Fruit Less
Ubiquitous painter Philomene Bennett does bright and colorful work that ought to be able to cheer up even the gloomiest gallerygoer.
Bennett shares the Sherry Leedy gallery space just about half and half with Mike Lyon, who presents 19 ink drawings and woodblock prints to go with Bennett’s 17 food-focused paintings. Both artists are based in Kansas City, and both exhibit personal styles. So why was this show so uninspiring?
Throughout his work, Lyon shows us that appearances are deceiving. At first glance, his prints and drawings seem like standard male and female nudes. A detailed explanation of Lyon’s creative process reveals the artistry behind these pictures, but most viewers don’t get to have a prolonged e-mail exchange in which the artist describes how he makes his work. That process is too complex to fully recap here, but it involves layering many colors through codes and instructions entered into a computer drawing program.
Lyon applies that technology to traditional hosho paper made by hand in Japan. Unfortunately, the results hanging on the wall don’t live up to the ingenuity of the process. And, perhaps ironically, Lyon’s nude prints display less artistry than his face portraits. One engaging exception is “Shannon and Danielle,” in which two young women stand shoulder-to-shoulder, facing the viewer, wearing open bathrobes. Shannon is on the left, apparently distracted; Danielle, on the right, looks more innocent. A circular pattern surrounds the navel of each nude model, resembling a giant fingerprint. Look closer, and it becomes clear that Danielle’s shins are filled in with lines repeated in triangular routes, as if some caffeinated kid had drawn them on an Etch A Sketch.
Similarly appealing is the life-sized ink drawing of “Sarah,” a subject whose personality comes through in her firm stance and the way she has folded her arms across her chest. A patient and focused eye reveals interesting patterns and mazelike shapes in her closed bathrobe; the whorls on her face move subtly from dark to light, shading her expression as the eye travels from the right to left side of the frame. “Max” features a young man with closely shorn hair. His face is half in shadow, but he wears a look of intense curiosity. And the bearded, shirtless young man in “Anthony” has sleepy eyes and cornrow hair. He stares intently at the viewer, his personality conveyed in this intimate portrait.
It’s easy to see Lyon’s fascination with the process of making these prints, but there isn’t much payoff for the viewer. These feel like traditional nudes, even though they’re not. If Lyon applied his obvious inventiveness to his compositions, his work might make a more lasting impression.
Bennett’s paintings fill the other gallery. She is a co-founder of the Kansas City Artists Coalition, and her work is technically adept, but what’s here isn’t terribly engaging. Intentionally restricting herself, Bennett uses only oil or acrylic on canvas, shaping the paint with just a palette knife. “After the Fourth” depicts peaches in decorated bowls on a heavily patterned tablecloth. As in all of her work here, Bennett captures a peaceful mood, a true still life. Elsewhere, in the appropriately titled “Déjà vu (All Over Again),” pinks and yellows circle strawberries and grapes on plates. It’s similar to “After the Fourth,” but the perspective is deeper and the table fuller — of fruit, ceramic pitchers and flowers.
It always feels like brunch time in Bennett’s work, but the fruit remains uneaten.
