Lanny DeVuono: Parallel Views

LANNY DEVUONO:

PARALLELVIEWS

JUNDT ART MUSEUM DECEMBER 2,2005 - MARCH 11,2006 . GONZAGA UNIVERSITY路 SPOKANE路 WASHINGTON

LANNY DEVUONO: During a recent drive to Newport

PARALLEL VIEWS

Beach, California, and back again to Portland, I was more attentive

than usual to the ever changing appearance of the towns and open land along Interstate of an earlier studio visit and conversation of heavily populated

5. As the result

with Lanny DeVuono, I watched with particular interest the flow

beach towns along the southern California coast and the many suburbs reaching out

from Los Angeles, then through the dry but irrigated agricultural

expanses of the San Joaquin Valley, to the

huge reservoir called Shasta Lake, up and down the Siskiyou mountains of northern Oregon, and finally up the length of the fertile Willamette

California and southern

Valley leading to Portland.

For travelers focusing

on traffic and speed, 1-5.represents nothing more than mileage to be covered as quickly as possible. features in the landscape and towns quite different.

observed

with

Lanny DeVuono's

sensibility

They embody the history of a land that once was a wilderness

Native Americans and considered humans who were dependent

something

area inhabited solely by

by them as the gift of the Great Spirit, to be used and respected by the

upon it. With the coming of new settlers, very different

play. Those beliefs, based on proprietary of increasing population

represent

But

beliefs came into

rights and which continue to evolve according to the demands

and changes in political power, are addressed in the work of this thoughtful

and

observant artist.

Her paintings of rural and wilderness ambiguity

introduced

by the single word

areas, although beautiful, are not merely scenic. that floats freely over the pictorial

the issues that determine our uses, our politics, and our proprietary

Through

the

space, the paintings signify

attitudes concerning the land we live in.

They are poetic references to human relationships, personal, social, and political not only to the land, but also, to ourselves.

This exhibition,

In DeVuono's own words, they are "visual metaphors for social interactions."

Parallel Views, consists of two recent and on-going series of work:

American Short

Stories, based on landscapes within the United States and the Kerala Series, based on landscapes observed while on a residency in the southern

India state of the same name.

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In American

Short Stories, DeVuono focuses on inhabited areas. Very small pictures, all untitled and

painted on box structures,

extend their imagery to the sides of the boxes in representations

of habitation and its effects.

Structures and cultivated

of evidence

land comprise most of the images. An exception

is a picture that makes its point with a rural scene that features a layer of orange smog just above a row of trees and the word "RIGHTS"

spelled out across the surface.

rights or to the rights of the polluters?

The question comes up again in a painting of an airliner as it soars

across the sky. Which is more important, of all people to a clean environment? viewed

in its entirety,

Does the word refer to environmental

the rights of airline companies to use fossil fuels or the rights

Each painting in the series provokes

the series becomes a grand narrative

similar questions.

conveying the complex

When

issues inherent

in

the uses of land and natural resources, but at the same time, capturing the colorful diversity of cities and the quiet atmosphere the American

ot" small towns.

experience,

Typical of ordinary sites-and

sights-they

or, again as DeVuono puts it, "homage to American

reflect the richness of life in all its splendor and

pleasure, its foolishness and pathos."

In 2004 a Fulbright scholarship took her to India for a four month residency at the College of Fine Arts in Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, a long narrow state stretched along the country's edge.

The culture,

politics, so different watercolor

the tropical

southwestern

climate, the people and their way of life, their values and also, their

from those of her own country, were

both observed

and reflected

in the many

sketches she made during her stay. They have provided a rich resource for the paintings she

began to produce after her return to her home in Spokane. As in

American Short Stories, the Kerala

subjects continue to reflect the social actions that result in both the physical and social environment

that

characterize a place, as well as the visual ordinariness of an Indian town.

