My favorite gallery out of the ones we visited was definitely Kim Dorland’s. The gallery smelled of “New Material,” such as drying paint and freshly cut wood. I liked the sloppy layers of paint on his paintings, which still came out to form beautifully frightening figures. I admired his choice to include the animals of the Canadian forest he spent his childhood. For instance, the crows made of feathers, glitter, and black goo and the graffitied caribou. The wolf, of course, stood out the most, because he wasn’t simply in a painting. The combination of feminine lavender with the masculine features of a wolf was cleverly expressed in that piece. Kim Dorland included tons of nature in his paintings, such as naked trees and mysterious waters. He mixed fantasy with reality when he painted monsters, such as the boogieman, big foot, and unknown sea creatures, among natural settings. We all imagine such things when we’re alone in the dark, especially in a quiet place such as a forest. His rebellious childhood is clearly revealed in his choice of black paint and the “rocker” vibe he applied to some of his paintings. I liked how he emphasized man’s infiltration of nature through his art, because I strongly feel that people are blind to their wrongdoings, especially when it comes to their environment.
Another gallery I thought was quirky was the first gallery we stopped by. Although I couldn’t quite understand what was going on in most of the paintings, I noticed pattern among them: nearly all contained various body parts positioned among splatters of paint. I noticed many eyeballs, peeking faces, and bleeding hearts. The haunted faces I noticed in these paintings seemed highly introspective and mysterious. I enjoyed the artist’s sculptures more, however. Some of them appeared to play with my vision. For example, the sculpture that contained a mirror image of a face with tongues under it appeared to be a 3-D box, when it was really just a cardboard separating the two mirror images. The elephant that was holding a baby cradle toy looked both like an elephant and a human. The 12 feet of different size looked like they were all dancing tango with each other because of the way their hands were elongated and connected.
The Bruce Marden gallery barely interested me, because it seemed very repetitive and hard to grasp. Maybe if the color were at least more vibrant, his paintings would’ve been more pleasing to the eye.
Kent Dorn’s “Remains” gallery slightly reminded me of Kim Dorland’s gallery, just a little more calming and realistic. I noticed several hippies in his paintings and glued-on eyes, as if from a collage. That was slightly different than the typical camping setup with friends that he drew.
William M. Copley’s “X-Rated” was quite amusing. It was painted in a way that reminded me of pop art from the 1950s, except with a perverted twist. Nothing strange, just silly and humorous.
The last gallery, Nicky Nodjoumi’s “Invitation to Change Your Metaphor,” was very interesting to me, mainly because of its political background and the recurring images of naked women in a culture that does not permit it. I didn’t really understand a lot of the paintings, but that’s probably just because I don’t know enough background information on all the politics in Iran.
-Polina Mikhelzon
