I recently attended a charmingly opinionated lecture on late-20th century figuration by famed art critic Hilton Kramer, a stubbornly conservative art-world voice since the early '50s. Among his words of "wisdom" — albeit of a practiced anti-Warhol, anti-postmodern, anti-conceptual spiel — was his praise for the gallery system and the remarkable role they play in promoting art and artists. He's right, you know — even if some of us, especially here in the Tampa Bay area, take our local galleries for granted.
This was my mindset several weeks ago when I dropped into The Arts Center, one of St. Pete's premier and pleasurable spaces to view art. And certainly not one to take for granted. Their elegant side-by-side galleries typically focus on separate or related-theme exhibitions, with really intelligent choices made by curator Amanda Cooper.
Need I say that there's nary a cutting-edge piece in sight? But even without the challenging, edgy art that some of us thrive on, and even with their proclivity toward crowd-pleasing, soft-sell art objects, I was not disappointed.
The current exhibitions explore various dimensions of multiculturalism with focus on Latin American and Caribbean cultures fused with elements of indigenous folk art. Subjects include a recurrent, fashionably garbed red devil, flowers, frogs and fish; and familiar figures with art historical references to Velasquez, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Also depicted are paintings with seductively barren or densely tropical landscapes, "architectural paintings" and distorted interiors, all lending psychological undertones.
Of these exhibitions, a unique group of 11 mixed-media sculptures by collaborative artists Felipe Packard and Ricardo de la Vega piqued my interest for several reasons. First is the mystique of a collaborative process between two artists. Second is the inevitable questions that emerge when an art object bridges the illusory line between fine craft and fine art, which can be seen in these pieces. To complicate the issue, the art is decorative (an art world pejorative). And even further, they're distinctly beautiful, which challenges contemporary art steeped in ideas and nihilism. All of this plays to the continuing post-postmodern art saga with occasional discussions of "beauty," but with little resolution in sight. In fact, art need not be compelled to surrender aesthetics to ideas.
Packard and de la Vega's work is installed in the Hough Gallery under the broad theme "El Cinco de Mayo." The Gulfport duo presents mixed-media/cast paper sculptural figures built around an internal armature.
There is something intrinsically fascinating when two artists function as one. Their working process invariably begins with drawing. During a lecture on the role of females within the astrological or mythological pantheon, for example, de la Vega began drawing and then passed the sketch to Packard. After switching it back and forth, an acceptable form emerged, depicting the female as "holding things together," or "balancing the universe." This was the basis for the wonderful pedestaled piece "Juggling the Universe." In their studio, they used papier mache, a medium they love.
Painting is a more problematic collaboration. The American born Packard, a Mexican resident from the age of 14, is attracted to bold coloration, while the Mexican born and bred de la Vega looks toward a tempered, pastel palette. Eventually accommodation is reached and their meticulously crafted art displays both sensibilities.
Of their sculptures, eight are small pedestaled works, two are nearly life-size figures — one an empowered ironical Frida ("I Only Have Diego in my Heart") and "Madre Tierra," (Mother Earth) sprouting ivy vines from her head, thus mimicking a Kahlo painting.
While you're dutifully checking out your local galleries, take a peek at the work of another Gulfport duo blending ideas and process. Snowbird artists Susan Dollmaker Andrews and Carolyn Fellman, known professionally as The Oiseaux Sisters, recently installed a charming Percent for Art project in the children's section of St. Pete's North Branch Library.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2001.