| The inspired group exhibition Lure, recently on display at the Broadway Gallery, was timely commentary on contemporary ideas of the “other.” Featuring the works of Jane McAdam Freud, Béatrice Englert, Ko Bhamra, ARVEE, Freddy Flores Knistoff, Michel Beaucage, Sandro Bisonni, Monika Iatrou, and Destroy Be. Skillfully curated by Basak Malone the work within Lure not only explored societies fascination with the concept of the “other”, but more specifically various interpretations, which are reflected in the dichotomy of ideas that each artist bought to the show. |
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Milton Fletcher
The inspired group exhibition Lure, recently on display at the Broadway Gallery, was timely commentary on contemporary ideas of the “other.” Featuring the works of Jane McAdam Freud, Béatrice Englert, Ko Bhamra, ARVEE, Freddy Flores Knistoff, Michel Beaucage, Sandro Bisonni, Monika Iatrou, and Destroy Be. Skillfully curated by Basak Malone the work within Lure not only explored societies fascination with the concept of the “other”, but more specifically various interpretations, which are reflected in the dichotomy of ideas that each artist bought to the show.
Some interpreted the “other” to be human (in the case of McAdam or Englert), others a location (ARVEE and Flores Knistoff). Their divergent concepts spoke to a range of artistic visions that also featured in the show.
Sculptress Jane McAdam Freud’s 26-minute film Dead or Alive takes a psychological perspective of the “other.” Drawing on images from her great-grandfather Sigmund Freud’s art collection and her own work, she highlights visual contrasts and similarities between their two sensibilities by producing morphed images that combine the artwork of both. The result is a stream of loaded subconscious imagery such as a serpent figure overlapping the curves of a sculpted male human form in the midst of ejaculation. This inspired and singular familial coupling transcends the barriers between generations.
Several untitled paintings by Ko Bhamra’s also draw on classic Freudian symbolism. Bhamra uses a recurrent motif that resembles female genitalia. Utilizing not only a very primal lure, the sumptuous works, that also succeed as pure abstract compositions in their own right, were a jolt of subversion to the proceedings.
Bhamra is not the only one to apply dramatic psychological overtones to abstract painting—Béatrice Englert chooses to embrace the thematic concept of the show by conveying the mental barriers that always exists between two people in her piece Two Heads in a Diptych. A large pair of sculpted heads with vague but recognizable facial features, one head has a stoic bearing, while the other looks exasperated. “It’s about the impossibility of the mind to meet and become close to another,” Englert explained.
Other artists are more formalist in their concerns. ARVEE is creatively drawn to isolated and quiet places—the desert, the beach, even underwater. “I need space!” he emphatically exclaimed. “That’s where I get my inspirations.” His geographic journeys clearly inform his abstract paintings and unique color palette. He layers colors to create the razor sharp and gauzy, soft textures that coexist in his work, best exemplified in his piece entitled The Silence of the South.
Freddy Floress Knistoff’s ten untitled paintings are also concerned with color and form. The pieces in Lure feature brightly swirled, abstract shapes on white backgrounds that create engaging forms out of negative space. This challenges the viewer to reevaluate the real subject of the works—is it the colored shapes, the spaces between them, or the interplay between the two? Unlike Knistoff, Michel Beaucage is more attracted to human forms than invented ones. His two paintings from a series entitled Great Athletes I-IV show off the physicality and vibrancy of the artist’s technique. His colorful abstractions of torsos reveal his physical involvement in the work—paint was applied at places on the canvas with his fingers, leaving behind a verifiable artistic signature as testimony for the viewer.
Sandro Bisonni’s drawings and paintings investigate the allure of using different techniques in the same piece. These works, some figurative (Mediterraneo), others abstract (Le Conchiglie, Pioggia, Riccione) have limited color schemes and very loose lines, and at first glance they seem more like studies than completed pieces. But Bisonni is actually exhibiting a self-imposed and determined form of primitivism. Bisonni has turned his trained technique in on itself, reducing his compositions down to their most basic elements.
Painter Monika Iatrou also appears to be enticed by the potential of experimenting with different styles. One painting, which depicts a gaunt, angular human face with hollow eyes, echoes German Expressionism’s harrowing sense of alienation. Another painting is a large orange-red flower blooming against a brownish background created. Iatrou used a soft dry brush painting technique that makes it tempting to label him a Neo-Impressionist in this piece.
In contrast, the Destroy Be collective displayed a contemporary understanding with their three pieces of digitally composed montage printed on canvas. The series captured screen shots lifted from a variety of resources (from television to computer). With saturated colors and seductive portraits of young adults, the works’ sleekness obliterates any physical human imperfections contained within them and emphasizes the idealized over the real.Lure’s art stimulates the viewer with a broad range of works all clustered around the central theme of difference, whether that difference was between opposing subjects, divergent forms, or even between artwork and viewer. While the “other” may never be understood, Lure showed us that it could at least be depicted. ïâ¬Â°
