Casey Roberts - Indianapolis Star, April 23, 2010, Pg. 34

 Casey Roberts, Prints, Indianapolis, Indiana Artist, painter, Indianapolis Art Center, Freaky ForestBy Mary Lee Pappas/Star Correspondent

April 23, 2010

Casey Roberts is more than an artist. He's also concerned about the environment in his own way, which shows through in "Freaky Forest," his latest exhibit at the Indianapolis Art Center.

Roberts, 38, uses unique cyanotype paintings to offer a critical look at environmental issues, but with a bit of levity.

Warm blue and beige tones -- created through a Civil War-era technique called cyanotype, which includes the use of baking soda and mild bleach solutions -- lend an overall visual coziness and a dreamy, comfortable quality in which beauty overshadows any bigger message.

"It's real simple. I'm not a super conceptual artist," said Roberts. "I want people to relate to it."

Trees are his major artistic protagonists in the 20 new works on view. However, he's introduced some new woodsy characters, too.

"Tons of trees. Armies of moths. Lots and lots of moths. They are almost like protectors, or scouts," Roberts said, explaining their role in his illustrative scenes, in which plant and animal forms are blocky and flat but resonate as delicate.

"There are trees with magic, obviously," he says with a light laugh. "It's the only way trees can communicate -- through magic."

And you actually start to believe him as you become immersed in his imagined landscape's full pine trees.

"It's all fantasy," Roberts said about his work. But there's an antagonistic undercurrent, a dark side at play here, too. "It's not all bubble gum."

His color scheme and topics easily lend themselves to being spooky and eerie, quiet like a fairy tale. "Freaky," he said, with a sense of humor.

For example, "Home Town" features a hole-riddled tree whose trunk is graffiti-emblazoned. "It's kind of a conversation between nature and man and how we clash and relate to each other," said Roberts, who for the first time has introduced sculptures into his repertoire of characters.

His "Freaky Forest" includes the outrageous addition of white ceramic, ambiguous animal heads with blue eyes. The busts, which have accompanying portraits, range in size from 15 to 24 inches and are among the exhibit's many surprises.

"I am so happy with them. They crack me up," said Roberts, who maintains a studio in the Murphy Building in Fountain Square. "These are the things I am most excited about in the show.

"With every show, I make a few steps forward. I feel like I'm progressing. (But) I'm still kind of chicken," he said. "One of these days I'm really going to break out and freak some people out."

Freaky Forest: Works by Casey Roberts

» When: Today through June 6. Center hours are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. » Where: Indianapolis Art Center (Churchman-Fehsenfeld Gallery), 820 E. 67th St. » Cost: Free. » Info: (317) 255-2464, www.indplsartcenter.org.

Check out four visual-arts exhibits worth your while

 By Mary Lee Pappas / Star correspondent

Posted: March 26, 2010

Indianapolis has always maintained a vibrant visual-arts scene.

From exhibits at local museums to shows inside some of the city's obscure and popular galleries, there's always fun, whimsical and thought-provoking art to peruse.

But trying to decipher which shows to devote your time to can be a little tricky. So we've done the work for you this week.

Here's a look at four shows to add to your weekend schedule.

Blankie

Nnenna Okore's "Blankie" is woven from found paper. It's on loan at the Indianapolis Art Center. - Photo provided by the Indianapolis Art Center

When: Through April 18. Hours are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays, and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays.

Where: Indianapolis Art Center, 820 E. 67th St.

Cost: Free admission. Call (317) 255-2464 or visit www.indplsartcenter.org.

Artist Nnenna Okore's sculptural installation "Blankie" recalls her childhood in Nsukka, Nigeria, and the industriousness of people to recycle discarded materials.

Woven from found paper, the piece hangs on a corridor wall with a softness and elegance defying its origins. In the piece, which truly resembles a blanket, she has methodically and intensely reworked the papers to create a convincing portrayal.

Okore -- a former student of renowned African artist El Anatsui -- is assistant professor and chair of the art department at North Park University in Chicago. "Blankie" is on loan by William L. Fortune Jr. and Joseph D. Blakley.

Jean-Jacques Porret: New Sculptures and Drawings

Jean-Jacques Porret's rhythmic bronze sculptures are on display through May 3 at ARTBOX. - Photo provided by ARTBOX Gallery

When: Through May 3. Hours are 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays.

Where: ARTBOX, 217 W. 10th St., Suite 140.

Cost: Free admission. Call (317) 955-2450 or visit www.artboxindy.com.

Abstract human forms comprise Chicago-based Jean-Jacques Porret's repertoire of rhythmic bronze sculptures.

Depicting movement and expression, the minimalist pieces have a playful exuberance. This Swiss-born engineer-turned-self-taught-artist's sleek and rounded works are created with the lost wax process, which is itself intriguing.

The perfectionist eye you would expect and attention to every detail are there as well. Porret even purchased a marble and granite company to create bases that met his high standards.

