Zanesville Museum of Art's 69th Annual Ohio Exhibition

Today I write you as a reviewer of an art exhibition. The view I take is unique and decidedly biased, as I take the view of an artist who was juried into the exhibition. The Zanesville Museum of Art’s 69^th Annual Ohio Exhibition opened September 14^th and runs thru November 16^th. I had the pleasure of attending the well attended opening on the 14^th, and the additional pleasure of meeting several artists. 80 works were selected from a list of over 230 submitted from around Ohio. This is a genuine old fashioned art show, so it was without specific theme or medium guidelines. The only requirements were that it had to fit in the galleries and had to be made within the last three years.

The first thing to grab me was the history of the show. 69^th annual? That is impressive- the first Ohio Exhibition that this relatively small city (25,000 people) was at the end of World War II! Art has seen quite a bit of change in that time, and the works exhibited exemplify that change, as they run the gamut from heavily digitized photography to pastoral oil landscapes.

These works run the gamut to the extent that one would think the juror, Michael McEwan, took the Noah’s Ark approach to curation- two of every animal! McEwan’s own works, pastoral contemporary landscape painting, is certainly not heavily weighing in here. I would imagine that such an open ended exhibition would lend to a diverse catalog, but wow!

Ok, now let’s dig in. The closest work to what McEwan does is a small delicate oil on linen landscape. This piece won the best of show award and no wonder here. It is called Conesville Snow by Frederick Fochtman. The image emerges from the paint just like the depicted power plant towers would emerge from a thick grey blanket of falling snow. Looking at this piece brings about the silent lucidity and meditation that only the muffling characteristics of a heavy snow can bring. This piece is only a foot wide, but it feels like four feet. The skilled use of formal composition combined with painterly brushwork allows the piece to at once exist as an abstraction and a representation,  which only heightens the contemplative spirit one has when engaging the piece.

Kathy McGher’s piece, Backyard Conversations and Silences, is a rather large intaglio at 34 inches. Having participated in the process of intaglio, my respect for the labor intensive process adds to my appreciation of the piece. In this print, depth is implied and simplified, but doesn’t feel all that important. What does happen is one gets lost in the heavily detailed and evenly handed marks that define the two figures sitting in a sea of plastic pink flamingoes on lawn furniture in front of a shed. The busy marks imply the conversation of familiarity that continues even during silence with the figures. I read these details as dialog and found I was able to stay with this piece for quite some time.

Veneer by Craig Lloyd is a subtle yet formally powerful photograph of veneer peeling off of a surface and bedding itself into a collection of paint chips and detritus. The colors in this photo are not hyper saturated as is often the case with macro photos, but played down to the point of almost being a-chromatic.  The strongest color passage appears under a large sheet of peeling veneer, hinting at buried colors. The composition of this piece is quite enticing, as the rhythm of marching shapes extends ¾ of the length of the painting only to be halted by the strong color band. These same marching shapes seem to mimic gestural brushstrokes in their flowing curves. The use of the minimal colorscape allows one to see the work as existing in a shallow space until the largest veneer piece forces you into an altogether deeper space. The power of this piece, though not immediate, is significant.

Sculpture was well represented in this show, with a range of works from a large wire swiss army knife by Jordan Paul, to a series of 100 soda fired raku chairs ( Sin Young Park, Relationship 02). Gregg Luginbuhl’s piece, entitled Rustic Decanter, is a stoneware pouring vessel. Average in size, the object’s physical presence reads as much bigger and heavier than it weighs. The forms deny its objecthood as a work of ceramics and push it directly into a heavier than the sun iron realm. Bordering on steam punk without the kitsch, this nicely executed water vessel’s craft is captivating. Screw tops that are not screw tops, bolts that are not bolts, a bendable spout that is clearly not bendable, add to the strength of this piece.

Am I going to review my own piece? No- I hope that you will find your way to the Zanesville Museum of Art to see these pieces for yourself.          Aaron Smith