Staged Stories

Started in 2000, the Renwick Craft Invitational series continues this year with their current offering Staged Stories (to 1/3/10). This visually appealing exhibition contains about 60 works from four artists: Christyl Boger, SunKoo Yuh, Mark Newport, and Mary Van Cline - the first two ceramicists, other two fiber and glass artists, respectively. Curated by Kate Bonansinga, the exhibition takes theater as its theme, finding representations, performance, staging, and props where many will see, well, just fine art. While theater as a signifier seems a bit strained and dated for me, one hopes, by the many references, the viewer will be led to purchase a ticket and attend a play!

To me, the show seemed to hang together as mythology. Ms. Bolger's exquisite ceramic figures, with extremities, and sometimes genitalia, dipped in gold and adorned in light blue mantles, looked Dionysian while Mr. Newport's superhero series seemed like the latest manifestation of Joseph Campbell's A Hero with a Thousand Faces. Mr. Yuh's abundance of characters appeared to bubble up from the depths like so many unconscious impulses - what else are myths - and Ms. Van Cline's large glass work, perhaps the most theatrical of the group, suggested alternative planes of existence, where cryptic images moved in and out of the real world.

Another way of viewing the show, which moves artist-by-artist through the rooms, is that it represents, to a degree, four ages of art - classical (Bolger), pop (Newport), folk (Yuh), and surrealism (Van Cline). However you organize the exhibition in your mind, you won't fail to respond to the range of creativity and technique (bordering on virtuosity) expressed by the individual artists and collectively, by the breadth of the show. Mr. Newport's work - from performance art, to cartoons, to body stockings - offers something amusing for every temperament. Ms. Van Cline's larger pieces look like installation art, while split images of Raku-like pieces engender a pleasing aesthetic response in the viewer: you are invited to fill in the space as well as the reality of the representation. Ms. Bolger's tight ceramic figures, composed with oceanic figures and gear, contrasts nicely with the loose, quick 2-D sketches of Mr. Yuh which are realized fully transformed, in the middle of the room, before your eyes.

Take a moment to view the fifth space, a please touch gallery, where children and critics can put their hands on some of the delectable rejects from each invitee. This area is interpreted marvelously from interviews with the artists, and discusses the inspiration, techniques, materials and work fulfillment that each of the crafts provided.

The pieces in the exhibition are mainly large and appear costly, suitable for museums and big collectors. Some thought might be given to offering a smaller-scale, limited edition series - like those of print editions of paintings or drawings - to make examples of this fine work available to the garden-variety collector, like you or me!

Photo credit: Gene Young

Art: Courtesy of Laura Lee Brown & Steve Wilson