Precision. Symmetry. Fastidiousness.
Those qualities can be found in virtually all 45 of Charles Parson’s large- and small-scale sculptures, reliefs and drawings on view inside and out as part of an ambitious solo exhibition continuing through Sept. 9 at Artyard.
The veteran Lakewood artist continues a rich tradition of welded-steel sculpture that dates back to Pablo Picasso and Julio Gonzalez, who are generally credited as the inventors of the medium in the late 1920s and early ’30s, and to David Smith, its great American proponent a few decades later.
But unlike those artists, Parson goes beyond welding in his works and includes bolts and other connectors, which gives at least his large-scale outdoor sculptures a machinelike quality. This is especially true of No. 41 from his Balanced Dissolution Series, which looks like a giant grinder.
(Parson has not assigned numbers or titles to the works in this series. The numbers cited here are those applied by the gallery.)
Unlike Smith, who constantly worked to transcend the industrialness of the materials and methods he employed, Parson revels in them. He merges new and recycled I-beams, cylinders and other steel components to create muscular works that bespeak of their origins.
And unlike sculptor Mark di Suvero’s massive works, which often appear to defy gravity with I-beams jutting dramatically into space, Parson’s outdoor creations have an unavoidably grounded feeling. Some of them, such as No. 39, even go so far as to suggest the illusion of being bolted to the ground.
Drawing inspiration from the landscape and architecture of the high plains, Parson plays verticals against horizontals in works such as No. 45, and juxtaposes the predominant solidity of the steel with the transparency and fragility of Plexiglas panels and even a small mirror.
Parson’s small-scale interior sculptures and reliefs exude a more cheerful, gentle and graceful sensibility, with their deft interplay of multicolored Plexiglas and everyday objects from a hardware store, such as small bolts, turnbuckles, eyehooks and springs.
Considerably less successful are his sort of geometric watercolors. Unlike sculpture, he exhibits little flair for this deceptively tough medium, and his efforts, such as “In Between the Precarious Still Places,” come off as forced and clumsy.
The 10 small “dimensional drawings” from the Balanced Dissolution Series are especially weak. While they might have been useful to Parson as working sketches, they are a definite step down from everything else in the show.
Parson is clearly one of Colorado’s most accomplished artists, with more than 50 solo exhibitions nationwide since 1970 and an array of temporary and permanent public installations everywhere from the entrance of the Denver Art Museum to the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.
And as this exhibition makes clear, he is an adroit creator who has a well-honed sense of materials, composition and form and can be depended upon year in and year out to produce well-conceived, well-crafted sculptures.
That said, it is difficult to pin down Parson’s importance in the Colorado art scene and beyond. Interestingly, the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver chose not to feature him in its current exhibition highlighting the 72 most influential Colorado-related artists of the past 21 years.
The sculptor deserves to have been included. But he was probably overlooked, because his work has little to do with what is happening on the hip, pop-oriented and conceptually driven frontiers of today’s contemporary art. And to be blunt, it can look dated at times.
Parson’s artistic skills and accomplishments cannot be disputed. His works uphold the tradition of American steel sculpture and offer his personal take on it, but just how original or groundbreaking they ultimately are remains open to question.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
“Charles Parson: Balanced Dissolution”
THROUGH SEPT. 9|Exhibition of 45 sculptures and drawings|Artyard, 1251 S. Pearl St.| FREE|1:30-5:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays (303-777-3219)
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“SHEEP OF FOOLS” Sue Coe, who came to prominence in the 1980s with her raw-edged social commentary, is featured in an exhibition running through Sept. 9 at the Emmanuel Gallery on the Auraria campus. 303-556-8337 or cudenver.edu/
cam/events
“DECADES OF INFLUENCE” The past 21 years of Colorado art are highlighted in this exhibition, which is divided among four sites, including the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver, 1275 19th St. It runs through Aug. 27. 303-298-7554 or mcartdenver.org
“THE ARMORY GROUP” Fifteen artists, who as students in the 1960s shared space in a former armory on the edge of the University of Colorado at Boulder, are featured through Aug. 20 at the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture, 350 S. Dahlia St. 303-316-6360 or mizelcenter.org
-Kyle MacMillan
