Gallery Imperato's current exhibit features work by two very different painters: Shannon Cannings and Jessica Dunegan. Both artists have limited their subject matter here and the pairing makes for an interesting contrast. While Cannings' paintings depict plastic toy guns (packaged and unpackaged) executed in smooth and realistic detail, Dunegan's work examines chandeliers and their complex structure in a more subjective and dreamlike fashion. Where Cannings uses oil on canvas applied in the traditional manner to portray familiar children's playthings, Dunegan makes her hanging, luminous objects appear fuzzy and stringy through the use of white resin seemingly encased in a field of reflective black. Along with these, Dunegan displays another variation on her theme: a series of chandelier images seen through filmy colored glass.
Overall, Dunegan's work commands more visual and conceptual interest; its technical complexity and subtle imagery encourage one to linger a bit longer. Cannings' work, while nicely painted, only takes the viewer so far. Two of the paintings show larger than life toy guns in their retail packaging, complete with pushpins holding them to the wall. Another series, of single squirt guns lying on a white surface, presents the objects as plastic "still life". The one painting which breaks from this mode consists of a tiara wearing little girl pointing a toy gun directly at the viewer. This work, with its heavy handed imagery, removes whatever opportunity Cannings' other paintings offer for a variety of viewer responses.
January 30 - March 14, 2009
www.galleryimperato.com
1 comment:
Hi Linda, I totally agree - way too staged. One of these days I will get my camera with me to contribute to this - saw some great Vermont College alum work last night by Alex Rheault in Portland Maine.
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