Essex Art Center/Lawrence, MA
www.essexartcenter.com
FINNED & FEATHERED
“Without showing any detectable style biases, curator Tamara Krendel identifies the work of five artists included in this exhibit, which is broadly based on birds and fish, as poetic realism. She augments the visual presentation with written poetry, having asked each artist to submit at least one poem for the gallery notebook. The opening reception featured readings by Jenny Grassl, whose poems are also in the gallery; their typography and layering are as inviting as an artist’s sketchbook. Krendel’s sensitivity to both the natural world and poetic interpretations of it has toughness and wit, dispelling any criticism of identity politics that might be associated with the exhibit’s celebration of Women’s History Month. From the ironical leaps through history watched over by birds in Gail Boyajian’s five paintings to the droll, voyeuristic curiosity of pigeons courting and mating in Linda Price-Sneddon’s video, intellect and edginess face off against tenderness and often quite sumptuous color. The artists’ commitment to idea balances, if not overtakes feeling. In her poem, Price-Sneddon writes of “Vulnerable Tenacity,” an apt description of the forces of nature observed.
The thickly applied paint and fluid marks of Laurel Hughes’s and Elizabeth Awalt’s paintings fervently connect with their subjects. Hughes’s chickens are depicted close-up but generalized, their body language and postures telling all. Awalt, with great range and rich palette, manages to paint a reflected sunset immersed in all its exquisite drama without an ounce of sentimentality. Krendel explores the metaphors of a caged bid with fluent brushwork and an eye for lyrical light.
Not surprisingly, most of the selected poems are image and nature centered (Mary Oliver was the choice of more than one artist). As noted by Krendel, the poet as muse or inspiration is not the intention; rather, the artists and poets meet in their observation of nature as a vantage point for perception.”
– Meredith Fife Day
Exhibitions In Sight
by Burton Wasserman
“Chrysanthemum Greenhouse in Morning Light,” by Tamara Krendel at Widner thru June.
“Variations of human form and many different flowers all figure quite prominently in the two solo offerings currently on view (through June 27) at the Art Museum of Widener University in nearby Chester. Specifically, they consist of paintings by Tamara Krendel in which colorful blossoms appear repeatedly, and sculptures by Anne Oldach in plaster, fiberglass and bronze, embodying 3D presences with such titles as “Mountain Child,” “Wood Nymph” and “Walking Man.”
Dealing directly with subjects as diverse as rhododendrons, delphiniums and day lilies, Krendel exercises considerable poetic license, freely transforming the shape of growing plants and botanical settings in which they’re found into oil and watercolor compositions rippling with light and patterns of excitement. Poetic transcriptions of her most naked perceptions, these pictures are not observations based on external realities as much as they are playful inventions; inspired composites of jewel-like incandescence, sparkling vitality and imaginative joy.
Most interesting of all Krendel’s designs based upon greenhouse interiors. Powerful images in which the perspectives are suggested by the architectural construction are counterpointed by a profusion of assorted plant forms. They manifest an offbeat balance of agitated vitality and earthy strength.”
– Burton Wasserman
Series: Tamara Krendel Greenhouses