Because she considered refrained

from

commonplace

herself a traveler

an ethnographic

approach;

rather than a resident, even a temporary instead she drew

structures in and near Trivandrum.

of structures-their

one, DeVuono

solely on her observations,

mainly of

Using unusual perspectives, she pictures small sections

corners, poles and wires, antennae-and

always, somewhere

among them, a snippet

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of a red flag. The subjects stand out against large areas of blue sky. When a colleague at the college in Kerala asked her why the sky occupied so much of the composition,

she replied with a reference to the

interest that dominates her art, "It's something we all share."

The red flag, however, democracy,

is much more specific to the place.

in which Kerala has the distinction

government.

is a multi-party

of being the first state to elect (in 1952) a communist

Since that time the CPI (M) (Communist

often alternating with Congress party governance. of literacy and a low rate of mortality.

India, as a country,

Party India [Marxist])

has gone in and out of power,

Although very poor, Kerala has a relatively high rate

When the state in August 2004 cited Coca-Cola for its local plant's

pollution of the water table (leeching cadmium and other polluting effluents from the plant) because it was effectively shutting off m~ch needed development,

DeVuono was impressed by their courage in deciding

to maintain a shared public sphere for the common improvement. attempted

good in the face of an acute need for economic

Her references to the CPI (M) flag are her homage to a state that against great odds, has

to maintain a society that privileges public space over a corporation's

succeed in the long run is problematic. a public sphere that may be irremediably This exhibition

profits.

Whether

In this sense the CPI (M) becomes almost nostalgic, a symbol for eroded.

allows us to note the differences

in the appearance between

the Indian town

American towns as if we were travelers ourselves. It also allows us to witness similarities-the the power poles, the use of the flag-that

are ubiquitous in almost all countries.

in the Kerala Series the reference is subtle, as in Kerala top of an antennae tower.

it can

advertising,

In most of the paintings

Series #7, where the flag is barely visible at the

Occasionally, however, it becomes prominent;

hanging limply from its mount on a tall pole.

and

Throughout

the values and politics affecting private lives than American

in Kerala Series

# I , it

the series the flag more pointedly

is featured represents

Short Stories where the same issues are also

addressed, although ambiguously.

One more aspect of DeVuono's

paintings must be considered.

Clearly, they are based on a strong

idea, but at their core is the artist's ability to use her medium to create a compelling picture.

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We are attracted

by her clearly delineated images and superb coloration.

in drawing, brushwork,

The expertise so evident

and handling of color began with her training in the long established traditions

European and American painting. but it reflects other traditions

Her representational

as well.

in

style has its roots in Italian Renaissance painting,

The carefully observed details, the small format, the wide range

of nuanced colors, the unusual perspectives, and the smoothness of the brushwork

recall the Mughal

miniature paintings of India.

Ultimately, contemporary

however,

DeVuono's

work

art, which is prominently

is of her own time,

exemplified

completely

by the extension

within

the paradigm of

of the imagery on the surface

of the boxes to their four sides. The strategy not only undermines the usual expectations but also distorts space by angling it.

Placing words within the composition,

through space, is an innovation of modernity to the influence of photography. in a time when anti-art

in composition.

Most importantly,

The singularity of perspectives is related

process and its aesthetics-and

distinguish her unique niche in contemporary

a return to beauty

seemed poised to make it obsolete.

the current dominance of eclecticism makes possible freedom of choice for Her love of painting itself-the

especially when they curve

these small paintings demonstrate

projects and conceptualism

of a painting

Fortunately,

DeVuono as for all artists.

her commitment

to her thematic ideas

painting.

