Metro Pulse/Artbeat/Andrew Saftel

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What:
New Works on Paper

Where:
The Bennett Galleries, 5308 Kingston Pike

When:
Through July 12, with an opening reception Thursday, June 12 from 6-8 p.m.

The evolving repertoire of artist Andrew Saftel

by Heather Joyner

Whenever I have an opportunity to write about Andrew Saftel, I am reminded of our shared past within Knoxville's art community. My first Metro Pulse Artbeat column appeared more than a decade ago, reviewing works by Saftel and ceramicist Ted Saupe at the Bennett Gallery, which was then in Western Plaza. Bennett has since moved to more expansive digs on Kingston Pike, and both Saftel and Saupe have left town—although the former has not gone far. Now based in rural East Tennessee, Saftel continues to produce art in a variety of forms. His show New Works On Paper opens today.

Comprising 38 "woodcut collages" and a single steel sculpture titled "Pile Up" (a nod to Saftel's efforts in that medium), the current exhibit features prints that hum with color and contrasting symbols. Despite being printed, however, each piece is one of a kind. Regarding the collages, Saftel says, "You could call it a variant edition—my goal is not to make a limited edition." All pieces on view were created within two recent two-week periods: during Saftel's stint as a resident artist at North Carolina's Penland School, and while at home in Pikeville. Characteristically, the artist plunged into intensive work on a number of displayed images at once. Beginning with large sheets of paper torn into smaller sizes ranging from nine inches square to two by four feet, he set out as many as 30 different inks and started what he considers the initially overwhelming process of going back and forth between different pieces.

Saftel says, "Whenever I'm layering a color over another, it's random. Then I think 'this really needs something over here'—[at a certain point,] I try to look at each one and decide how I might finish it." The artist has developed and expanded an individualized "vocabulary" now familiar to his admirers—one of icons evoking the natural and man-made worlds combined with subtler effects reflecting purely visual concerns. Painstakingly crafted woodcut images of birds, trees, animals, wagon wheels, cars, and other things are layered with less graphic elements, imposing tension between surface and depth. Saftel has some of the carved quarter-inch plywood blocks he's made and used for years, and his ideas are drawn from various sources. He remarks, "I sometimes go to McKay's and buy milk crates full of books on science and other subjects—for instance, I found the gorilla I use on the back of an old Time-Life book on primates."

As for working in so many mediums, Saftel remarks, "I have different voices in different mediums—[each lets another] part of my personality come out. When I do different things, I think differently and 'invent' differently." Printmaking in particular appears to allow him a certain rapidity that encourages playfulness. Although Saftel's cars and buildings often represent the insensitivity to and destruction of our environment, they can also be quirky and humorous. "I don't want to clobber people with a message," he says. Saftel acknowledges that automobiles and the like symbolize human achievement as well as a collision between the past and the present—a dichotomy central to his work. Saftel's artist's statement reads, "I have always been interested in trying to understand more about the lives, times, inventions, and discoveries that have brought us to this moment—I want [my work] to tell a story of a search within which many strands of thought, and experience, exist."

As positive as the above perspective is, Saftel expresses dismay at where our country is headed, saying, "I love the beauty of every day, but I don't feel that hopeful. I don't know if it's cynicism. Maybe it's more like realism. I've read a lot of history, and the Bush people [seem to be] dismantling everything."

Saftel has started carving sharks as long as two feet, from walnut, cherry, and other wood given to him by a neighbor. They clearly allude to that which is predatory. But his work is taking on complex issues via what he calls an "incremental" approach; one that employs metaphor to challenge the status quo. Cars piled on top of one another can seem giddy or ridiculous or frightening. It's a matter of perspective.

Regardless of politics, the Bennett Galleries' show impacts viewers by presenting a multitude of images sharing common themes. The prints are loose yet considered. And they are vibrant. Says Saftel, "Regarding current events, it's a tough time for an observer of culture—but I feel really good right now as an artist." That confidence in his powers to communicate comes across in a visually memorable way.