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Life Patterns: Reconstructing Symbolism:
Richard Donagrandi, Mark Ernst, Walter A, Fydryck, Greg Kumpin, Nicole Aimiee Macaluso, Bernardo Marigmen III, Lee Nading
August 20 - September 7, 1999

Yello Gallery
1630 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60647
Telephone 773/ 235-9731

Back to Part One

Walter Fydryck, a much exhibited Chicago artist, has seven works up in "Life Patterns." Frydryck's art has been reviewed earlier in artscope.net and his art in this exhibition fully lives up to his reputation. Of particular note are two companion pieces, "Indepth Character No.I" and "Indepth Character No. II." Both of these measure 35" high x 28" wide x 3" deep, and are gratifying examples of his best current work. Frydryck's own process of fusing pigments into plexiglass mounted above a developed base creates effects best appreciated through live viewing.

In these works, as in much of his art, the images are drawn from popular and commercial iconography, but analytically abstracted into personal idealizations in delicate pastel hues and sensuous contours. Fydryck's art at Yello brings earlier Cubist legacies into a Conde Nast styled psychological portraiture. One detects some of the flowing line and elegant form of Erte, and beyond this the experimentalist's striving for visual simplification and psychical icon.

In his striving for simple and yet underlying forms, Fydryck's art works well among the sculptures of Greg Kumpin. Both seek an immediate and pre-verbal epitome of their subject. They concentrate on an innate psychological sensorium, rather than an deliberative rationale or humane faith. A viewer either empathizes with the work; or else can only question it.

Bernardo Castillo Marigmen III is represented by three panels on the North wall: "Steam Jesenice in the Fire of Blue (1998, 32"x57")"; "Halik: The Kiss-No. 2 (1999, 63"x68")"; and "The Monumental Preservation of St. Topaz (1998, 32"x57")." All three works are multimedia on canvas. In the center panel, "Halik," the artist's newest, Marigmen displays a deeper, and darker array of colors. His palette and the sweeping contours, which in earlier paintings recalled the art of Georges Rouault, in "Halik" seem more akin to San Francis's "Blue Forms" series of the early Sixties. Visually, Marigmen's panels work as a central focus between the art of Marc Ernst and N.A. Macaluso.

Marc Ernst is represented in "Life Patterns" by four paintings on paper: "Glancing at a first"; "From below the surface"; and two 24 by 32 inch untitled works. His art continues the directions in abstraction set earlier by artists such as Arshile Gorky, and, to a lesser degree, Sam Francis. Ernst concentrates on bright color and orchestrates contours to generate lively and dynamic visual effects. Many of his works give the impression of a cityscape or crowds abstracted into a decorative, cryptic precis. Visually, Ernst's pieces do accord well with Donagrandi's and Marigmen's works, which are hung to flank these four paintings.

The Chinese have for centuries practiced connoisseur rituals in which blends of incense are burned and those attending attempt to discern the ingredients and their proportions in the blend. A similar tradition exists for savoring teas, and, indeed, artworks. Richard Donagrandi is better known for his photography and oil paintings of sensual plant forms, but he is represented in "Life Patterns" by four numbered studies in abstraction. Donagrandi has an avowed interest in Zen Buddhism, and his "Study in Abstraction" series brings to mind those subtle Asian ceremonies of tea, and incense. Donagrandi's uniformity of format and composition at first glance seems a placid vehicle for visual expression, although it does create an effect of formal dignity. The framing and exhibition of each piece as an artwork to be investigated invites a superficial interpretation of it as a mere object of decor. Attention and time do however reward the perceptive. Donagrandi's studies in abstraction, like the Asian rituals of discernment, are starting points toward an appreciation of the refined interplay of color nuance. The merits of each piece are best appreciated by contemplation: like much that is pleasurable in life, their charm eludes words and logic. One stares at them in the way one examines bright sun or overcast cloud-glow on field grass -- intently and at leisure. They evoke the tremulous vision of heat on soil, and of reflection in water.

Nicole Aimee Macaluso is the guest curator for "Life Patterns" at Yello Gallery, and she is represented by four panels, all of which display her technique of cut and woven multiple watercolor on board. These incorporate as well the use of papier mache relief. "Autumn of 1998" is typical of Macaluso's style. In this painting the artist has allowed a visual focus, a jubulant female form, to center the otherwise disorienting interplay of thematic elements.

In all, the artists of "Life Patterns" represent a wide range of aesthetic practice and creative intent. What unites them under any title is their quality: the exhibition is lively, engaging and sincere. And if the artists differ in their approaches to art and its motivations, in "Life Patterns" that contrast has in itself been enlivening and instructive. One wishes the exhibition were longer and that Lee Nading had had a larger presence; and, given the large turnout, it would benefit the gallery to maintain its air conditioning and light system... but "Life Patterns" is well worth viewing.

A handmade "Life Patterns" booklet of 14 leaves is available from The New Venue Chicago Art Press, P.O.Box 1937, Chicago, Illinois 60690: Limited Edition signed by the artists $25.00; General Edition $15.00. Here one must demur -- although the resumes are of interest, many of the artist's statements are vague, if not inexpertly written and ill proofed, and, inexplicably, a number of the illustrations are of works not in this showing.

Three of the artists in "Life Patterns," Walter Fydryck, Bernardo Marigmen III, and Richard Donagrandi are represented by Marty Lazer, Artists' Manager (Tel. 312/ 633-0706). Curator and artist, Nicole Macaluso, conducts her own studio (Tel. 773/ 755-5752).

--G. Jurek Polanski

Jurek Polanski has previously written and art edited for Strong Coffee in Chicago. He's also well known and respected among the Chicago museums and galleries. Jurek is currently a Visual Arts Correspondent for ArtScope.net.