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Voelz Chandler: 'Infinite' show exhibits power of art to transmit complex ideas

Published February 24, 2006 at midnight

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During the past 12 years, I have no idea how many words I have written about Vance Kirkland, Clark Richert, Robert Mangold, Sue Simon and Joseph Shaeffer.

But it's a lot. All are talented Colorado-based artists who have been influenced by science and mathematics, and all are proficient at expressing those two disciplines in engrossing, well-made work.

Still, seeing the five together - actually sculptor Mangold's large-scale pieces are in a gallery a few steps away - is a reminder of the power of art to communicate even the most complicated subject. Here, that subject is somewhat rarefied aspects of science and math, from quantum physics to tessellation.

That is key to "Infinite in All Directions: Cosmos and Canvas in Colorado," the new show in the Singer Gallery at the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture. Curated by Singer Gallery director Simon Zalkind, "Infinite" is part of a multidisciplinary program ("Einstein: The Creative Process"), an annual event for which the center has become known.

This year, the program came about in a slightly different way. Usually, it is built around the visual arts component, but for 2006, the topic grew out of plans to link to a show on Einstein at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. That exhibition did not happen, but the interdisciplinary program remained in place at the Center.

And that's good.

The first section of "Infinite" includes numerous works by Kirkland, whose dot paintings and oil/water-resist paintings reflected the artist's interest in space and innovation. Turn around, and there are new paintings by Simon illustrating various formulas that govern the study of science and math, including Einstein's Equation and String Theory: Are There Really Eleven Dimensions.

Look even further, and there is a selection of paintings by Richert. The older works here address aspects of the tetrahedron, while two pieces from his new "Allegory of the Cave" project deal with tessellation. These are expressed as fields and patterns - but random patterns - of dots and bisected dots, and seem to refer directly to some of the Kirkland works. Richert's new work A/C Project #1: Triacon makes me feel as if I am flying over Washington, D.C., where the streets are laid out in angles growing out of circles. They are mesmerizing.

And scattered throughout the gallery are several sculptures by Shaeffer, whose works are rooted in the concepts of sustension, that is suspension and tension working together, and which are familiar from a recent show at Artyard.

Finally, there is the nearby suite of sculptures from Mangold's PTTSAAES series, signifying a Point Traveling Through Space at an Erratic Speed. These brightly colored metal lightning bolts appear to burrow into the floor or wall, and bounce right back out.

As much as viewers may feel well-grounded in the work of each artist represented here, experiencing this as a whole is a different matter. The term "critical mass" seems fitting in more ways than one to describe a show with such substance and elegance.

A GLEAMING EXHIBITION: "METALisms: Signature Works in Jewelry & Metalsmithing" does for metal what many of the fiber shows did here for fiber in 2004, clay shows did for clay in 2000 and a scattering of shows in 2002 tried to do for, well, metal, when a conference here prompted several exhibitions addressing the material's role in art.

That is, examine how function and aesthetics can coexist in a medium that we live with daily. We drive in it, we eat with it, we sit in buildings held up by it.

The definition of function, though, is fairly broad, when it comes to what may be one of the final shows in the existing Center for Visual Art operated by Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Interim director/curator Jennifer Garner and Yuko Yagisawa, professor of art in Metro's jewelry design and metalsmithing program, invited 63 artists into the exhibition, which continues through March 16. Five are from Colorado, including Yagisawa, who also has work in the show. The others are Ira Sherman, represented by three of the giant mechanical sculptures for which he is known, as well as Anne Hallam, Harold O'Conner and Todd Reed.

From jewelry to vessels to a tiara (a functional object, I suppose, in some circles), from a tea case with a gun poking through it (Tea for One, by Jeffrey M. Clancy) to collars and a ruff (by Jesse Mathes), the objects in "METALisms" inspire with their beauty, originality and, occasionally, daring technique.

After "METALisms" concludes, there are two student shows at CVA until its lease expires in April, Garner said. After then? Stay tuned.

The Center for Visual Art is at 1734 Wazee St.; information: 303- 294-5207.

IN THE NEWS: Comments collected during the Jan. 24 Creative Spaces Community session will be discussed during a meeting of the Mayor's Task Force on Creative Spaces, from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday in the first-floor conference room of the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building, 201 W. Colfax Ave. An estimated 300 people attended the first meeting. . . . The archives of the late landscape architect Jane Silverstein Ries now reside in the Western History/Genealogy Department of the Denver Public Library. The gift was accompanied by cash from the JSR Foundation and the Colorado Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, to help process Ries' papers.

Infinite in All Directions: Cosmos and Canvas in Colorado

What: Work by Vance Kirkland, Robert Mangold, Clark Richert, Joseph Shaeffer and Sue Simon

Where and when: The Singer Gallery, Mizel Center for Arts and Culture, 350 S. Dahlia St.; through April 9

In conjunction: A panel discussion on "Atomic Faith," 7:30 p.m. March 23 ($5), the play Insignificance, through May 20

Information: 303-316-6360

Mary Voelz Chandler is the art and architecture critic. Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2677.