Surprises abound in this year’s annual Women’s Caucus for Art Michigan’s exhibition in the Gallery in the Dudterstadt Center.
Eco Artist Sophie Grillet’s Fish Trash whose title plays with the child like words to describe what fish do “Splish Splash”, casts ghostly shadows on her Balance partner Delilah Smith’s oil on canvas painting entitled Sea, Wind, Sky, Land.
Much like the Balance game itself here in the gallery, we see how one artist’s work can have a strong effect on another’s both physically and metaphorically.
Grillet includes with her installation a short essay on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Just as in real life Grillet’s mobile completely constructed of plastic garbage and expertly constructed or choreographed to create shadows that resemble jelly fish and other sea creatures, takes on an eerie symbolism suggestive of the end of sea life due to our disregard for our environment. Will our carelessness be the end to these sea creatures? Will they become merely ghosts, extinct?
Even the work of other artists that were not directly paired with each other seems to resonate together like the work of Barbara Carson and Kathleen Letts. Each of these artists were paired with others and yet their work seems to talk to each other both in the colors and imagery. This is due in great part to the brilliant eye of Christy Kelly Bentgen Exhibition Chair and Curator of this fascinating exhibition derived from a exercise of putting artists that did not know each other, together in a play to see what effect one’s work would have on the work of another.
This is a must see exhibition for everyone…especially if you enjoy putting the pieces together and following the clues.
This show will be travelling throughout Michigan over the next few months…ending its run the beginning of Dec. in Holland Michigan at the Holland Area Arts Council.
Traveling dates:
River’s Edge Gallery, Wyandotte, MI Sept 3-26
The Reflection Gallery Finlandia University, Hancock, MI Oct 4-31
Holland Area Arts Council, Holland MI, Nov. 11- Dec 1
Women's Caucus for Art 