Voelz Chandler: In his hands, words are art

Friday, June 15, 2007

In the beginning was the word, and for the past four decades, Roland Bernier has been able to use that basic building block of communication to make art that continues to evolve, attract and challenge.

In a not-so-coincidental stroke of fate, June brings two concurrent opportunities to view the many phases of Bernier's work in text.

In his first show in a commercial gallery since 2004 (a solo show that closed out Fresh Art), a 20-year retrospective is on view at Walker Fine Art. Also, opening tonight at Spark Gallery, co-op member Bernier is exhibiting a suite of new pieces that use fabric to signify one specific word: plaid. ("The Word Itself" is on view through July 8. Information: 720-889-2200.)

At Walker, though, the range is broader, beginning with a 1987 untitled painting on paper that addresses shape and form, and ending with 12 examples of Bernier's newest work, a series that places letters/words in text-covered plaster "hands" cast from the artist's own. (Too bad there is not more two-dimensional work here, since that acrylic on paper piece and the 2002 photo- based Good Dogs Hunt seem a bit lost in the mix.)

Most of the 30 pieces in "20 Years of Roland Bernier" date from 1996 to 2005, a span that includes examples from several series: the Xerox and acrylic balloon script lettering wall pieces from "Talking Trash"; the complex stacks of letters under plexiglass from "Wood Works"; the rings of layered words from "Talking in Circles"; the pedestal pieces that resemble pull-toys from "Words on Wheels"; the ingeniously titled, symbolic constructions from "Cross Words"; and the mirror-based Wall of Words from Bernier's 2001 one-man show in the Denver Art Museum's now-gone Close Range Gallery.

This prolific and coherent artist demonstrates over and over his ability to make something so simple say so much. The newest pieces began life as Bernier was thinking about the saying "a bird in the hand," and it morphed into "A Word in Hand." These words - all two or three letters - relate to the type of text Bernier has used to cover the casts: Pot, linked to soup-can labels, and Eh, to a bad hand of playing cards, Hi to what seem to be pages from a yearbook.

It is intelligent work, presenting words as objects both with meaning and, in the larger stacked-letter assemblages, the sense of randomness, of no particular meaning at all.

As an adjunct to the Bernier solo, gallery owner Bobbi Walker has developed a back space designed to showcase work by a few artists, a move that adds clarity to how she organizes exhibitions.

At this time, that includes sculpture by Bill Burgess, whose four-story-tall fountain Continuum was unveiled in Colorado Springs' America the Beautiful Park (the maquette is on view); brooding large-scale photographs on metal of ghostly girls (Ophelia, Annabel Lee, etc.) by the Corvo Brothers; and molded paper and bent rattan sculpture by Rex Silvernail.

The system adds order and, in the current offering, is a strong counterpoint to the array of Bernier's work.

Gary Lynch: A Memorial Retrospective

• What: Photographs from four series by Lynch, who died in October 2005 at age 51

• Where and when: Emmanuel Gallery, 10th Street and Lawrence Street Mall, Auraria Campus; through July 20

• An artistic salute: Lynch, who taught at all three schools on the Auraria campus, is being remembered right there with work that explores the impact of light and the importance of self-awareness.

In a cooperative effort between the Colorado Photographic Arts Center and Emmanuel Gallery, this tribute to Lynch includes work from series such as "No Dice Nada, No Taca Nada (Says Nothing/Touches Nothing)," in the painstaking carbon print process, as well as the light-dappled "Identity" series, which grew out of Lynch's interest in masks and the world of the hidden. Upstairs, Emmanual Gallery director Shannon Corrigan has installed small C-prints from the "Internal Dialogues" series that were new to me and fascinating, with their juxtaposition of various body parts straining to emerge through a scrim.

Though the loss of Lynch is still felt by those who respect good photography, this exhibition helps keep his memory - and the work itself - alive. And that counts

• Information: 303-556-8337