was light reflected off the back of the piece and onto the wall itself. It was light, shadow, and color joined as one. The artist achieved a similar effect with yellow on the opposite wall.

    Details like that… soon I started noticing them everywhere.

    Ron-J
    Far From Over (Detail) — Ron Johnson

    At first glance Ron Johnson’s paintings present well-executed abstractions. There’s balance, harmony, scale, and flow; everything you’d hope for in a successfully solved two-dimensional problem. But stopping at two-dimensions misses the material quality of these works entirely. It also misses the thing that makes them truly breathtaking. Johnson constructs his paintings on panels using gently curving strips of canvas to delineate fields of color. He then employs copious amounts of polyurethane (and copious amounts of sanding) to achieve a finish that strikes the perfect balance between machined perfection and hand made. It’s a satiny smooth surface that practically begs to be touched (but please don’t).

    For his part, Ed Valentine offers a clinic on process, mashing-up gestural brushstrokes, rigid bands of color, and sketchy pop-influenced line drawings alongside rips, burns, holes, and tears. The result is a Rosetta Stone of modern and post-modern techniques that coalesce into surprisingly coherent works. Valentine is conscious enough of these processes and materials that he even works them into his titles. Still Life with Mud, Two BB Holes, and Red Drips is one such example (and yes, if you point out two bb holes in the title I’m going find them in the painting (and maybe a stray staple too)).

    Matthew-K
    Interior (Detail) — Matthew Kolodziej

    It doesn’t stop there. The devil truly is in the details in this exhibition. Get up close and see how Matthew Kolodziej builds on a substructure of fine-lined mark making to create sprawling, bas-relief abstractions. Look closely at the way Ian Hagarty uses metallic flecks to give his works a subtle iridescence. This is a show that rewards slowing down, really looking, and paying attention to the details. For many of us, these are skills we’d do well to practice both inside the gallery and out.

    Summer 2015 Group Exhibition is on view at the Angela Meleca Gallery July 23 – September 3. More information can be found at www.angelamelecagallery.com.

    Image Credits:

    Ed Valentine
    Still Life with a Rip, Two Painted Donuts,
    and Twenty Blues Stripes (Detail)
    2015
    Oil on canvas
    30 x 84 inches

    Ed Valentine
    Still Life with Mud, Two BB Holes,
    and Red Drips (Detail)
    2015
    Oil on canvas
    30 x 84 inches

    Matthew K
    Interior (Detail)
    2015
    Acrylic on canvas
    65 x 56 inches

    Mollie Oblinger
    Migrated Laterally (Detail)
    2015
    Wood and fabric
    36 x 48 x 16 inches

    Ron Johnson
    Far From Over (Detail)
    2014
    Acrylic and polyurethane on panel
    48 x 48 inches

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    Jeff Regensburger
    Jeff Regensburger
    Jeff Regensburger is a painter, librarian, and drummer in the rock combo The Christopher Rendition. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) from The Ohio State University in 1990 and an Master’s Degree in Library Science from Kent State University in 1997. Jeff blogs sporadically (OnSummit.blogspot.com), tweets occasionally (@jeffrey_r), and paints as time allows.
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