ANDREA SCHWARTZ - RENA BRANSTEN

03.20-21.13



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Andrea Schwartz Gallery: Between the Lines - Cara Barer, Mike Stilkey, Melinda Tidwell.

Comment by AB: Books and magazines may be going the way of the dinosaur as far as readers are concerned, but for artists they're the perfect fodder for creative endeavors. Cara Barer transforms them into vivid photographic floral bursts, Mike Stilkey paints on book bindings and stacked spines like other artists paint on canvas, and Melinda Tidwell cuts and pastes book bits and pieces into literary collages.

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Rena Bransten Gallery: Jennie Smith - Sending Out a Song; Chris Thorson - Half-Life.

Comment by AB: Jennie Smith's complex meticulously detailed graphite drawings and watercolors reference that gigantic blotch of trash that's floating in the center of the ocean, notoriously known as the Pacific Garbage Patch. Her delicate style reminds us, she hopes, that we'd better do something about our excessive consumption and throwaway mentality before the delicate environment gifts us with catastrophic consequences and similar omens that we've waited too long and it's finally too late.

Chris Thorson's painted cast hydrocal sculptures are guaranteed to fool you. For this exhibit, she casts T-shirts, gloves and grocery store produce, and then paints them so realistically that they're practically impossible to distinguish from the real thing. Special added bonus-- they're surprisingly affordable, a number of pieces priced in the $500 range. Stop on by.

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