Fantastic Review

The Post-Standard STARS
Color to the Max
Sunday, October 21, 2007
KATHERINE RUSHWORTH
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

There's nothing like a healthy dose of color on one of Syracuse's dank, gray days. The current exhibition on view at the Delavan Art Gallery provides just the mood-altering cure we all need from time to time.

"Maximum Color," on view through Nov. 10, is comprised of glass works by Phil Austin, paintings by Alison Fisher, Jim Loveless and Lutz Scherneck and digital photography by Linda Spatuzzi. The works range from traditional to non-traditional, encompassing realistic and abstract interpretations of the landscape or raucous celebrations of color and form. On a sun-filled day, the Delavan Art Gallery virtually pulsates with color.

Painters Fisher, Loveless and Scherneck dominate the show, both in quantity of work and quality of expression. Fisher exhibits two distinctly different bodies of work - one a set of hard-edged mixed media abstract paintings comprised of acrylic, titanium, pastel, gold ink, tea leafing and copper wire and the other a group of loosely constructed, ethereal acrylic landscapes.

In the mixed media pieces such as "Heavenly Places," "Voice of Truth," and "Middle Ground," Fisher demonstrates a playful hand, with gestural lines guiding your eye across brightly colored, two-dimensional surfaces. Texture is also of greater significance than in the landscape paintings. The latter paintings are equally as concerned with color, but here Fisher engages a more muted and nuanced palette. The strongest of the acrylic pieces leave some of the landscape unresolved, where imagery is implied rather than defined; a definite lesson in less is more.

Loveless also exhibits two bodies of work, which initially seem unrelated but on closer examination demonstrate similar pictorial concerns. Loveless writes that when the two bodies of work "cohere it is more through style than subject matter."

Some of the works utilize lines, spheres and cubes to manipulate various pictorial elements. Other pieces engage the landscape as a vehicle to explore similar design elements. In "Mystical Arrangement" Loveless uses the geometric forms to play with conditions of light and shadow in the way he uses the flat sides and sharp corners of buildings in "White House on Monhegan Island." He also shows a couple of "crossover" paintings, which incorporate more literal landscapes with the geometric forms, but they just seemed to lack focus.

Scherneck grabs on to color and squeezes for all it's worth. His style is bold and expressionistic; sometimes engaging staining techniques and other times moving thick swabs of paint over the canvas with a palette knife or wide brush. Scherneck's paintings are large and loud.

"Red White Blue WMB" is one of the most dynamic of his pieces, vibrating with color and texture. "Red Flow" demonstrates some underlying staining techniques, which Scherneck works back into creating an interesting contrast of textures. In many of the pieces, he sets up implied movement within the picture plane by controlling the flow of paint.

Control is the main concern of digital artist Spatuzzi. She begins by taking photos of everyday objects or settings, which she then turns into abstract imagery through the machinations of digital technology. The pieces are dramatic, high-contrast, carefully constructed abstract forms; but some speak to their figurative origins.

The images in "Floating Leaf," "Royal Insects," and "Roboman" clearly reference their titles, but "Green Abstract," "Sunrise Abstract," and the compelling "Dee's Tablecloth" seem like pure explorations of color and form.

Finally, glass artist Austin exhibits more than two-dozen hand blown functional glass objects featuring vases and bowls in deep blue, warm green and amber tones.

"Maximum Color" lives up to its name and provides something for just about everyone. It's sure to brighten your day even on one of Syracuse's darkest.

View the article at Syracuse.com HERE