Suzanne Anker(Rastovski, April 1–19, 1987)Suzanne Anker's work, like that of many of the artists who show at the L. Rastovski Gallery, builds up from a nurturing connection to organic processes. They imitate a connection to the primordial past. They seem to arise with a whisper from the same organic processes of molten evolution that brought about the formation of the earth. But they are not objects in transition. They have arrived at a crystallized, emphatic moment that suggests the formative shifts of raw elements. Her pieces are direct totems, not to gods but to the earth itself with its volcanic stretches. With a tender but awesome whisper of authority that respects the genesis of her materials, she refines and shapes the gritty elements, transforming them into requiems for the molten emergence. Like a geologic shaman, she breeds life in the village ingredients. In this show she displays pastels on paper that emphasize the soft malleability of hushed tones, the stark echoes of singed impressions, as well as sculpture pieces that involve a bronzed funnel shape embraced by tree limbs, stirring interactions between the organic and geometric. They celebrate the mating of the formerly unfamiliar, the harmony of the disparate. Her large linen panels are built up with encaustic to a thickness that is appropriate in mood to the brooding elegance she fashions with the earth textures and dark pigments. Already well known and much respected as a seminal force in papermaking, Ms. Anker's bound into other forms is welcomed. (press release) |