Supple @ Warehouse Gallery
Curator J. T. Kirkland couldn’t have landed a better location for his new exhibit, Supple, on display upstairs at the Warehouse Gallery. Sometimes a state of surprised desperation can work in one’s favor. As we noted last week, he originally planned to have the show at relatively unknown The Space at 9th and N Sts. NW. While he initially deemed the owners “extremely generous,” The Space cancelled on Kirkland just short five days before the opening.
What’s a curator to do? Spend the weekend panicking, contacting everyone he knows and hoping to gain sympathy from the local D.C. arts scene? Doesn’t sound like much of a plan, but it worked, and it didn’t even take the whole weekend. Kirkland went to bed on Saturday night worried about disappointing the artists involved. By noon Sunday, he had numerous offers of help and space options.
As it turns out, the adopted venue fits perfectly with the exhibition. Preparing to open No Representation, Warehouse Gallery graciously agreed to host Supple, as well. Certainly, Kirkland’s earlier statements of generosity more aptly describe Warehouse owner and curator Molly Ruppert, as well as fellow curators Sondra Arkin, Phillippa Hughes and Ellyn Weiss for their last minute support and flexibility.
Both exhibits showcase abstract works, although Supple focuses specifically on texture and, well, suppleness. Without prior knowledge, a visitor might even think the two rooms dedicated to Supple are simply a subset of the larger No Representation show.
While the front gallery of Supple is clean with white walls and white window coverings to eliminate any distractions, the rear gallery is just about as gritty as they get. Peeling paint, stained floors and open windows revealing hidden cityscapes of alleyways and rooftops: it’s beautiful, it’s supple, and it’s oh-so-textured. The shadows created by the ceiling-hung layers of white porcelain ribbons of Laurel Lukaszewski’s Cascade are enhanced by the texture of the peeling walls, as if to question whether the shadowy texture was the artwork and the porcelain simply a tool.
On the opposite side of Cascade is, unfortunately, Adrian Parsons' foreskin stuffed in a hole the wall. As we've already briefly mentioned, during a "one-time only" performance at the opening reception Thursday night, Parsons laid down some plastic sheeting, tore some beard hairs (and skin) off his face with a pair of pliers, then unzipped and sliced away with a Swiss Army knife. Some of our fellow DCist writers who witnessed our former arts contributor mutilate himself are still aghast and couldn't really tell you what the point was, except they now have a great "listen to THIS" story to freak people out at parties. After he finished the circumcision, he spoke for a minute while bleeding all over the floor, something about war victims (the piece is called Shrapnel), but it's entirely fair to say no one was listening at that point, understandably. The sensationalism and at least partial-psychosis of Parsons' performance, unfortunately, takes away with its pure shock-value from the rest of the exhibit that's filled with pieces lovingly sculpted with great talent and care.
Moving out of the back gallery, there were several pieces in the front gallery that really stood out. Adam Fowler’s Untitled is deceptively complex. At first glance, the piece appears to be three layers of transparent paper, filled edge to edge with circular graphite strokes. Upon closer inspection, one realizes that not only are the three layers of paper not transparent, but the patterns are delicately cut out of each layer, with lighter, thinner lines on the top layer and darker, thicker lines in the back.
To the right of Fowler’s piece is Graham Caldwell’s blown glass sculpture (pictured), raised above the viewer’s head, forcing one to look up to see cylindrical glass fragments reminiscent of both bud vases and tree branches. Small black hooks grip the tree-like shape of the glass pieces, forming a suspended nature scene. Another standout piece is Mary Early's wheel-like sculpture at twenty-six inches in diameter. It references technology in its construction, while being covered entirely in natural yellow beeswax.
Other artists featured in Supple include Colby Caldwell, Kevin Kepple, Linn Meyers, Robin Rose and Matt Sargent, who supplies an audio piece.
Warehouse Gallery is located at 1017-1021 7th Street NW and is open Monday through Friday, 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday, noon to midnight, and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. Supple runs until May 12.
Photo courtesy of J.T. Kirkland.
Heather Goss contributed to this post.