WSG gallery is pleased to present our themed show “Monochrome”, on exhibit through March 18.  For any of you who have lived in the upper Midwest through the winter, you will understand the idea of monochrome in a different way than art lovers living in other regions of the U.S.  There are some days when you swear you are living in a black and white photograph!  

Each of the WSG artists have interpreted monochrome in our own way.  Some work focuses on gradations between black and white, some takes a color like blue or red and works with variations within that color family.  

Lynda Cole, Tree Lines, photographic transfer to brushed acrylic, 18 x 24″

The above piece, by Lynda Cole, has a fascinating dimension that happens when the artist applies the photo to a thick layer of brushed acrylic, giving a slightly blurred effect and an added layer of depth.

Norma Penchansky Glasser, Anna, bronze, 27 x 19 x 11″

Penchansky Glasser’s bronze “Anna” may have a deep black-brown patina, but because the sculpture exists in 3-dimensional space, light does the work of creating color gradations.

Takeshi Takahara,
Ten-Chi XI
intaglio
38″h x 32″w, framed

Takahara’s patient build up of lines on a printing plate create subtle gradations in his large intaglio, culminating in a contemplative piece large enough to get emotionally lost in.

Valerie Mann,
The Persistence of Hummingbirds, acrylic, silver leaf, steel wire, rubber, leather, eyelets; 65 x 37 x 10″

Mann’s piece is made by scanning drawings into her computer, creating vector files and cutting the detailed parts with a laser cutter.  Using re-purposed inner tubes, leather pants and acrylic scrap, she created this installation piece where the hummingbirds hover as mobiles in front of the trumpet vine.

Middy Potter,
The Blues
found objects, made objects
47″h x 10″w x 27″d

Middy Potter approached the theme by working with blue and diving into his love of the blues for his sculpture.  Each of the piano hammers has a famous blues artist’s name etched into the metal. 

With 16 artists interpreting ‘monochrome’ the variations are inventive and sometimes deeply personal.  At our meeting when we proposed the idea of the show, there was a small groan…..you know, artists being penned in with a theme……we usually don’t like that sort of thing.  But the show that’s come out of it is thoughtful, contemplative, calm and exciting all at once!