Lois Allan Art Writer, Portland, Oregon

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LANNY FRANCES DEVUONO EDUCATION 1993 Columbia University: Teachers College, Master of Arts in Teaching 1987 Mills College: Painting, M.F.A. 1985 San Francisco Art Institute: Graduate Painting 1980 Antioch University: Art, B.A. SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2005 Lanny DeVuono: Parallel Views, Jundt Art Museum, Spokane, WA American Short Stories, CIRCA Gallery, Minneapolis, MN American Short Stories, Charles Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR 2004 In Focus, NW Museum of Art & Culture; Spokane, WA 2004 Lanny DeVuono, Esther Claypool Gallery, Seattle, WA 2002 Nature & Other Objects, Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, MT 2000 Nature/Nurture, Esther Claypool Gallery, Seattle, WA 1999 Domestication, Lorinda Knight Gallery, Spokane, WA SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2005 Landscape: Theme & Variation, Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR 2004 Shakespeare as Muse, Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR 2003 A Sense of Place in the Northwest, Pritchard Art Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 2002 Fair Skies, Fair Play (w/ Beth Lo), Lorinda Knight Gallery, Spokane, WA 200 I TEXTures, Seattle Art Museum Sales& Rental Gallery, Seattle, WA Northwest Visions, Seattle Arts Commission, Seattle, WA Just Painting, Spokane FallsCommunity College, Spokane, WA 1999 The End, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA From Here to the Horizon, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA SELECTED AWARDS 2004-05 Fulbright Fellowship, Kerala, India 2003 EWU Faculty ResearchGrant, Cheney, WA 2000 EWU Faculty ResearchGrant, Cheney, WA 1998 Artist Trust Grant, Seattle, WA 1998 Centrum. Artist residency; (Stipend Poncho), Port Townsend, WA 1996 Artist Trust GAP Award, Seattle, WA SELECTED TEACHING EXPERIENCE 2004-05 College of Fine Arts, Thirvanathapuram, Kerala, India, Fulbright Scholar 2003 Vermont College MFA Program, Mentor Teacher, Montpelier, VT 1998 RangsitUniversity, Visiting Lecturer, Bangkok, Thailand 1991Eastern Washington University, Professor of Art, Cheney, WA SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2005 "Artists Take Different Routes...," Medford Mail, Oct.23, 2005 2004 "Big Sky," M. Demarest, The Inlander, May 27, 2004 2002 "Lanny DeVuono's Not-So-Innocent Landscapes;" E. Hall, The Stranger, Oct. 24, 2002 Nature & Other Objects: New Paintings by Lanny DeVuono; NW Projects, Yellowstone Art Museum, essayby Ben Mitchell, 2002 (catalogue) "Pretty isn't the point ..." J. Crane, The Spokesman Review, Jan. 15,2002 200 I "Portable works art: What standards..." S. Farr, The Seattle Times, Apr.19, 200 I; pE2 "Auction 200 I to Benefit YAM," C. Meyers, Billings Gazette, Feb.2, 200 I SELECTED PULIC COLLECTIONS Justice Center, Kent, WA Seattle Arts Commission, Seattle, WA Seattle University, School of Law, Seattle, WA Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA Washington State Arts Commission, PascoHigh School, Pasco,WA IMAGES Cover: (top) (bottom) I. 2.

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American Short Stories #36, 2004, 6"x 6"x 3 1/2", oil on wood.

Kerala Series # 1,2005, 9"x 15"x 2", oil on wood.

American Short Stories #7, 2002, 6"x 6"x 3", oil on wood.

Kerala Series #3, 2005, Is"x 9"x 2", oil on wood.

American Short Stories #39, 2004, 6"x 6"x 5", oil on wood.

Kerala Series #9, 2005, l S?x 9"x 2", oil on wood.

American Short Stories #8, 2002, 6"x 6"x 4", oil on wood.

Kerala Series #4, 2005, 15"x 9"x 2", oil on wood.

American Short Stories #57, 2004, 6"x 6"x 3", oil on wood.

Kerala Series #7, 2005, Is"x 9"x 2", oil on wood.

This publication was funded by the Jundt Art Museum's Annual Campaign 2005-2006. Š Jundt Art Museum, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA 99258-000 I