Lemmons > Bio and Reviews
Globe News column: Art Beat, July 16, 2006
Shared space offers sameness, differences: by Hunter Ingalls
Midway down the hall of Sunset Center's northwest wing there's a graffiti-like scrawl (or is it a painting?), "Art Show," and three names - Mardy Lemmons, Rick Peters and Eric Ratliff.
It's in the two rooms used by Lemmons (77A) as both studio and gallery.
This dual usage is the norm in Sunset Center, and it's interesting how differently the various artists arrange - or don't arrange - their space. Lemmons' choice has been to keep, in his large, rear room, its role as a studio, which is appropriate.
The physicality of paint might be a subtitle for this three-man show.
If one is looking for a handle for what's there, the handling of paint is certainly part of it.
And painting of the human figure - mostly, but not exclusively, female, and mostly, but not exclusively, nude - is another shared theme.
From there, three decidedly different styles kick in. Lemmons and Ratliff both create loose, freely brushed images, with Lemmons giving greater emphasis to the physical mass of his subjects, while for Ratliff it's composition...
Or is it? Yes, everything by all three has been "composed," but the focus of composure shifts significantly from image to image.
For Peters, realistic illusions are fundamental, but they're quirky, sometimes kinky, and vary in emphasis from surreal to cartoon-like.
Peters' "Two Headed Calf" and "Show Girls" are complex, emotionally-charged raw canvas images (with grommet-holes for support) that suggest the hectic hype of carnival advertisements. So we might think, OK, that's where he's at - but other paintings, such as "Father, Father" insist on the importance of the heart.
Peters mixes dual, inside/outside imagery in several works.
"Father" juxtaposes a man's upper body, including a cut-away view of inner organs, with a landscape. (continued →)
