Conceptual. Spectacular. Organic.
Each of these qualities stands out in one of the three strikingly different solo exhibitions that have opened most recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.
Each features work by a New York artist with a national or international reputation. None is better-known than Barnaby Furnas, who has become an art-world darling, with a burst of recent exhibitions from London to Beijing.
Matthew Buckingham’s cerebral, text-driven works hark back to 1960s conceptualism, in which an idea or intellectual construct was more important than the visual object that emerged from it.
He seizes photographs or other cultural artifacts of the past, such as a vintage image of the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus steaming past the Statue of Liberty, and assigns them some new contemporary meaning.
In these pieces, Buckingham’s texts, which often consist of unexpected juxtapositions of historical morsels and factual tidbits, are as important as, and probably more important than, the images or objects themselves. In this way, he seems as much a storyteller as an artist.
In “The Six Grandfathers, Paha Sapa, in the Year 502,202 C.E.,” he presents a manipulated photo of Mount Rushmore, showing the faces as eroded nubs. An intricate accompanying history of the site and the sculpture emphasize its transitory nature and challenge the meanings associated with it.
Other works include a continuous film projection of the number “1720,” a year to which Buckingham has attributed a chance historical overlap, and “Celeritas,” a chalkboard on which he has written the number of minutes and seconds it takes light to travel from the sun and illuminate it through a gallery window.
This is art that puts the emphasis on the brain over the heart and requires visitors who are willing to spend the time necessary to read Buckingham’s words and tune into his elusive, sometimes arcane, yet rewarding thought process.
No explanation is necessary to appreciate Arlene Shechet’s poetic, gentle evocations of nature from a series of cast cotton-pulp reliefs titled “Here and Now.”
These semi-abstract paper pieces, which take the texture of rippling water, are stenciled with delicately applied, watercolorlike pigmented linen pulp, suggesting leaves, flowing water, ice and other natural elements.
In keeping with her earlier pieces that bring together East and West, these pieces possess an inescapable Asian sensibility, subtly alluding to centuries-old Chinese scroll paintings and Japanese woodblock prints.
Also on view are a group of topographic wood sculptures based on satellite scans of the Rocky Mountains, and two gray felt wall-hangings incised with stanzas assembled from the words of Jack Kerouac and David Adjaye, architect of the MCA’s building.
These pieces come together to form a smartly integrated, quietly powerful whole — a beautiful exhibition in every way.
If Buckingham’s works are a bit elusive and Shechet’s creations tend toward the unassuming, Furnas’ paintings hit the viewer over the head like a giant, incandescent billboard in Times Square, especially the largest at the MCA, measuring 150 by 360 inches.
After several years of creating cartoonish works that include battle scenes and gore, the artist has embarked on the “Flood” series, monumental representations of flowing, lava-like swaths of red that are meant to suggest flowing blood.
The pieces look like abstractions at first, an obvious intent of the artist, but with their skyblue backgrounds and residual shadows of his earlier pieces, it is clear that these are meant to be distinctly representational.
As spectacular as these canvases are, it’s easy to wonder whether they don’t offer more flash than substance. They don’t have the innate power and dynamism of line and gesture found in the great abstract-expressionist works of Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
MATTHEW BUCKINGHAM, BARNABY FURNAS AND ARLENE SHECHET.
Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, 1485 Delgany St. In its three most recent solo exhibitions, the museum spotlights a trio of widely known artists with very different styles and approaches. Buckingham and Furnas, through Jan. 10; Shechet, through Jan. 16. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, Saturday and Sunday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays. $10, $5 students and seniors and free for children 6 and younger. 303-298-7554 or
