Convergences: The Sculpture of Larry Graeber and Jessica Ramirez, curated by Richard Teitz (San Antonio, TX). January 20 – March 3, 2012.
Unit B is pleased to present Convergences: The Sculpture of Larry Graeber and Jessica Ramirez, curated by Richard Teitz (San Antonio, TX). This exhibition of recent works by the San Antonio-based artists will be on display January 20 – March 3, 2012.
"Sculpture," Francis Henry Taylor, the one-time Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1940-1955), is reputed to have said "is what you trip over when you step back to look at a painting." Trained as a medievalist, Taylor pretty much ignored or denigrated the non-representational sculptors and painters of his day. However, an element of truth is contained in his bon mot.
Sculpture, despite the acclaim given to Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, Louise Bourgeois, David Smith, Claes Oldenburg, and Richard Serra, has often taken a critical back seat to painting. The principal reason may well be that sculpture usually requires a multiplicity of viewpoints, an experience the observer is often unacquainted with. It is a different way of seeing.
Larry Graeber enjoys a significant reputation as both painter and sculptor, beginning with his inclusion in a statewide exhibit in the 1970s at the Dallas Museum of Art to regular, one-person exhibits at several galleries in San Antonio and elsewhere during the last decade.
His paintings, which often feature geometric abstractions in a few vivid colors, reflect his fondness for the post-impressionists and expressionists. The oil paint is heavily applied. His titles can be straightforward, derived from dominant features of imagery and palette: White Column, Red Divide, Blue Wind, Beyond the Green.
Growing up in Austin, Larry, the son of a leading architect with an international practice, developed a strong and continuing interest in art and architecture. In all his work, the artist draws upon a rich knowledge of twentieth-century history of art. The viewer can detect diverse influences, from Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt to Frank Stella and Jasper Johns.
In his recent sculpture, we experience a different feeling, as Larry draws upon discarded or abandoned elements - tubing, wires, foam core board, and wooden scraps - fashioning them in geometric components of boxes, tripods, and towers. Sometimes they appear with his characteristic heavy application of paint; in other instances, he applies a light, almost translucent wash. The architectonic features provide a framework, but the vocabulary is personal and sometimes whimsical as in pieces like Shoe Box and Time Float.
For Jessica Ramirez, who grew up in Houston and first came to San Antonio for graduate study in Fine Arts at UTSA (where she now teaches), her sculpture has been a consistent vision. Starting with welded metal constructions, she has turned her hand in recent years to fabric and fiberglass pieces.
Some of her pieces appear anthropomorphic, suggesting giant insects or crustaceans, while others are assembled in non-representational forms. Like Larry, Jessica incorporates discarded elements of wire and plexiglass, but she utilizes them as structural features balancing the free- form expressiveness of poured fiberglass and stitched vinyl.
Her recent exhibitions at the Satellite Gallery at the Blue Star Arts Complex and the Alameda Theatre downtown, demonstrate a clear mastery of materials. Lately, she has started embellishing her pieces, adding tulle and other fabrics to the sculptural surface. Like Larry Graeber, Jessica has discovered that found, discarded, and repurposed "stuff" establishes a strong basis for her constructed pieces.
Juxtaposing these two San Antonio artists provides an opportunity for Unit B Gallery to re-examine the role of sculpture in today’s art. For the viewer the works in the exhibition present an intriguing and engaging dialogue about two paths being followed, different but similar.
