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Art Review: Artists’ works exhibit clean, modern feel at JRB Art at the Elms |
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There is a clean, modern feel to the work in two new shows at JRB Art at the Elms gallery.
The artists, one born in Venezuela and the other born in Denmark, have lived in Oklahoma for many years.
Figures with featureless faces interact and almost play games with flowers, landscapes and background elements in the colorful acrylic paintings of Thomas Batista, an Oklahoma City artist born in Venezuela.
Flowers do not entirely dispel the bittersweet undertone of Batista’s painting of a blank-faced woman sitting beside a large vase of blossoms. The woman’s severe hairstyle and striped robe give her an Asian aspect.
A nearly featureless woman in rich red "Evening Attire” gazes into space in one acrylic, while a woman turns slightly away from semi-abstract flowers in a painting Batista calls "Singing Alone.”
Communicating more of a feeling of bonhomie is a "Cafe Gathering” of red-hued seated people, silhouetted in front of a light, yellow-and-white background, in Batista’s 30-by-40-inch work of that title.
Rhythmic but ambiguous shapes that could represent trees or flowers frame our "Gentle Vista” of yellow-white light in the center of another quietly satisfying large acrylic by Batista.
Batista’s "The Bouquet” stands out dramatically in front of a striped background, offering a contrast to the way a vase of flowers blends into and is nearly camouflaged by the "Patterned Room” around it.
Batista is creative director, president and chief executive officer of The Batista Group, an Oklahoma City advertising, design, public relations and corporate communications firm.
Birthe Flexner described herself as greatly influenced by "the simple lines, love of material, and honest craftsmanship of the Danish Design Movement of the 1950s” in her native Denmark.
A longtime Norman resident, Flexner achieves a particularly good balance between form and function, color, texture, repetitive surface decorations and sculptural elements in her work at JRB.
A simple, elongated "Green Bowl Shape” by Flexner seems to have reared up, been multiplied by three and placed on a black metal stand, turning it into a dramatic "Green Sculpture,” for example.
In a somewhat similar "Red and Black Sculpture,” one of the three bowl or boat-like forms — rich reddish-brown in color — bends backward and becomes almost sail-like or even tongue-like.
"I visualize my pots filled with the myriad colors and textures of food … oval platters with fish, large bowls with colorful salads, tureens with stew or soup,” she said.
Both shows are recommended viewing during their run through Aug. 29.
— John Brandenburg
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© Joy Reed Belt 2010
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