Simple images and uncomplicated works challenge our relationships with commonplace forms in Beauty and the Mundane, a group show on display through Saturday at Maryland Art Place.
Organized by Angela Jerardi and Alicia Cosnahan, the exhibit is the first in MAP's "Curator's Incubator" series, designed to nuture and showcase new curatorial and artistic talent.
"We had a number of proposals that were quite competitive, but we were unanimous in believing that their statement was articulated well. It was quite clear that they had a vision," said MAP director of programs Lisa Lewenz, who hopes the show will be an annual event.
The twenty-something Jerardi, a curator, and Cosnahan, a painter/curator, had no trouble selecting which artists to include in their show. The hard part was developing a unifying theme for the show, Jerardi said. "We had kind of disparate mediums, but the more we talked about it, [we found that] really, all of them are interested in very everyday things."
The 40-piece display of works by four artists is a pastiche of media and method, which makes the show resemble many other contemporary art exhibits. But there are differences - in presentation and tone - that set it apart from more formulaic exhibitions.
The quartet's artistic voices are strong and defined, comparable to those of more established artists. And the pieces are sleek and skillfully designed, with the finished works belying the labor-intensive processes used in their creation.
But that's where the similarities between this and other modern exhibits end, said Lewenz.
Jessie Lehson, Graham Skeate, Lely Constantinople and Vida Russell have created art, she said, that stands apart from the ever-introspective, "cutting-edge" pieces seen in many contemporary shows.
"It's not about doing ironic, witty work," Lewenz said.
Their artistic approaches are intriguing because they attach less of their personal stories to the works, she added. "They're not implying themselves so much. The me, me, me, is still important, but somewhat implicit."
Photography, painting and installations are shown side by side in the gallery space. Jessie Lehson's large-scale floor piece, a blocky and angular representation of various shades of sifted soil, is flanked by walls covered with Lely Constantinople's tiny black-and-white photographs.
This intermingling of ultra-modern installations with more classical art forms gives balance to the show, Jerardi said.
Exhibits that focus on cerebral or tongue-in-cheek art are over-done, she said. "Not to say that there isn't usefulness in it, but after a while, it becomes a gimmick."
Nearly all the works in Beauty and the Mundane - though disparate in style, media, size and type - question the ways in which we identify everyday objects, places or people.
One Graham Skeate installation places the photograph of a man's disembodied head next to a picture of scattered cigarette butts.
The images, cut out and placed under glassine for a fuzzy, muted effect, are then redefined for the viewer with a maze of squiggly lines, penned onto the surface of the glassine.
The layering of graphic lines and muted forms challenges the viewer's perception of identity: Would the human form be as recognizable without the lines to guide us? Are the basic forms of a cigarette butt as recognizable as a man's face?
Other works use more natural juxtapositions to tweak the same perceptions.
In Lely Constantinople's small and simple pho- tographs, the artist uses smartly framed shots to the same effect.
A small silver gelatin print - the photograph of an old Greek jeweler at work - sets a scene that places a craftsman next to his product. But the straightforward image of a man in his shop is composed using an angle that melds the jeweler with his gems.
The perspective of the piece, shot from the bed of a jewel display case, makes the central, yet small, image of the man's bald head fit neatly onto the top of the foreshortened container, as if it were a jewel itself. As he blends in with the gems, the graying man, squinting through wire-rimmed glasses at a specimen, becomes just another tiny treasure in the store.
Jessie Lehson's earthy hand-made paper sculptures and Vida Russell's rich watercolor portraits round out the exhibit, and they, too, evoke the dualities present in people and things.
Though the artists in the show are fairly new to the gallery scene, Lewenz believes they are here to stay. "What's exciting is that I think that this isn't the last we're going to hear of these people," she said. "The horses are out of the gate."
Art show
What: Beauty and the Mundane
Where: Maryland Art Place, The Power Plant Live! Complex, 8 Market Place, Suite 100
When: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays
Cost: Free
Call: 410-962-8565 or visit www.mdartplace.org
