Larger Than Life

They are big, huge even. They are very different, yet stunningly eye catching. Though they are separate works by different artists it is difficult not to look from one to the other as they seem to dominate over the other works in the room.

Celebrating its fifth anniversary The Nasher Museum of Duke University is displaying many pieces in its exhibit, "Building the Contemporary Collection." The collection features works from many contemporary emerging artists of color, but it is two of the largest paintings on exhibit that I cannot pull myself away from.

Both portraits depict a single black man, and both portraits are larger than my 5’3” standing frame. There the similarities end. One is dark, the other bright. One is smiling, the other composed. One is dressed casually while the other is urban clad. One is completely imaginary, while the other is imaginarily set--so different, yet each demanding my attention.

It is the imagined element that I find intriguing. The darker portrait of a man in a cream turtleneck, sitting comfortably and smiling is completely fictitious. He is a product of the artist’s imagination. No such man exists, though he could. He could be the kind of man you’d encounter at a coffee shop relaxing after a day at the university talking of scholarly pursuits, interested in your thoughts on things like literature. How does one picture a non-existent being so well as to give him a sort of life?

The brightly colored portrait of an urban clad black man standing in the pose of an Old Master’s work presents a different element for the imagination. The artist has taken a real man of today, plucked him from the streets and cast him in a setting of regal, floral elegance. The man is not smiling; his face seems set in that appraising way of a man on the streets as he tilts his chin up respectful, yet wary in his acknowledgment of you. It’s almost as if I am beneath notice, and certainly will not be invited into a conversation unless I can prove more interesting.

These images are larger than life, and my mind obviously runs away with ideas provoked by them.

-Veronica Monique Ibarra

http://www.nasher.duke.edu/exhibitions_contemporary.php

Finding Place in Abstraction

Walking into the back of the Center for Visual Artists where Jillian Webb Martin’s Spatial Encounters is being displayed, I had no real idea what to expect. I like walking in cold to any exhibition or show without first reading up on either the artist or their style: no expectations to cloud my first impressions.

The collection of paintings is all abstract with just a hint of impressionism in a few. The two that seemed most to convey a sense of a particular place are like looking at the world so far out of focus that only the colors remained to blend together, yet still leaving me aware that I was looking at a place I could almost recognize from a memory.

The abstract works, with their colors blending, some running together, are quite lovely. I found myself imagining not only what could inspire the combinations, but also how the very space in which they occupied the gallery seemed inspiring. My eyes would travel the canvases picking up the various colors and the idea of the play of light and shadow the blendings hinted at in my mind. Almost all of the works seemed to be displayed with lighter colors nearest the top with darker colors nearest the bottom, and I started to think of horizons though none were really present. That is one of the things about abstract art that fascinates: the way it can sometimes leave you to relate on your own.

-Veronica Monique Ibarra

http://www.greensboroart.org/ , http://www.jillianwebbart.com/About_The_Artist.html