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Art Review: 'Transformation' explores tactile allurements of wood
Saturday, November 13, 1999 By Mary Thomas, Post-Gazette Art Critic
Last night, the $5,000 Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder's Prize for excellence in the field of contemporary crafts was awarded to David Sengel at the Society for Contemporary Craft. At 3 p.m. today the Boone, N.C., artist will give a free slide lecture at the Strip District gallery about his work.
Sengel is also included, with 34 other finalists, in the solid, diverse and tactilely alluring exhibition "Transformation: Contemporary Works in Wood," and in its fine, fully illustrated catalogue.
The biennial prize was established in 1997 in memory of SCC founder Elizabeth Raphael, and was given that year to a glass artist, Sibylle Peretti of Germany. Different mediums will be featured in each competition. Wood was chosen by Raphael's daughters, funders of the prize, to honor their father, Orin Raphael, who was a lifelong woodworker.
Winning works become part of the society's permanent collection.
A six-member jury reviewed 134 entries this year and selected work by artists who are relative newcomers, as well as those represented in collections like that of the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery.
The prize-winning "Haloed" stands out because of its ominous presence -- a spotlit, thorn-studded, enclosed vessel/egg/head shape uncomfortably clamped into and suspended from a cold, metal frame. A bird pressed against the wall of the lighted interior heightens the tension in this cryptic work. When one learns -- in a short, informative video filmed at Sengel's home and studio -- that the metal was part of a medical apparatus that held the artist in check as he recovered from a life-threatening accident, the work takes on added layers of meaning.
As award-winner, Sengel was invited to exhibit several pieces, and while none is as formally or conceptually complex as "Haloed," they broaden understanding of his process. For example, his trademark rose thorns -- sanded and applied with tweezers -- stud a chalice handle and detail a bird wing. The most effective of these is a large urn with a perched, asymmetric black bird.
Other entries include two admirable and very different sculptures: Joe Brubaker's "John" and Tom Eckert's "Five Covered Boscs." The former is a deft assemblage of discards that infuses the figure with a sense of both decline and perseverance. Brubaker's unlikely mix of crumpled copper, painted timber, can lid and more make an aesthetically emotive statement. Eckert's is exquisite deception -- the carved drapery demands touch to verify that it is not cloth. The artist's desire to force a consideration of the real, which he alludes to in his statement, is a concern that has been expressed by some of the artists in the Carnegie International.
Several artists exhibit incredible technical skill in tour de force works that could have been destroyed by a final wrong cut days into their execution. These include William Hunter's elegantly precise "Kinetic Interplay," Ron Fleming's sheerly lovely "Passages," and Peter Exton's "Pernambuco Spray," so intently worked that, he notes in the catalog, the wood is reduced to 10 percent of its original mass. Also infused with craft virtuosity are Christian Burchard's tumble of graduated, organically sensual vessels and, in an opposite but equally engaging aesthetic, Philip Moulthrop's "Bundled Mosaic Bowl" of turned wood and resin.
Furniture is well represented and is most successful when it strikes a balance between unique statement and lasting design quality, as with Tom Loeser's "Blanket Chest" or Andrew Ilsley's "Ladder Chair." Richard Prisco's "Lamp" and Ashoke Chhab's "Growth Nightstand," on the other hand, show originality and crafting ability but are too extreme in form to stand as more than a whim. That's not to exclude whimsy. Two of the most successful works are wonderfully humorous, with distinct design vision: Kenton Hall's "River Bird" cocktail table and Jacob Cress' "Hickory Dickory Clock."
The many other works range from the masterfully executed to the experimentally unrefined, together providing an enjoyable look at what's being done by American woodworkers today.
At 2100 Smallman St. through Feb. 26. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Information: 412-261-7003.
Carnegie International
Today at 1 p.m., Carnegie Lecture Hall -- "Putting It on the Line," slide lecture by Carnegie International artist Kerry James Marshall, whose installation is at the museum and Rythm Mastr cartoon appears on Tuesdays in the Post-Gazette Magazine section. Introduced by Susanne Slavick, Carnegie Mellon University professor of art. Free.
The 1999 Carnegie International, featuring 41 artists from 22 countries, is at the Carnegie Museum of Art through March 26. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $6, adults; $5, seniors; $4, students/children; free to members.
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