The Elusive as Physical Experience, Nimbi and Penumbrae / d.u.m.b.o arts center, Brooklyn
Leah Oates
Nimbi and Penumbrae’s curatorial focus is artwork that explores the unknowable and unanswerable. The basis for the exhibition is the "elusive" in art, and thus lends itself to the possibility that the work can be vague conceptually or visually. Much of the work in Nimbi and Penumbrae is well executed and contemporary but does not communicate anything particularly deep about the unknowable. Some work communicates nothing at all. Mainly this is due to the overly literal approach to the subject.
I felt compelled to write about this show because there are several artists in Nimbi and Penumbrae whose work deserves to be written about for its visual and conceptual strength.
Kohei Nawa creates reflective wall-mounted boxes that mimic taxidermy but with a funhouse mirror effect. Nawa’s work essentially overshadows much of the other work in the show because it’s so well realized, magical and fully embodies the theme of the elusive. Also, it’s heartening to see work that is modest in scale but is still strong. Nawa’s sculptures involve a coyote, with its teeth bared, and a crow. Both animals are significant to dream imagery and many cultural mythologies.
Nawa has created the boxes so the animals dissolve and morph as the viewer moves around the work. Nawa’s work is both creepy and extremely beautiful at once, which heightens the visual impact. This is so effective that one senses that she is peering into other levels of reality and into spirit worlds not occupied by humans, the animals merely guides into other layers of perception. Nawa is the artist and divine guide between both the animal and human realms.
Davide Cantoni’s "White Paintings" are also truly elusive. The surfaces of the paintings are subtle and light but the subject matter is drawn from news photographs that are both mundane and frightening. Cantoni layers white on white in opaque, transparent and reflective surfaces. Just like Nawa’s work, the viewer moves around the work and different layers emerge. Cantoni appropriates public images of the everyday nature of violence and of wonder, then encapsulates these images into shadowy, dream-like ghost territories that materialize and then disappear from sight.
Similar to Nawa’s sculpture, Cantoni has built the idea of the elusive right into the construction of the works. One would think that the work would be the most literal approach to the unknowable, however it’s just the opposite. Through a physical experience the viewer actually experiences the mysterious on a visceral level and has a brief moment of the sublime. The work encapsulates visually, conceptually and physically the unknowable and therefore has the most impact, communicating on all levels. Make no mistake, the surface of both Nawa and Cantoni’s work is beautiful but there is content beneath the exterior and in both cases the "surface" is intrinsic to communicating the deeper meaning of the work.
Nimbi and Penumbrae is overall a strong show that meets its lofty aim of highlighting work that deals with the mysterious. However, Nawa and Cantoni have made work that is so accomplished the rest of the show seems lost by comparison.
