In an ambitious and much debated multivenue exhibition in 2006, the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver presented its picks for the most influential Colorado artists of the previous two decades.
Two who made the cut were Denver residents Bruce Price and John McEnroe (not to be confused with the former tennis champion).
Not content to just repeat what they have done before, both have ventured into new artistic terrain in side-by-side solo shows that run through May 26 at the Plus Gallery.
Price, director of the Institute for Experimental Studies at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, has taken his abstraction in another intriguing direction with “The Plane Upon With Events Happen,” a selection of five of his latest large-scale canvases.
Like the transitional paintings from his Plus exhibition in 2005, this more fully realized body of work stands in contrast to the manicured balance and orderliness of his approach a few years earlier.
Although these new abstractions hold together, they do so with a deliberate uneasiness. Asymmetry reigns. There is a suggestion of three-dimensional depth and layering, but Price neutralizes it with an imposed flattening of the overall composition.
The elements seem slightly off-kilter and out of balance. An obtrusive white triangle poises precariously in the upper part of “Segmentation.” A rectangular form cantilevers into nothingness in “Repose.” A pronged form juts up awkwardly in “Ply.”
Then there are the colors, which seem deliberately off-putting at times, such as the unprepossessing light blue that dominates “Events.” Some are opaque, applied stucco-like in certain cases, while others are rendered in translucent acrylic washes.
While the colors somehow work together in their uncomfortable way, there is no real sense of harmony. They cohabitate but never really blend.
These effective new works seem very much of-the-moment with their contrarian nature, reflecting in some ways the unsettled state of painting in general. It will be fascinating to see where Price goes from here.
If McEnroe’s work could be reduced to one word, it would be “materials.” The artist, who has gained increasing visibility with his three recent public art commissions, loves using old media in new ways and experimenting with unexpected, often everday materials.
In his latest sculptural adventure, he has turned to ordinary, banal sheets of heavy plastic. For each piece, he twists and turns several such sheets into an amorphous shape, melts them into a solid, blobby mass with a blow torch and paints the final product with metallic silver.
The result is six improvised wall pieces – from 5 to 7 feet in height – that look like giant pieces of compressed aluminum foil. McEnroe imaginatively calls the new series “Rococco Nuovo.”
“The finished works are somehow classical,” he writes in an accompanying artist’s statement. “They are like bawdy rococco architecture dripping with visual stimuli, but, of course, they are simply melted wads of plastic.”
These sculptures, which have an appealing sense of freshness and unpredictability about them, mark another engaging chapter in McEnroe’s ever-inventive artistic pursuits.
But this series is like a one-trick pony. It is fun to see the first time, but unless he can find some way for it to evolve in a substantive way, this artistic experiment has probably run its course with this body of work.
Also on display is a smaller exhibition, “Stop Signs of the World.” It consists of eight wall pieces by Evan Colbert, another noted Denver artist, that are exactly what the show’s title indicates – stylized stop signs with the languages of such places as Laos and Hong Kong.
The pieces were taken from a larger body of work shown elsewhere, and that missing context would have been useful.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
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| “The Plane Upon Which Events Happen” and “Rococco Nuovo”
ART EXHIBITION|Abstractions by Bruce Price and plastic sculpture by John McEnroe|Plus Gallery, 2350 Lawrence St.|Free|Noon to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays; through May 26; 303-296-0927 or plusgallery.com.
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“DOMESTICATED” East End Applied Arts, 1556 Florence St. in Aurora, has invited 12 female artists to take part in this exhibition, which explores what it means to be a woman. An opening reception is set for 5:30 to 8 p.m. today. 720-203-3575 or eastendarts.com.
“SECRETS” This traveling exhibition, which features works by eight emerging and established Palestinian female artists, is on view through June 1 at the Dairy Center for the Arts, 2590 Walnut St. in Boulder. 303-440-7826 or 6plus.org.
“IT’S ALL ABOUT BEADS” Fifty beadmakers from as far away as Germany and New Zealand are featured through May 31 in this annual show at Pismo Fine Art Glass, 2770 E. Second Ave. 303-333-2879 or pismoglass.com.
–Kyle MacMillan
