The Midwest Island for Art’s Sake

I sing a song of myself and my country that amends for the moment a patriotic little jingle to go from California to the Midwest Island. So let us just substitute the Midwest Island of the Twin Cities for that other island—Minneapolis being in my mind just now an island of urbanity and culture in a sea of hard living, hard working, hard drinking rural America. For the moment this island is as east as we need to go from California to discover more art and artful living for the sake of art and artful living.

And what I discover on this island of urbanity is the Rosalux Gallery on Washington Ave and the Criminales di Cromatica, new artwork by Shawn McNulty and Michael Sweere. Actually I saw this show on March 18th, the night that it opened, but life on the road kept me too busy to post. I write this from looking at the digital photos I took opening night with Sweere’s permission. The photos are good, but the work is far more interesting from a couple feet or inches away.

Sweere’s work in this show is founded on reuse. The works are patched together pieces of packaging such as Summit IPA six packs, wood blocks, and old tins secured on a surface with shiny little nails. Sweere's reuse pieces are displayed among some of Shawn McNulty’s Diebenkornesque landscapes of a mind. Michael Sweere's nailed tin pieces cross illustration and sculpture resulting in tight metal worked objects with humorous and thoughtful scenes. The use of former packaging material whose original imagery is usurped for the artist's purpose, wrapped and nailed around a canvas support, produces levels of design, packaging and product interplay that are shiny and fun. "Shooting Arrows At The Sea" is a nice example of the collaged metal and patterned nails creating a new scene that defies painted space. But the figure, color and shapes beckon the viewer in. It is somewhat remarkable for printed flat tin and nails even.

Shawn McNulty's paintings recall Diebenkorn meets Rothko roughed up by Anselm Kieffer without the tar. The color and shape fields work best in my view, when the paint is thick and worked and pushed and textured through the process. A few of these paintings nail it and are thick and rich with layers of work and color. These are the ones where the Push and Pull of foreground/background, space/flatness have the most impact.

The showing of these two artists together is an interesting choice that plays with the whole idea of what painting can be. The non-objective work asks you to enjoy painting as color, form, line, etc. for its own value. The tin pieces, with scenes created from commercially printed material, involving no actual painting, create a story/visual space that is read like a painting. A thought that occurred to me only after viewing my digital pics again.

The work piques my interest. Some at the opening had their interest piqued enough to pull out their wallets and get on with the business of purchasing art for the sake of purchasing, a novel convention at an art opening.

The space itself on Washington Street was a great place for a wandering Bill Grey. At every turn, a surprise, another space filled with work, another corner, another clique of arties looking, sipping, jabbering about the stuff on the walls. And then stairs up and down. Downstairs was beer and art and Sweere himself in his ProDesign eyewear. Upstairs you will find a view into the bookstore, coffee shop next door at the railing. It was a great place to hang and wait for a crowd to clear out from in front of the McNulty paintings on the wall opposite.

And after checking out the show, it was just a hundred yards or so to Grumpy's and the Meat Trivia show. As I discovered, to to Grumpy’s prepared to play, and if you order the tater tots with your local brew, you will need a couple of cronies who are not South Beachers to finish them off for you as they are served by the 3 pound basket. The show is meat trivia in starch in starch heaven.

Art, Meat Trivia, and enough starch to make the Pillsbury Doughboy laugh without poking–a well rounded night on the Midwest Island.