by Cherie Louise Turner
ArtWeek
July/August, 2005
Volume 6

Issue 6Landscape surrounds us. It is a subject we are intimately familiar with and that we are all affcted by; sensually, emotionally, physically. Our environment – as manifested through landscape – informs our world and plays an enormous role in our life choices. A New View is a beautifully diverse show presenting eight different artists' take on urban landscape from urban to natural (to nature within an urban setting), macro to micro; eliciting a range orf responses. The variety of media – cutout paper, photography, paintings, encaustic, – reinforce the numerous and experiential jumping off points.

The exhibition succeeds as much because of the quality of the work as the curatorial vision; the show itself is a work of art. The artists and pieces chosen are similar enough to create a cohesive experience while being different enough to, as it were, cover alot of ground. Taken as a whole, the works – as dissimilar as many are individually – show us, in their juxtuposition, the similarities among all landscapes, all views. Most noticably and interestingly, you see the repetition of patterns and/or forms. From artist to artist – each expressing his or her own personal dialogue with the landscape – and work to work, there is this, somewhat loose, but profound point of covergence.

Cynthia Hurley's lush close-up of blades of grass sprout over and over across the canvas in The Dew. The duo-toned photographs of Ray Charles White capture intimate views or nature, often showing the repetition of organic forms like leaves and or grass reflected against wate thus again repeating the forms. The aerial view of an urban landscape in David Leonards Kudzu presents angular form after angular form of building after building. Leaf shapes are presented in dazzling, abundant repetition in both Robert Flynn's Heliconia as well as Meg Harder's Ryder Avenue and Sepulveda. Each of our own particular landscapes may vary, but there is a similarity that sublimely, subtely unifies our experiences. This exhibition shows us how repetition of pattern and form are everywhere in all environments; we are all drawn to it because repetition is soothing, meditative (think chants), visually pleasing and universal.

Taken piece by piece, this show undulates aesthetically. Several works, more than others, hit the high note immediately. Unforgettable is Flynn's afotmaentioned Heliconia. An almost photorealistic, though painterly, portayal of sumptuous green leaves showered with droplets of water, this work is simply gorgeous. Los Angeles-based Harder's small landscapes of nature she finds off major avenues – say, the trees and bushes you have a chance to notice while sitting in rush hour traffic – are captivating in their detail, precious in their intimacy. She further personalizes each piece with journal entries inscribed on the back of each one, decribing what she did on the day she was painting that particular piece, what was happening in her life, or how she was feeling. Tanya Hasting's paper cutout's are, too, wonderful in their lacy delicacy.

Conversely, Hurley challenges our aesthetics: awkward and somewhat naively cartoonish – giving the painting akin to much outsider art – her works are wonderfully, at times, stunningly composed and imbued with an intensity and an honesty that makes the oddity of the works captivating; I returned to them again and again. As a whole, A new View is thought-provoking and wonderfully engaging.