So many artists, so little time. Everyone relies on expert testimony
and professional advice to make consumer choices: who has time for
everything? Such critical consensus works fine usually, but it does
lead art viewers to assume that all good work inevitably makes it to
public view (as Arthur Danto seems to have assumed in one of his
essays), having successfully run a series of critical gantlets; such is
not always the case, unfortunately. That’s why nonjuried omnibus group
shows like Members’ Showcase at Berkeley Art
Center are valuable: they offer viewers a less mediated, though
less orderly or predictable, experience; they’re messily democratic.
That said, the 244 BAC members, each exhibiting one work, get short
shrift here, due to space constraints, and the listing of artworks
below is messily subjective, too, so go and decide for yourself. As Wes
Scoop Nisker says, if you don’t like the news, go out and make some of
your own.
Notable works on paper (drawings, prints, photos) in the
Showcase exhibition include Judith White Marcellini’s
“Lo-bee-lia,” a painted paper relief sculpture/bouquet, along with
works by Charlie Costello, Angie Garberina, Ingeborg Gerdes, Edith
Hillinger, John Hundt, Glenda Jimmink, Karl Kasten, Cynthia King,
Anthony Lazorko, Barbara Mehlman, Michael R. Reynolds, Thierry Rosset,
Sylvia Sussman, and Laura Sutta. Paintings that drew my attention
include Mariana Barnes’ “Otonal II,” suggesting a leaf, river system,
or sectioned geode rendered in mosaic; Philip Tice’s “Scylla and
Charybdis,” depicting Odysseus sailing between the clashing rocks and
the sea monster, but with a surreal-comic stylization recalling Roger
Brown and David Hockney; Laura A. Luzzi’s indigo abstraction
“Non-attachment,” an introspective nocturnal seascape or landscape;
Gary Paul Stutler’s fearsome/tame “Panther” in its suburban backyard;
and other works by Miguel Arzabe, Joel S. Beaird, Patricia Hebert
Crowley, Christine Hanlon, Robbin Legere Henderson, Lucien Kubo, Liz
Maxwell, Richard Menedez, Barbara Morris, Indira Martina Morre, Jane
Neilson, Ann Phelan, Ally Richter, Gary Paul Stutler, Maurice
Vercoutere, Vivian Waterloo, and Elena Zolotnitsky. Sculptures that
caught my attention were Cosette Dudley’s stele-like wooden carving
“Urban Intrusion;” Irwin Luckman’s ceramic sculpture, “Acrobatics;” and
other works by Susan Doyle, Douglas Heine, Richard C. Herman, Scott
Mickelson, and Anna N. Vaughan. Members’ Showcase runs through
January 25 at Berkeley Art Center (1275 Walnut St., Berkeley). BerkeleyArtCenter.org or
510-644-6893.
