THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605030064
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
WITH SPRING comes the d'Art Center's Mid-Atlantic Juried Exhibition, now in its sixth year. It's the season for man's animal nature to emerge, and it is animals that provide a primary subject for works in this show.
Juror Marlene Jack, a ceramicist and art professor at the College of William and Mary, awarded the $1,200 best-in-show prize to Richmond artist Gloria Blades for ``To the Hunters in My Life,'' a charcoal and wax drawing on paper.
The image is a furiously rhythmic, expressionistic swirl, reminiscent of Willem de Kooning's figural works. At a glance, the drawing seems abstract.
But search the surface and pieces of animals become visible. An elephant head with a trunk becomes the flapping wing of a frightened bird. Eventually, every shape and gesture takes on the appearance of a tortured or twisted dog, deer or horse. There is the suggestion of an ``X'' over the entire grotesque scene, underlying the artist's anti-violence stance regarding creatures.
It may not have been her intention, but Pittsburgh painter Michelle Harris' image of a dense traffic jam of deep orange coi fish implies an accusation. In this small, jewel-like painting, the Matisse-like decorative beauty reels in the viewer, who then recognizes the discomfort of the grass-tangled fish.
Farmville sculptor Jackie Wall contributed work that uses no decorative allure. Rather, her ``We Are All One'' floor sculpture shocks and sickens, like the burned-out shell of something or someone beloved.
Wall has formed a doglike creature from chicken wire; it stands on its back legs and puts out its front paws in a begging posture. The structure is reminiscent of a skeleton. The dog leans back against a form for stretching skins. With the dog's tilted head, and the insinuation of a cross form in the stretcher, Wall has crafted something like a crucifix.
These aren't the only works examining man's relationship to animals. Midlothian painter Paul Germain is represented by ``Natural Selection Series No. 23,'' an oil and oil pastel image that places a neon-green lizard in a yin-yang circle with a human baby. There is an interrelationship, his series states, and the circle of interdependence should not be broken.
In other prizes, April Heather Taylor of Chesapeake won the $500 Award of Excellence for her color etching, ``Self Infliction.'' In 1992, Taylor submitted a work by that title for Student Gallery, a regional high school art competition - and won the top prize.
Taylor's idea then was that abuse of oneself can translate into environmental abuse, and vice versa. That interpretation holds for the winning work at the d'Art Center, an image of creepy long fingers gripping at the throat of the self.
The $300 Award of Distinction went to Norfolk painter Clayton Singleton for his portrait of his great-grandmother, ``Mama Flossie.'' For his loose, energetic portrayal, the artist placed Flossie in a casual, characteristic pose by her TV set.
A Richmond artist who calls her herself Foust earned a second Award of Distinction for her linoleum block print, ``Seven Deadly Sins - Gluttony.'' In typical Foust fashion, she has portrayed a comic everyday scene - women on an oceanside boardwalk slobbering over ice cream and hot dogs.
Also, Juror's Choice ($200) awards went to Virginia Beach Jenny Windsor and Norfolk painter Steven Wolf. Also, Sydney Meers, owner of The Dumbwaiter restaurant adjacent to the d'Art Center, underwrote an extra prize - The Dumbfabulous Award, initiated at the 1995 Student Gallery exhibit. Meers gave his award to C.A. Herrmann's ``Ode to Browning's Sonnet XXVII,'' a silkscreen involving a voluptuous comic strip female nude emblazoned across a landscape.
The Mid-Atlantic exhibit continues through June 30 at the d'Art Center, 125 College Place, Norfolk. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Free. Call 625-4211. SKETCHES
This week, the Virginia Beach Resort and Conference Center opens its second show since it committed to mounting exhibitions of local art earlier this year.
A free, public opening for the ``1996 Printmaking Exhibition'' takes place Thursday from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The juror was Norfolk printmaker and artist Ken Daley, an art professor at Old Dominion University.
The resort and conference center is at 2800 Shore Drive at Great Neck Road. The show will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. through June 1. Call 481-9000.
On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., a reception will be held at Hope House Foundation Thrift Shop for a rare local exhibit of works by A.B. Jackson.
Prior to his death in 1981, Jackson was a huge influence in the region's art scene - both as a painter and as an art professor at Norfolk State and then Old Dominion University. In lush veils of thinly-applied color, the Norfolk artist painted birds, porch denizens and the face of Christ.
It's a humble show, consisting of about 15 framed reproductions of his paintings and photographs. The price range is $25 to $275. The exhibit opened May 1 and remains on view through May 31.
Festivities at the Hope House party will include live music by the Hot Boudin Brothers. The thrift shop is at 1800 Monticello Ave., Norfolk. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Twenty percent of artists' sales go to the thrift shop, which gives 100 percent of its proceeds to Hope House to provide support for local people with developmental disabilities. Call 625-7493 for more information. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
PETER BECK
``To the Hunters in My Life,'' a drawing by Gloria Blades, won best
in show at the d'Art Center's Mid-Atlantic Juried Exhibition.
by CNB