Inside Art with Michael Rose - Critics Picks From BAM’s National Collage Show

Wednesday, March 09, 2022

Michael Rose, Art Contributor

 

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PHOTO: Michael Rose

There is a great term employed by art historians to describe objects packed with visual stimuli: “horror vacui," the fear of empty space. In the world of collage, artists tend to fill their artworks with many fragments to create cohesive wholes. They seem to share this anxiety towards emptiness. It is a benign neurosis and one that results in fascinating art. Through April 1, the Bristol Art Museum (BAM) is hosting an exciting exhibition that celebrates contemporary collage by artists from all over the country. The show is full of rich and complex artworks that reward repeat visits.

Titled Putting the Pieces Back Together, Bristol Art Museum’s National Juried Exhibition of Collages and Constructions features a breathtaking range of work by artists from across the nation expertly juried by longtime URI Professor Bob Dilworth. A map on the museum’s website highlights the cities where participating artists live. As varied as the locales where the artworks were made are the ways in which they were constructed. While the term collage may elicit visions of magazine clippings glued together, BAM’s exhibition offers artistic dynamism.

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PHOTO: Michael Rose

 

Entering the museum, visitors are greeted by a wall painted a rich brown. Two of the most interesting works presented here are by Tai Lipan of Indiana. “Anointing” and “Sun and Seal” utilize layered wood to develop subtle and shapely forms. Though small in scale, both of Lipan’s artworks have outsized impact. Nearby, Pennsylvania’s Phyllis Gorsen probes the narrative potential of collage with her “Campfire Companions”.

Beyond the lobby, the museum’s bright main gallery beckons with an enticing collection of art. The largest work in the show is the centerpiece of the space. Presented by Syracuse’s Tim Atseff, “Death in the Pressroom” transgresses traditional understandings of collage and offers a multi-part installation that pours material off the wall and onto the floor. Across the space, Massachusetts artist Douglas Breault exhibits “Faking Sunset," a digital photograph that also pushes the definition of collage in an exciting new direction.

 

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PHOTO: Michael Rose

 

Works on view range from grittily textured to coolly articulated. In the former category, one might place Virginia Hammond’s assemblages. In “Grandmothers Farm,” Hammond, an Oregonian, combines elements like a cupboard door and chicken wire to bring history to life. At the other end of the spectrum, two submissions by Tennessee artist Amy Hutcheson are precise and refined. Hutcheson’s paper works have a lyricality that is a joy to experience.

The featured artworks employ a cornucopia of materials. South Carolina artist Mary Robinson shows a piece made from handmade papers and repurposed prints in “Regeneration #4”. It is wonderfully layered. Textile waste forms the foundation for “reGreta,” an eye-catching submission by Vermonter Kelly Hickey. Patterns and threads criss-cross the surface of Hickey’s contemporary tapestry, which is emblazoned with the words “blah, blah, blah."

 

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PHOTO: Michael Rose

 

Rhode Island art-makers offer up their own strong submissions. A pair of three-dimensional works by Bristol artist John Udvardy are pendants at the heart of the exhibition. Udvardy, who has enjoyed a long and storied career as an artist and educator, earned his MFA from Yale. His sculptures are meditative and balanced. Melinda Satterfield’s “From the Mess Emerges Elegant Order” combines the recognizable form of a rosy doily with sprawling and bulbous shapes. Also employing a floral motif, Thomas Terceira’s poetic “Yellow Flowers” is beautifully executed.

Another Rhode Islander, Paul Briggs, offers inventive collages that study figures. Two of his submissions reuse vintage books, and in another work, a damned soul from Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel pops up from a spray of broken compact discs.

 

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PHOTO: Michael Rose

 

Where Briggs uses known imagery and sometimes text, the exhibition shows that collage is also a fertile medium for abstraction. “Quietude” by Connecticut’s Ellen Schiffman offers a delightful array of abstract marks that merge the painterly with the calligraphic. New York artist Zekio Dawson explores a more geometric angle in a group of three blue mixed media works. Titled “Cove Canvas Mosaic 3," the series is mysterious and appealing.

BAM’s National Show of Collages and Constructions is a thrilling exhibition that will make viewers eager to create artworks of their own. Not only inspirational, the show also is an important entry in the history of collage both in the region and beyond. In attracting talented artists from across the country to its galleries in Bristol, BAM has made Rhode Island an axis point for an enlightening conversation about multipart artworks. The resulting exhibition is a must-see.

 

Putting the Pieces Back Together is on view at the Bristol Art Museum at 10 Wardell Street in Bristol through April 1. The museum will host an artist reception on Thursday, March 10 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. The galleries are open Thursdays - Sundays from 1-4 pm each day. For more information, visit www.bristolartmuseum.org.

 

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