Mike Graves

When: Through April 18. Hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Where: Indy Hostel, 4903 Winthrop Ave.

Cost: Free admission. Call (317) 727-1696 or visit www.indyhostel.us.

Graves creates large-scale abstracts in subdued, warm and heavy tones with knowing brushstrokes. His compositions are harmonious and balanced, even though they grapple with tough concepts of spirit and the human condition.

Probably best known as a local musicproducer, his paintings range in topic from portraits of Mab Lab bandmate Kate Lamont to depictions of the chakras. A few pieces are collaborative works with fellow DJ and painter Justin Cooper.

Incorporating and layering sheet music, text and found imagery into his paintings, Graves' work takes on a graphic quality even though it remains introspective and personal.

Known more as a concert venue, Indy Hostel is proving itself as a place that's well worth the visit for visual-art exhibitions -- which it hosts once a month.

Mike Graves and Justin Cooper collaborated on "Spoon Version Mixed Media." - Photo provided by Indy Hostel

Christopher West Presents Fear of Flying: Josh Azzarella, Stacey M. Holloway and Euan Macdonald

This image from Euan Macdonald's "Two Planes" video is part of the Fear of Flying exhibit at the Dean Johnson Gallery. - Photo provided by Christopher West Presents

When: Through April 10. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays.

Where: Dean Johnson Gallery, 646 Massachusetts Ave.

Cost: Free admission. Call (317) 634-8020 or visit www.deanjohnson.com.

Works dealing with anxieties and what-ifs based on the theme of airplanes is at the crux of this three-artist exhibition at the Dean Johnson Gallery.

Participating artists are New York-based Josh Azzarella, Indianapolis-based Stacey M. Holloway and Los Angeles-based Euan Macdonald, whose pieces unite in this thought-provoking show.

Macdonald's video "Two Planes" -- in which he has superimposed an image of a plane flying over its original footage -- is graceful. Azzarella revisits the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and the possibilities if the planes had not hit the World Trade Center. Holloways's installation, which is just as emotionally edgy, explores her own fear of flying.

Indianapolis Art Center, Nnenna Okore, Sculture, Jean-Jacques Porret, ARTBOX, Mike Graves, IndyHostel, Christopher West Presents, Josh Azzarella, Stacey M. Holloway, Evan McDonald, Dean Johnson Gallery, Indianapolis, Photography

Artistic process is the story behind exhibit of 12 paintings

 

Artistic process is the story behind exhibit of 12 paintings 

By Mary Lee Pappas / Star correspondent

Posted: December 25, 2009

"Small Paintings," William BurtonLawson's exhibition at the Indianapolis Art Center, reveals all of the artist's artistic quirks.

The 12 little oil paintings in this show are all different. They aren't part of a body of work, but rather glimpses of Lawson's influences, his direction and what makes him tick as a painter.

His process, not subjects, lends the cohesion to the pieces that vary from plein-air vantages of the Oregon coast to a straight-on view of the Fountain Diner.

An Indianapolis native and professional painter for more than a decade, Lawson lists Hoosier Group artists T.C. Steele and William Forsyth, as well as regionalist artists of the Depression era William Kaeser and Cecil Head, as inspirations. But he doesn't imitate.

"There aren't too many artists my age who look up to these guys, but I have always felt a strong connection with their paintings. I chose to go against the grain and honor tradition," said Lawson, 35, who describes his work as "representational with both contemporary and traditional values."

Add his Precisionist tendencies, and the result is comfortable abstractions of what would otherwise be mundane.

Urban landscape scenes of buildings, homes and alleyways have distinguished Lawson from other local artists, particularly those in his generation. Half of the show features these works, which best represent his sensibilities and abilities.

Compositions of nondescript Downtown locales are tightly cropped like segmented studies where rooftops become flat color fields of unnatural hues and get bent in skewed angles.

In a painting titled "Rooftops," his mental method, the way he intellectualizes and dissects space, is fully realized. The works are simple and unemotional, and the everyday subjects seem irrelevant to the task at hand: painting. His gestures are smooth, steady and even; nothing feels forced.

"Carnival" is another such painting -- a garage is central to the fragmented scene, with a bit of a Ferris wheel tucked into the background and a car in the foreground.

"These paintings have a more contemporary feel," he said. "People can identify with the work, and I like to think that it creates a balance between individual expectations and conceptual thinking."

The visually easy balance he strikes with form and his stark palettes, which vary painting to painting, is effortless. It's upon closer inspection that you realize significant architectural details are missing, or that a gutter is disproportioned to create a comfortable, believable illusion. His visual twists are subtle and smart.

Two paintings of lone vintage typewriters also have found their way into this survey of Lawson's work.

"I have an ongoing series of typewriters that are getting pretty good response," Lawson said of this continuum. "I think it's important that people find something in your art that's fun and with which they can easily identify."

William Lawson, painter, Indianapolis Art Center, T.C. Steele, William Forsyth, William Kaeser, Cecil Her, Urban Landscapes, William Burton Lawson, artist, Indiana