Newcity Arts – Collaborative Agency: A Review of “What They Said” at Circle Contemporary

The exhibition statement for “What They Said” consists of a single sentence: “A showing of unity through agreement, generally toward an unpopular opinion.” While I’m generally a fan of providing the audience with more detail, I think this lack of pretense suits the show quite nicely. “What They Said” pairs the work of eight artists from the Arts of Life roster with eight artists from outside the organization. With such a wide variety of different styles and approaches on display, unity is most easily found by looking for the connective elements in each pairing. “What They Said” is curated by Facility, a foundation and collaborative platform founded by the duo of Bob Faust and Nick Cave.

The resulting exhibition is a star-studded showcase of community involvement and curatorial prowess. Arts of Life provides a collective space and supportive network for artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and this exhibition could have easily felt gimmicky. Instead, the curation leans into the dynamics of placing artists’ work in conversation: Each pairing is straightforward enough to feel intentional but nuanced enough to reward inquiry.

Immediately to the left of the entrance to Circle Contemporary is a painting by Frank Vega titled “Unidad-Float” paired with a painting titled “Walking into the Woods” by Oly Trindl. In “Unidad-Float,” a rough circle of feathers adhered to the surface of the canvas with silver spray paint and black enamel surrounds a dark void in the middle of the composition. This was my first time seeing one of Vega’s paintings in person, and I wasn’t initially drawn to it amidst the more colorful works on display around it. However, when I did finally get up close to the painting, it caught me off guard—the surface of the painting is visceral, yet delicate. Looking at the painting from different angles reveals layers of reflectivity and depth in the thick impasto of semi-transparent dark tones in its center. Pairing this work with Oly Trindl’s “Walking into the Woods” is an excellent choice. Trindl’s work is wildly vibrant, with crackling magentas, purples and greens arcing across a background of dappled oranges and yellows. Like Vega’s painting, Trindl’s painting consists of a roughly circular composition of stochastic linear elements and much of the work’s subtlety is hidden within coagulations of dark paint. Moving clockwise, these works are followed by Lisa Solar’s “Military Box Pleat” paired with Ted Gram-Boarini’s “Desire from Hell.” “Military Box Pleat” is made with spray paint and pencil on an intricately creased sheet of paper. The application of spray paint forms a geometric pattern on the paper’s surface that follows the folded paper seams, and it seems to me like it was spray painted while the paper was folded, then unfolded for display. Gram-Boarini’s painting is a diptych of yellow color fields and chaotic scratches painted on two identically sized canvases. Minute gaps in the yellow surface of the artwork reveal a dark black underpainting, and this effect is most noteworthy near the paintings’ edges. The sides of these two canvases appear to be adhered together, which forms a crease or seam in the middle of the composition. Pairing Gram-Boarini’s work with Lisa Solar’s painting on paper calls attention to the way both artworks use the sculptural reality of their substrate to complicate the way they otherwise function as two-dimensional imagery.

Across from the gallery entrance, a diptych of drawings on newsprint by James Schenck titled “Fluid Forms” is paired with a painting by Jean Wilson titled “3 Headed Dog.” In “Fluid Forms,” Schenck uses rapid, expressive marker strokes alongside small blotches of gesso to recreate two images from his camera roll. In the first scene, two figures sit on the floor arranging flowers. A small piece of paper that appears to be ripped out of a flower catalog is also collaged onto the surface of the drawing with packing tape, and its placement makes it feel like a window. The second scene depicts a twisting sculpture made with garden hose spewing water up into the air. Both drawings exemplify a practice of mundane investigation: Schenck’s images feel rooted in finding meaning and amusement in small details of the world around him. In contrast to this, Jean Wilson’s “3 Headed Dog” depicts a looming Cerberus figure with blood-red mouths and pointed teeth. The pairing may feel disparate at first, but unity is found in small compositional similarities between the two artists’ work. Jean Wilson’s painting is also a collage; Cerberus’ teeth appear to be printed images that she then painted over. This minimal usage of collage amidst Wilson’s loose brushstrokes feels connected to the scrap of flower catalog in Schenck’s drawing. Both Wilson’s and Schenck’s artworks exude a sense of playfulness: Despite Cerberus’ intimidating dentition, the rest of the hound of hell is actually quite cute, with pink ears and a circular curled tail.

As I spent more time in the gallery, I continually discovered new connections in the pairings on display. John W. Bateman’s “Reader” and Ted Hamel’s “East Broad Top” both use scattered arrangements of type to create visual poetry. Saumitra Chandratreya’s risograph titled “South Beach Sultry” and Lawrence M’s collage painting titled “Pink Giant Panda Bear” share a color palette of vibrant pinks and greens within a composition of intertwining organic forms. An untitled drawing by Dan Gamble and a graphite drawing by Tim Stone titled “Darkest as Night” both consist of tightly rendered compartmentalized abstractions. Both drawings feel surrealistic, with believable shading of unrecognizable architectural structures. On an adjacent wall, Joel Ebner’s digital collage titled “Untitled (Prepper)” and Maria Vanik’s painting titled “Diamond Drop” both consist of repeated rectangular elements tiled across flattened fields of saturated color. Lastly, a weaving made with cotton, synthetic hair, plastic rollers, bobby pins, metal and spray paint by the artist Shenequa titled “Multi-Color Roller Up II” is paired with a vibrant, intricate painting by David Krueger titled “Breakin’ Down the Wall.” Krueger’s painting makes use of repeating geometric patterns outlined with black marker in a way that feels reminiscent of rayonnant gothic stained-glass windows. These artworks share a sense of compositional granularity: Discrete dots of color in Krueger’s painting feel connected to the structure of warp and weft in Shenequa’s weaving, and both artists’ use extremely expressive marks within these larger structures.

More than anything else, I see “What They Said” as an expression of agency: The exhibition’s artists, curators and viewers are all given an important role in defining it. This is a seriously enjoyable show with many surprises to discover.

“What They Said” is on view at Circle Contemporary, 2010 West Carroll, through May 9.