Common Thread

February 23, 2006 - By Kurt Shaw

TRIBUNE-REVIEW ART CRITIC

Thursday, February 23, 2006

With the work of more than 130 local artists currently filling up the flat files at Digging Pitt Gallery in Lawrenceville, gallery owner John Morris noticed a common thread among them.

"There were a number of artists that I noticed were collaborating," he says of the work contained in the popular flat files, a concept at the core of Morris' year-old gallery that allows visitors easy access to hundreds of works of art, mostly on paper and unframed, at relatively affordable prices.

Morris says the trend locally reflects a larger trend nationally. "It's definitely a trend in the art world," he says. "It's a great diabolical plot. If you want to move up in the art world, collaborating with a better-known artist is a good way to get noticed."

Now, Morris has taken a few of the collaborative pieces from the flat files and hung them on the walls. He has also asked the artists who created them to bring in several more such works, for 'Collaborations,' an exhibition that reflects this collaborative trend.

Having works in different media by more than a dozen different artists, mostly working in pairs, the show doesn't exactly prove the "two heads are better than one" theory, but it does make for some interesting art.

For example, "Babyman" is what you get when photographer Jae Ruberto and street artist Ladyboy merge talents. Looking up with wonderous delight at an iconic clown head with diamonds for eyes that Ladyboy is known for having posted around town, the innocent-looking man in the print is covered in drawn-on pink-and-blue hairs in an added creative twist that makes for a moving image.

Although it's obvious that Ladyboy has run amok over Ruberto's already moving photograph, resulting in something even more compelling, in many of the other works on display it's hard to tell who did what, who influnced whom or who had the guiding vision resulting in each piece.

"That's the one thing about these works," Morris says. "Sometimes you can't tell who worked on what."

That's especially true of the work of Adam Grossi and Josh Tonies. With a dozen paintings on display by the pair, it's hard to tell who painted what, even though there is a single work by each also on display to reference for comparison.

For example, "Arctic Twin Tip" is an amalgam of painted imagery, the most dominant of which is a couple in skiing gear -- obviously appropriated from an advertisement. With its varying texture and overlapping color, it's difficult to determine whose hand was responsible for what in the semi-abstract painting.

Metalsmith Sera Swan collaborated with not one, but two artists. With Kyle Ethan Fischer, she created 18 mixed-media works that turn Fischer's drawings on paper into little prayer rugs in an effort to make a statement about the war in Iraq. With sculptor Rick Bach, she turned his expressive animal designs into pendant necklaces and other jewelry. Her own jewelry is also on display for comparison.

In some cases a certain artist's unmistakable personal style is evidenced in the works, as with Bach, whose wildly styled works visitors will recognize from the interiors he has created for the Mad Mex restaurants.

Ceramicist Laura Jean McLaughlin's comical style of ceramic art, which can be seen on various commercial facades in the East End from art galleries to a grocery store, is also readily apparent in much of the works she created along with Bob Ziller.

In most of the mixed-media pieces on display, which take the form of everything from coffee tables to a wall-hung mirror, McLaughlin's colorful, funky ceramics dominate. But in one piece in particular, a portrait on a wall-hung platter titled "Rimbaud," it is impossible to see her influence because the portrait is not at all like her work, except for the mere fact that the media is the same.

McLaughlin and Ziller have taken the collaboration idea even further having executed several "exquisite corpse" drawings they have done either together or with other artists.

The phrase "exquisite corpse," originates from the French surrealist game in which sentences were created by a group of people, each person not knowing what the previous words were. The drawn version is played in similar fashion, but with folded paper so as not to reveal what each participant has done. Given such strict parameters, the drawings are rather fun and relatively cohesive given that each artist has done with their half or quarter sheet.

Finally, aforementioned artists Fischer and Swan have taken the "exquisite corpse" idea even further, involving fellow artists Bill Cousins, Danielle Crumrine and Randie Snow in the creation of "Untitled (Exquisite Corpse)," which is comprised of an actual metal casket that has been painted with the American flag and holds a handmade skeleton filled with a bird's nest and other objects.

In keeping with the other works by Fischer and Swan on display, it is an obvious comment on the current war, but very much a perfect example of what can be accomplished when several artists puts their heads together.

Bottom line, this show is an inspiration. It is especially so for artists who might want to try the same, as well as for non-artists to get some insight into a trend among local artists that is definitely worth watching.

Learn more: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_426573.html

Publication: Trib p.m./Ticket