Art Capsule Reviews
Lyrical Legacy: the Prints of Karen Kunc This career survey includes many of Karen Kunc’s small wood veneer folios, screen-printed with matrices of color. These bold forms and vivid colors didn’t just happen, but they reveal so organically that it’s almost possible to overlook the mastery of her technique. “History Book” intrigues with its proliferation of media: screenprint, watercolor, etching, collage and beeswax on thin substrate of Brazil wood, arranged as a small book. “Braided Waters,” a layered image of a stylized river and a double-helical motif, presents as three separate woodcut prints on a single piece of shaped paper, connected in theme like conversational digressions. “Original Fission,” with a similar color palette, suggests a scientist’s monitor screen, its data radiating out into the matrix of delicate cuts that define the surrounding composition. Through April 28 at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, 2012 Baltimore, 816-474-1919. (Chris Packham)
The Prints of Wales The cute name of this exhibit, featuring 10 Welsh printmakers, hints at the sense of fun they bring to the works while belying their craftsmanship and cumulative years of experience. Paul Croft’s Alphabet lithograph series renders what appear to be letters, but half-formed, primeval versions of their more evolved descendants. Steffan Jones-Hughes offers Hunting the Wren, an unconstructed series of minimal etchings based on a Welsh winter tradition. Brian Jones’ works might be the most playful; they juxtapose iconic imagery from art and the wider popular culture, conflating Elvis with Che Guevara and riffing on Scream by placing Edvard Munch’s horrified figure under America’s golden arches. In conjunction with the Southern Graphics Arts Council, through May 4 at the Belger Arts Center, 2100 Walnut, 816-474-3250. (Chris Packham)
Arnie Zimmerman and Bobby Silverman Arnie Zimmerman’s white stoneware sculpture is preoccupied with builders and their constructions. Hieronymus Bosch-like crowds of sculpted figures surround elaborate, coiling superstructures and artful towers. “Monument Builders,” the exhibit’s simplest piece, is nearly a statement of purpose, depicting workers bearing the pieces of a half-finished structure. In “Old Story,” Zimmerman’s figures cling to a boat tossed on a tempest evoked by a signature stone lattice of impressive intricacy. By contrast, Bobby Silverman’s glazed porcelain slabs are studies in assertive stillness. Brightly colored and minimally adorned, they evoke Jolly Ranchers, with all the sensory associations that implies. Utterly simple but painstakingly wrought, many of the pieces offer hue and sheen but little else. Others stealthily comment on the exhibit itself, hiding quotes about art’s utility by Adolf Loos, John Ruskin and Walter Gropius as patterns of Braille writing and Morse code fired into the work. Through April 28 at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, 2004 Baltimore, 816-221-2626. (Chris Packham)
