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The Rest exhibits a wide range of unfamiliar artists in its latest show. By Ar thur W hitm an
S
ince spring of last year, Ben Bookout has directed The Rest (113 West State/MLK St.) as a genuine alternative for Ithaca’s often tired downtown gallery scene. A photography teacher and technician — as well as an accomplished photographer in his own right — Bookout brings diverse interests and connections to his project. The personal and teaching studio and display space has become a lively gathering spot as well as a venue for unexpected and often compelling exhibitions. Conceived by Camaron Cohen and Rodrigo Guzman and team-juried, the gallery’s “Artist Showcase Juried Exhibition” joins a crowded field of regional artists’ surveys, both invitational and open-call. The show (which runs through May 29) includes work from 30 Finger Lakes artists working in the expected range of media. An exhibition of this kind inevitably attracts a wide range of submissions: ranging from seasoned artists with distinct voices, to perennial hobbyist hopefuls, to the genuinely “emergent.” Although I can’t say I agree with all the selections, it is to the gallery’s credit that it has brought together familiar and unfamiliar names on a fairly even footing. As far as regional surveys go, this one is tight and thoughtful. Displayed on a shelf behind the gallery’s front window, a trio of small ceramic sculptures by SUNY Oswego instructor Renqian Yang are standouts. Variously executed in porcelain and stoneware paper clay, their abstract forms recall leaves and petals—their allusions to nature enlivened with unexpected, variegated textures and colors. The reference becomes more specific in “Ilinx,” the best of the three. Broadly cone-shaped, the porcelain piece combines white clay sections with bits in pale turquoise, mustardy yellow, glossy black, and — suggesting little roses — redpink. As those of us who have done it will know, hanging diverse and largely unrelated work like that here tends to bring out the clever — if not the glib — in curators. Case in point here is the side-by-side pairing of Elizabeth McMahon’s unframed mixed-media on cardboard abstraction “Moving Party,” with Deborah Bilinski’s trompe l’oeil acrylic on canvas “6 Boxes.” 12 T
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“Ilinx” by artist Renqian Yang. (Photo: Provided)
Done on an elaborately faceted, flattenedout carton, McMahon’s drawn, painted and collaged piece features a hectic, often-bright agglomeration of zig-zags and diagonal hatching recalling the Cubists and Futurists of a century ago. Bilinski’s piece also looks back to the interwar era — here primarily the arch eye-teasing of Magritte. Rendered in an overall beige hue, with deep shadows and accents of pale pink, the piece is a mock diorama, with five cardboard boxes piled haphazardly in a larger box — the delicately rendered borders of its open face coincident with the edges of the canvas. Photography is an understandable point of emphasis and relative strength — although there is a palpable lack of artists really pushing the medium. Highlights include Steve Piper’s “Untitled Railroad Cars 1” and “2” — with their gorgeously colored and textured echoes of color field abstraction — and local favorite Jon Reis, with his characteristically droll take on folksy illusionism, “Waterfront, Lotus Lane, Port Stanley, Ontario.” Straight painting is not a particular strength of this show, with basic technique and familiar conception in abundance. My own heritage notwithstanding, I was publically accused, last year by a social Contin u ed on Page 15
