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Back to Exhibit Al Loving February, 2005 Artist reception 6-8:30pm February 11th, 2005. It was easy to fall for Al Loving's exuberant collages in this exhibition, "Lighter Than Air" Made from vibrantly painted paper, the works were mounted on Plexiglas and hung, hovering, two inches from the wall. At first they evoked Frank Stella's curvilinear metal reliefs and the shaped canvases of Elizabeth Murray. But unlike those works, Loving's pasted together spiral forms, sometimes composed of cutouts woven like a mat, had a more craftlike, cartoonish quality and appeal. Together they constituted a distinctive universe of funkadelic form. Time Trip Part II, #9 (2003) is a cloud-evoking conglomeration of treble clef-shaped curlicues. Some of the spirals are solid colored; others are woven and exhibit a harlequin-like pattern. Most of the shapes are covered with an acrylic gel and have a glossy sheen. In Spiral Collage #3 (2004), which takes the form of a whirling tornado, the spirals are flattened and resemble interlocking rings. The effect is somewhat akin to that of watching a circus clown in the process of twirling 20 plates at once. The dancing mood continues in Orisha for Big J (2002). Here the spirals wrap around themselves like an expanding and contracting diagram of a DNA molecule- some resemble a long lock of curly hair being pulled; others are tightly wound like the top of a fiddlehead; and still others are so thin they appear to be suspended in three-dimensional space. Orisha, in the language of Yoruba, means guardian spirit. Big J is lucky. His protector is destined to keep the blues away. - Bridget Goodbody Color-burst Collages from Loving Hands -by Matthew Kangas / Special to The Seattle Times Fresh from New York in time for Black History Month at the Jeffrey Moose Gallery, the Al Loving show introduces Seattle to one of the greatest living African-American artists. At 69, Loving is now a resident of Kerhonkson, NY, having left his longtime Brooklyn studio in 2000. Twenty small-scale cut-paper collages give viewers a taste of Loving's aesthetic-spirals, checker-boards, pattern on pattern- but it would have been nice to see at least one of his characteristic large-scale wall constructions (lavishly praised in this month's "Art-News"). Still, the dazzling palette and exuberant, irregular shapes give a good idea of what has attracted numerous collectors, critics and museum curators since he arrived in Manhattan from Detriot in 1968. Possibly related toWest-African textile patterns, the "Color Weave", "Beauty" and "Home" series all deal with intersecting spatial planes, the clash of color and violation of the traditional rectangular painting format. Probably the leading figure in the currently hot African-American abstraction movement, Loving is enjoying renewed interest in his work, from gallery shows in New York and Chicago to museum surveys in Pennsylvania, Long Island, NY and Michigan. It's not hard to see why. Even at such modest sizes (averaging 12 to 18 inches wide), the collages explode off the wall, surging with colors: red, yellow, purple, green and blue. Loving is demonstrating clearly that African-American artists need not be pigeonholed in social-political subject matter or figurative-narative angst. Instead, he celebrates urbanity through the colors of nature. His vocabulary of motifs may repeat itself, but each work is completley individual, spontaneous-looking, yet carefully conceived. Three offset lithographs done at Philadelphia's famed Brandywine Print Workshop, the "Mara" series, tone down the artist's conversation with color, subtly shifting arabesque shapes over a green-to-purple ground. "Beauty #63" (2005) is the largest of the collages at 3-by-2 feet. Its deep blue background anchors the wildly agitated shapes, bringing a formal logic that the other works sometimes sacrifice in favor of their over-the-top compositions. One Promising surprise is the sculputre Loving made at Pilchuck Glass School last summer. "Aspiration #3" (2004) extends the artist's signature spirals into twisted three-dimensional glass with gold-leaf accents. With his command of color and flair for decorative abandon, glass should be a natural focus for Loving's ideas. Here's hoping he'll pair collages with more glass the next time around. Back to Exhibit |
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