Independent Critic Review Program

September 11, 2009

Dear Patrons and Artists,

Delavan Art Gallery takes pride in celebrating the creativity of artists shown here. To further that end, we also strongly believe that a review of each exhibition is important, not only in response to artists' efforts to avail their works for public view, but also to give viewers another dimension through which to enhance their appreciation and enjoyment of what they see. However, there are too few media reviewers and/or reviews to cover the large number of visual art exhibits that take place in this area.

To address this situation, we are beginning a new program of having independent critiques of our shows, beginning with our current exhibitions. Here's how it will work:
--We will pay the independent critic for her/his time for coming to the gallery and writing a critique. We will review the critique for factual matter only prior to posting to our e-mail list and blog. We will not change interpretative, evaluative, or other matters of content. The independent critic is free to write what she/he wishes without fear of editing. On the e-mail posting, following the critique, we may choose to post our comments regarding the critique, and on the blog we may likewise post comments along with other readers, which may include the artists being reviewed. Thus this new program, through the blog, allows interactivity between critic, gallery, artist and viewer which only the internet enables.

To begin the program we are proud to announce that Bonnie Rosenberg has been selected as Delavan Art Gallery's first independent critic. Bonnie is currently a graduate student at Syracuse University's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications where she is receiving her masters in Arts Journalism as part of the school's Goldring Program. Prior to coming to Syracuse, Bonnie graduated from Saint Louis University where she earned a dual Bachelor's degree in Art History and English Literature and also held two competitive internships, one as the Family Program intern at St. Louise Art Museum and the other as curator of her own exhibit in the Historic Samuel Cupples House on campus.

This reviewer's interest in the visual arts was ignited by her hometown Chicago, and as she says, "persists in Central New York where I will be an imbedded critic for Delavan Art Gallery and connoisseur of the Syracuse art scene at large." Bonnie adds, "In my efforts, I hope to create an on-going dialogue among artists and the public."

What follows are Bonnie Rosenberg's comments on Delavan Art Gallery's 50th Show opening our new season: our main exhibition titled Visions and the gallery's Wild Card Show, Discoveries.

Our thanks and congratulations to artists participating in these exhibitions and to Bonnie for coming to the opening to view them. We also wish to extend an invitation to the public to visit here during the shows runs and join with us in applauding the creativity that permeates throughout Central New York and beyond.

Sincerely,

Bill Delavan
Gallery Director

Visions Exhibit Opens New Season at the Delavan

Bonnie Rosenberg
September 7, 2009

Artists have the ability to create their own version of reality. They can purge a bad memory with the sweep of a brush or create an alternate one with the click of a camera.

In the Delavan Art Gallery's September exhibit, Visions, four artists - Phil Parsons, Bill Storm, Barbara Stout and Tanya Kirouac - present their art as it derives and deviates from reality. This show highlights the power of artistic license and its ability to manifest differently in artists.

This exhibit provides more than aesthetic appeal. It provokes thought and calls into question the notion of truth in art. If Keats was right, and beauty really is synonymous with truth, then the Delavan has found the key to artistic veracity.

Bill Storm's show Primeval presents nature through lenses both abstract and straight. His black and white photographs depict beautiful natural scenes that glorify what remains of the great American landscape. Storm's color photos are less representational and transform nature into amorphous studies in color, texture and composition. In Primeval #3, streams of brilliant blood red weave around chunks of earth. Detached from its original context, this photo takes on a sinister feeling - adopting overtones of violence and rage.

By cropping nature and applying color, Storm distorts reality and constructs his own landscape. His view of nature evokes an immediate visceral response from its audience, a reaction that is aligned with the prehistoric title of the collection.

The adjacent exhibit, Roadside, by Phil Parsons explores the landscapes of the greater Syracuse area. Parson's scenes are inspired by Central New York's rural vistas, but were composed in his imagination. Farms, winding roads and emotive skies mark these serene paintings.

The muddy color palette that characterizes these works is sporadically disrupted by leavening strokes of yellow and white. These small dots of color are welcome in a painted world where browns and tans prevail. In Howlett Hill Moon a single smudge of pale orange illuminates a path to the painting's apex.

The rurality of these paintings appropriately follows in the tradition of Hudson River School artists. Parsons artworks serve as records of his life's events in New York. Each canvas represents a memory, albeit a manufactured one.

In her ink and watercolor drawings, fellow exhibitor Barbara Stout reveals a personal iconography that is influenced by primitive art and mythic figures, but ultimately stems from her imagination. The images in her Gods, Beasts, and Mortals show are whimsical, cartoonish and rooted in the mystical.Tendrils of black ink race across all of the pieces in a modern Art Nouveau style. At times they loosely resemble humans, but most often they outline invented figures. In the same vein as Paul Klee, these works seem to point to a deeper meaning with their imbedded symbols, but the significance is unknown to the viewer.

Because of their indecipherable subject matter, these works largely fall into the realm of quaint decorative pieces. Ooh La La, a red, white and black drawing, leans so far toward farce that it is divorced from its purported historical foundations. Any spiritual bridge is broken by Stout's recurrent use of handlebar mustache motifs and her frivolous approach to substantial subjects like love.

The gallery's Wild Card Show is comprised of works by encaustic painter, Tanya Kirouac. In Discoveries plant life images are shaped from many layers of wax and pigment. The artworks seem to radiate warmth as rich shades of hazel green, violet and maroon coalesce on the panels.

Bold vermilion flowers abound in big red, one of her larger paintings. Reminiscent of Cy Twombly's floral paintings, the work features loosely formed, free-floating flowers. In the background, shades of yellow melt into pools of orange and cream.

Like the other paintings in the collection, this work draws in the viewer with its accessibility. With surface textures that look like malleable wood, autumnal colors and inviting titles like serenity and passing day, this collection practically demands enjoyment of the viewer and is all too willing to supply the fodder for easy artistic consumption.

Visions runs from Sept. 10 - Oct. 24, and Discoveries runs from Sept. 10 - Oct. 3. These exhibitions are harbingers of good things to come from the Delavan this fall.