Those of us who thought the summer was a dead time for exhibits and good only for surfing shows have at least one reason to revise this opinion: the County Contemporary All Media Juried Show.
Unveiled by the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County in June, this modest but inclusive exhibit features a total of 44 works by 36 Palm Beach County professional artists. One of them could still win the $500 People’s Choice award. (Vote for your favorite piece if you visit the gallery between now and Saturday. The artist with the most votes wins the title and the cash.)
Earlier in the year, the 445 works submitted were judged by Mark Richard Leach, the executive director of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, N.C. Leach selected a little bit of everything: painting, photography, ceramics and sculpture.
Among them are Patricia Donaldson’s photographs Translucent Forms and Weeds?, which are like X-rays of nature. The colors typically associated with the natural world (greens, blues, etc.) are absent here. Instead a black background emphasizes the bright highlights giving the pictures a ghostly quality to them.
By contrast, Calvin Wagner’s Shelter (later in the show) is a literal representation of a tree in its prime. The lighting is selective. It does not hit all the tree leaves. Some benefit from it and appear full of life while others sport a darker green. A blue clear sky serves as a comforting backdrop and the angle is such that it appears the viewer is at the base, looking up at this green leafy umbrella. Despite the great detail in this work, nothing about it really stood out to me.
A touch of abstract expressionism is provided by artists Mark Forman and Alyssa di Edwardo. Looking at Forman’s Painting 319, it’s hard not to immediately think of Mark Rothko. The red vertical rectangle is framed by an orange line to the top and ends with subtle dark and light purples at the bottom. Darker spots are seen coming through the red canvas like pores opening in the skin. The red is intense and intoxicating. Underneath it, another color is still alive and struggling to be noticed.
Di Edwardo, the other abstract expressionist, gives us a more gestural work resembling Joan Mitchell’s style. The thick and aggressive paint strokes of di Edwardo’s Distant Day result in a battlefield where greens, blues, whites and oranges are trying to co-exist.
A comprehensive show these days includes works mixing technology with traditional materials, if only to start a conversation. Hidden Orchid by Donna Walsh combines watercolors with digital photography. The end result is lovely and strangely harmonious. Rosy and peachy colors mingle with lemon green and magenta. The flower appears like a cutout that has been added and yet the picture would be inferior without it.
A pinch of bright red breaks up the dreamy marriage of light and dark greens in Yin and Yang. And it is just what it needs. Everywhere else in the painting there is calm, silence. This square piece, by Carolyn Barth, was my favorite in the show because of its muted beauty and restraint.
While daring is not the best way to describe the selection showcased in the exhibit, it offers a very well-deserved chance for all of the artists involved. Let us hope more chances like this one come, even in summer. After all, professional artists never stop creating and never discriminate among the months. All seasons are valid for a chance to be critiqued and shown.
The County Contemporary All Media Juried Show is showing through Sept. 7 at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County.
Admission to the Cultural Council is free and open to the public Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Cultural Council is located at 601 Lake Ave., Lake Worth. Public voting for the “People’s Choice” award for a cash prize of $500 is open through Saturday, with one vote per visitor.