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What:
Hanson Gallery's Annual Holiday Show

Where:
The Hanson Gallery, 5607 Kingston Pike (call 584-6097 for hours)

When:
Through December

Hanson Gallery's holiday season show shines

by Heather Joyner Spica

Yeah, yeah...so you think you've heard enough about Knoxville artist Cynthia Markert lately. However, she's done something I cannot help but mention. Now on display at the Hanson Gallery, her painting titled "Portrait With Ghost Kitty" is somehow simultaneously poignant and amusing, absurd yet quite serious. Sorta like the holidays. And it is but one in a number of remarkable pieces in the gallery's annual show.

As much as blatant mercantilism can lend art a certain slickness (the point being for it to look as good as possible and sell, after all), current work by artists both new and established within the Hanson stable functions on a number of levels. With everything but wassail pumping me full of seasonal spirit in the bustling shop environment, I nevertheless became more and more absorbed by what I was looking at during a recent visit: glass pieces by former motorcycle racer Stephen Schlanser, the quiet canvases of Mase Lucas, Steven Olszewski's blackened ceramic sculpture. In addition to variety, the gallery presently offers art that exudes a palpable depth of commitment...even joy. And that's inspiring.

Likewise inspiring is the overall liveliness of the show itself. With the exception of a large cluster of ceramics by Sandra Nissen, participating individuals are represented by only one to five pieces each. Given that works are continuously "revolved out" as other pieces are purchased, the visual dynamic remains in flux. Gallery mainstays Robin Surber, Christopher Terry, and Markert are herein joined by less familiar names from farther afield—Rhode Island-raised mixed media artist Christine Peloquin and Maine painter Michael Waterman, for instance. Also presented are Raymond Chorneau, Paula Frizbe, Mira Gerard, and Jean Hess.

Aforementioned glass artist Schlanser exhibits an exquisite "Silhouette Bowl" that practically rings with a single clear note. Produced via a kiln process in which plate glass is shaped when almost at melting temperature, the cut and polished vessel has a metal twig-shaped base that perhaps detracts from its purity. Conversely, a seemingly brittle branch incorporated into Olszewski's "The Fisher" provides intriguing contrast, as the figure possesses a graceful rotundity rivaling that of Gaston Lachaise's famous "Standing Woman." Other three-dimensional pieces include wood bowls and pedestals.

Lucas, who paints in a converted North Carolina hayloft and chooses horses for her primary subject matter, is also known for images of women. Her "Figure Study In Rum," with its modernist compression of pictorial space, is reminiscent of Art Nouveau portraiture. Because we must imagine the face that's turned away, the curvature of the neck and feminine chignon become that much more expressive. Also in the figurative camp is Mira Gerard, currently a painting professor at ETSU. Her triptych format "Self Portrait in Blue I-III" is precisely what contemporary portraiture should be: pigment becomes form and form is pigment; each defines the other. With a face resembling that of a sun drenched Greek maiden, the subject's head in three close-up views is arresting due to a complexity of color and the way it is painted, as well as its directness. The subject is ultimately paint, self, humanity.

Less contemporary than work by Gerard but truly captivating is Waterman's symbolist painting. His "Angel With A Harp" has a sweetness and gestural quality that is undeniably Chagall, and his "Getting the Key" conveys quite a lot for such a small canvas (approximately 5" x 8"). Each piece bypasses the modern tendency to equate gesture and "lyricism" with a linear approach. Waterman's somewhat subdued palette suggests an old-fashioned humility, yet it remains imaginative. At times, the above graphic tendency becomes an obstacle for artists like Peloquin and Surber. In my opinion, they both could avoid overworking their images through the use of too many elements.

Essentially traditional landscape painting is alive and well in the hands of Frizbe and Dawn Whitelaw, whereas images by Stephen Bach are a bit soft and dear (with a disturbing momentary quality that feels photo-derived). Hess presents a trio of landscapes bordering on abstraction, with more or less identifiable trees functioning as points of departure. And depart she does—into odd juxtapositions of scale, embedded plant material, and luxuriant glazes. It's actually refreshing to see the less seductive surface of her painting titled "Pinnacle," as it contributes to a comparatively dry and perhaps earthier piece. Shifts in approach like these appear to keep Hess on her toes.

At last, I'll return to Markert's "Portrait With Ghost Kitty." In it, the artist's signature female with bobbed hair and enigmatic eyes holds a cat with a bow tie ...and lips! A cat with a human face! Markert's reinterpreted Madonna and child, like a Renaissance masterpiece on wood, allows the grain of its substrate to show through. The painting is compositionally simple but conveys a complex relationship. It is straightforward but intimate. It is memorable.

Incidentally, original illustrations by Heather Seratt are also on display until the new year arrives. Produced for One For Each Night, a book of Chanukah tales and recipes by UT's Dr. Marilyn Kallet, they reflect the book's buoyant spirit. Be it at Hanson Gallery or at bookstores, One For Each Night is available for sale, as is the art reviewed above. Glory be, now there's a sleigh I'd like to see coming my way. Are you listening, Santa?