Acrylic Tip; Michael Kessler's New Paintings Challenge Notions of Texture and Form.

Summary

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The artist isn't the first to play with the elements in a painting. Sigmar Polke experimented in the 1980s with embedding crushed rock and metal dust in resin on a canvas and letting the surface age and change. [Michael Kessler]'s play is less alchemical than Polke's, but the impulse to incorporate the elements into a painting is the same.

In Schmidt-Dean's back gallery, Elisabeth Nickles' cast glass figures of birds, animals and human heads create an otherworldly atmosphere. Nickles is a novice glass worker, introduced to the material recently in a residency at Pilchuck on the West Coast after working for years in bronze. Her glass stays true to her theme of reverence for nature, here adding a reference to ancient Roman glass. Nickles' glass objects are showcased on handmade metal armatures that lift them high in the air as if they're sacrifices for the gods or triumphant icons. Either way, a viewer's thoughts turn to ancient rituals and somewhat simpler times.

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Acrylic Tip; Michael Kessler's New Paintings Challenge Notions of Texture and Form.

Michael Kessler's new acrylic paintings at Schmidt-Dean have remarkable charm. Hardedged imagery (stripes, rectangles and grids) tempered by soft, loopy lines, the works have saturat...

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