Using a swirl of varied mediums, “Re•Iterate” is a fiery, highly textural exhibition curated by Lorraine Heitzman and featuring works by Heitzman, Raghubir Kintisch and Monica Wyatt. The viewer’s eye darts between textures, colors and patterns, finding a focus both in the meaning of individual works and their cumulative presence.
Like the notes in a symphony that build to a crescendo, the reiterated patterns on display create a rising dynamic of visual excitement and exploration between and among the three artists.
Wyatt’s work often repurposes metal and plastic manufacturing materials into something lustrous and magical. Here she uses zip-ties to shape her works, which are primarily monochromatic with moments of ruby red. Replication of a Relic (2023) includes circular red shapes placed among a massive, grape-like cluster of inky black balls. Some feature protruding spidery nails; others are conjoined with red and silver wire. Whether we are seeing a nest of just-opening creatures emerging from eggs or a mysterious alien fruit, her repetition of form creates meaning. Suspended in the gallery’s center, Gosssamer Flight (2023) is the stuff of dandelion seeds and caterpillars from space. The graceful ballet of Cactus on Mars #2 (2023) is created with silver wire forming dendrite branches which bloom spiky, white zip-tie blossoms tipped with liquid red.
Heitzman uses found materials as an integral part of her mixed- media paintings and assemblages on wood panels. Geometric but abstract patterns spring from materials such as roofing tile. Whatever the media, she transforms discarded bits of the modern world into art with an exciting grasp of motion. Using a quilt-type pattern, Steeples and Peoples (2023) presents shapes that recall lighthouses, lifeguard towers and cityscapes. Enigmatic Roof (2023) uses her glinting roofing material to create thick, leaning brown lines that recall both tire treads and obscurely typeset Greek letters. Stagecraft (2022) is a witty tour de force in three separate sections. A face peers forward, toward a grid of lines that could be scrim or screen in the top two sections; the lower third presents blue facades that recall chess pieces, positioned before a backdrop door, beyond which stand a fragment of stairs and a yellow wall.
Kintisch has the most number of works in the exhibition—bright paintings on paper that resemble both hieroglyphics and tomb paintings, all strongly referencing the mystical. While each small, vivid work could stand alone, hung side by side in salon style, they form a spiritual and transcendent language. A blue, white, pink and brown bird cocks its head toward the viewer, arising from a series of patterned squares in Wild Bird in Hand (2022). Multi-colored fish bob on a grey sea as red and green flowers float by in the lush Lily Ponderosa (2022). In Protector of Children (2022), a woman balances on one leg on the back of a surprised russet cat, the outline of a tiny baby pressed into her body.
Exuding a sense of wonder, each artist’s work reveals within that wonder a glowing, playfulness and power.