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Publication: Journal Santa Fe Section; Date: Oct 29, 2010; Section: Gallery Guide; Page: S8
STILL/SAFE Surreal works find magic, innocence in threatening world Art Issues MALIN WILSON-POWELL For the Journal
Irene Kung’s formal and stately photographs are also haunting and magical. They are objects of reverie and dream time, and they are surreal in disarming and inviting ways. They are time-release images meant for extended contemplation. Magnificent iconic buildings appear to float and sometimes advance forward out of velvety depths. There are two rooms of Kung’s large-format architectural images and three smaller prints of plants on extended view at Chiaroscuro’s curbside gallery space on Canyon Road. Judging by the evidence on the walls, Kung is both a passionate and restrained artist who has developed a pitchperfect marriage of medium, method and meaning. She begins her search for monuments to photograph at street level, by walking and studying the atmosphere and light she needs for her purposes. A resident of Rome for many years, she has transformed two magnificent historical Roman structures from familiar urban landmarks into dream fragments. The weathered, textural, handmade buildings of “Roma, Cupola” and “Roma Piramide Cestia” carry the imprint of bygone eras and function like riveting portraits of archetypal entities. In a 2006 interview Kung noted, “When the photo was taken there were people everywhere. In my work, movement and noise disappear into the dark. Everyone is on the run and I stop still ... Silence and immobility. To stop and see, feel, think and dream. I aim to respond to people’s inner being at this time when our world is rushing towards decline.” After Kung captures her digital images with a long lens, she Photoshops them, emptying and unifying the space and graduating the darkness surrounding the central glowing monument. The balance is formal and the palette is very subtle, rich, almost monochromatic, yet because they are pigment prints on rag paper, the colors are deep and saturated. While every color in “Paris Louvre” — including warm stone, sparkling marine-blue tiles, shiny stainless steel struts — is distinct and precise, there is an overall, understated harmony. Formerly a painter who might apply 3 to 10 layers of paint including marble dust from a Roman archaeological dig or sand from the Syrian desert, Kung has also photographed monuments in Argentina, London, Madrid, Egypt and New York. A visit to her website (www.irenekung.com) confirms the finesse and potency of Kung’s approach to subjects as wide-ranging as waves, mountains, fountains, ferns, trees and a startling horse. With elegance and mystery Kung consistently meets her lofty goal: “Empty space offers the chance of giving time a dimension.” The complex, detailed buildings to which she gives center stage carry collective aspirations and pendent musings worthy of repeated viewing. In Chiaroscuro’s nearby larger gallery space, just kitty-corner up Gypsy Alley, there is another exhibition with surrealist orientation. In many ways it couldn’t be more different than the elegant photographs of Irene Kung. “Guardians” is painter Michele Mikesell’s first solo exhibition at Chiaroscuro. The Dallas-based artist is being shown in conjunction with animal-hide pattern paintings by Susan Sales, her teacher of seven years. In all of Mikesell’s paintings of solitary figures within solitary figures, mild-mannered white women with pale eyes look at the viewer while wearing an animal costume or peaking through the eyehole of a whimsical animal figure. Her acknowledged inspirations of Pop Surrealism, Art Informal, 17th century Dutch masters, Abstract and German Expressionism, and children’s art are easy to ascertain. Somehow the work manages to skip blithely and endearingly through these diverse tendencies. Most of Mikesell’s “Guardians” veer toward innocence and sweetness, even bewilderment, and the majority of animals are dogs or rabbits. Just like animal characters in children’s books, Mikesell’s guardian animals stand upright, with the one exception of “Shoshone Wolf.” Many of them sport striped jerseys a la Dr. Seuss and they all have alert ears, the better to hear danger. The animals are solitary drawn figures in fields of color with small gestural incidents. The artist paints, then wipes, scrapes and sands multiple layers of oil paint on birch panels to build up worn surfaces that are uniformly covered in varnish. Pentimenti peek through the layers. In contrast, the human eyes and faces we can see in full are realistically rendered, and startling the way a real eye looks through a Halloween costume or ceremonial mask. A few, including “Apis Bull,” appear to strike a tougher note on first glance. This three-quarter black figure almost fills the four-foot vertical composition; but, on second glance, the bull’s posture is not threatening. His chest is collapsed, his shoulders relaxed. He is as threatening as a bedraggled stuffed animal and as gentle as a Ferdinand-in-the-flowers bull. Apis is an Egyptian god usually venerated for male vigor and abundant grain harvest who is also associated with kindness and mercy toward strangers, the aspect Mikesell clearly prefers. On third glance, the wary grown-up woman’s eye inside childish garb seems the artist’s prime metaphor. Throughout the world, in the traditions where Mikesell has found her guardians — Haitian, Muslim, Hindu, Arabic, Catholic Japanese, Buddhist, Irish, French, Norse, Greek — it is perhaps best to cultivate a public personality that is known for its benevolence and kindness. Who doesn’t need protection in today’s world? Hypervigilance seems more necessary than ever for survival, beginning in the tender years of early childhood. Mikesell inexplicably manages to bring sobering adult concerns to the fore by operating under the cover of innocence. If you go WHAT: Irene Kung Photographs & Michele Mikesell: “Guardians” WHERE: Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art, 708 Canyon Road & 702½ Canyon Road. WHEN: Through Nov. 20. HOURS: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. CONTACT: 505-986-1221, 505-992-0711 or www.ChiaroscuroSantaFe.com
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“Apis Bull” is an oil on birch by Michele Mikesell.
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COURTESY CHIAROSCURO CONTEMPORARY ART “Paris Louvre” is a pigment print on rag paper by Irene Kung.
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