Current Show at Bonfoey Gallery
Exurbs: A Collected Environment
March 28- April 26, 2008
Paintings by: Laura Sanders, Susan Danko and Dana Oldfather at
the Bonfoey Gallery, 1710 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44115
April 8, 2008
April 6, 2008
Bonfoey EXURBS: A Collected Environment, March 28 – April 26, 2008
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
Published: April 2, 2008Exurbs: A Collected Environment — In this three-artist show, Laura Sanders, Dana Oldfather, and Susan Danko exhibit stylistically varied paintings loosely united by themes and settings exploring mindscapes as well as landscapes. In her “Heads Above Water” series, Columbus artist Sanders paints realistic pictures of children and adolescents swimming outdoors. This subject matter may sound suspiciously precious, but her paintings express a sense of isolation rarely found in images of youngsters. The children fight to stay afloat, gasping for breath as their faces break through the water’s surface. In her larger works, Sanders groups boys and girls wading together, but the children aren’t playing with one another. Instead, they gaze off into the distance or rub the water out of their eyes. Curiously, in some paintings Sanders includes muskrats swimming alongside the children. These semiaquatic creatures are at home in wetlands; positioning the effortlessly swimming animals next to the struggling children serves as a reminder that these humans don’t belong in the water. Self-taught Cleveland painter Oldfather presents a series of prints and paintings starring a sketchily outlined female figure navigating an imagined world of miasmic, abstracted backgrounds. Titles such as “We’re Going,” “The Long Commute,” and “Glide” reinforce her works’ sense of journey. Cleveland Institute of Art graduate Susan Danko’s flatly painted acrylic works resemble backgrounds from animated fairy tales. The highly patterned forest scenes forgo atmospheric perspective; the layered shapes representing trees, rocks, and shrubbery recede as they go higher up the canvas. Through April 26 at The Bonfoey Gallery, 1710 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, 216-621-0178, www.bonfoey.com. — Theresa Bembnister