Susceptible to Images: Milwaukee's Online Art Review

Exhibition recap:

Simple Conplexity
Anna Kunz at Tory Folliard

Tory Folliard Gallery
233 N. Milwaukee Street. 414-273-7311
www.toryfolliardgallery.com

By Ben Bowman

Tory Folliard gallery in Milwaukee’s Third Ward was recently
split in half. Not literally, that is, but the gallery was divided to
display two shows. On the north half was Elizabeth Shreve’s
Paintings and Drawings and on the sourthern half was Anna
Kunz’s Greens, Violets, Browns, on view through November 17.
Kunz, a Chicago based artist who teaches at the School of the
Art Institute, makes works that are colorful and physical. Her
pieces depict common objects from nature shown in blocks of
color.

Kunz’s show was comprised of oil paintings and paper
assemblages. The paintings are somewhat large, typically in
the neighborhood of two to three feet by four to five feet. The
paper pieces, on the other hand, are smaller than a foot.

The broad visual theme of the show is abstracted visions of
nature. Trees, fields, and skies can often be detected within the
paintings. Those objects, however, are merely the starting
points. Images are broken into shapes of color, often with the
result of creating several large areas of negative space counter-
balanced by small areas of very active positive space.

Following somewhat of a cubist lineage, Kunz’s works break
down images into their barest forms. As declared in a statement
from Chicago’s Zg Gallery, by breaking down the appearance
of objects, Kunz is able to use the discrepancy between the
actual object and its depiction to “examine relationships
between the object and the subject, the ambiguous with the
metaphorical, the ‘real’ with the illusion.” By depicting such
common objects as forests and trees, the artist immediately has
a subject matter to which the viewer can relate. With those
common objects, Kunz is able to present objects that look like
mere blocks of color. However, such a simple presentation
leads the viewer to wonder what is missing. The result,
therefore, is that the viewer reacts by re-examining their own
surroundings.

The paper pieces are made with opaque sheets staked on top
of one another. Likewise, the oil paintings are made with many
thick layers of paint stacked on top of each other.
Consequently, the artist is using the two different mediums to a
fairly similar means. The paintings, however, have a much
greater depth than the assemblages.

Within all of the paintings, the viewer can clearly see evidence
of Kunz’s process. Globs of paint from the under layers dot the
painting’s surface. Brushstrokes and paint drips sit on the
painting surfaces as well. Some passages even contain areas
where the paint is not quite as thick. Those parts of the canvas
reveal hints of the radically different hues just under the top
layers of the painting.

With such large areas of color and such an emphasis on the
process of the piece, one cannot help but conjure Richard
Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park paintings when considering Kunz’s
work. For instance, Kunz’ Echo (oil on panel; 49 x 45”) is
compositionally quite similar to Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park No.
87 (1975; oil on canvas; 100 x 81”). Both images display a vast
amount of space in the lower right quadrant of the painting
while the upper left quadrant is fully active with shapes of color.
Both artists also make their practice of working and re-working
a painting quite visible.

Despite their similarities, though, the artist’s certainly aim for
different outcomes. Diebenkorn is able to mix airy colors that
carry the viewer deep into the painting as if they were passing
through a colored fog. In encountering Kunz’s works, the viewer
is more challenged to get into the space of the piece, as if
trying to push past a wall of green. Also, Diebenkorn’s pieces
exist as a way of examining the phenomena of light, whereas
Kunz’s paintings exist to examine objects and the viewer’s
relationships with those objects.

Ultimately, the viewer comes away from Kunz’s works with a bit
more sensitivity towards the objects that she paints. However,
that sensitively goes beyond just those common objects found
in the park. One cannot help but start to notice any number of
objects as being more complex than they initially seem. One of
the most fascinating elements of Kunz’s pieces is that by
depicting often seen objects in a simple way; the viewer is
forced to question how well they know the objects in question.
Kunz’s simple forms lead the viewer to their own complex
relationships with their surroundings. Simplicity in this case
causes complexity.

Full Moon Edition No. 2 11.24.07