Once a Church Hill row home, the Schindler’s venerable exhibit area, consisting of three open living spaces, is still outfitted with the comforting amenities of window views and a hearth. The One/Off prints nestle comfortably and appropriately in its gracious corners and modest expanses of wall space. Viewing the show in this space seems to emphasize the perfect human scale that is taken into account by the standard girth and volume of a framed print.
The grande dame of the show assumes its natural dais over the mantel. It is Tanja Softic’s large, lush “Anatomy of Longing.” Softic’s botanical work, recently seen in full complement at the Hand Workshop, is as affluent in composite surface as its combined techniques can achieve. Etching, mezzotint and drypoint layer upon each other to endlessly fascinating result in this artist’s poetic work.
Along similar lines — both botanically speaking and with respect to the rich, visually tactile experience of a sophisticated print — is Janet Gilmore’s “Zimbabwean Golden Green Scorpion.” This large, complex screen print is somewhat obscurely stashed behind a column toward the rear of the foyer, but offers a nice surprise that waits out of view, like its subject matter would, to elegantly startle its victim.
Other perfect gems in the exhibition include Dawn Latane’s two etchings with aquatint. They are little stargazer scenes of white flecks on a black ground. The only mechanism for understanding Latane’s nocturnal landscapes, the place where land conceivably meets sky, is to read it in the twinkle of her stars. These images are so smart and magical. They are utterly wonderful. No exaggeration.
Mel Paca offers another enchantment in her “Little Angel” etching, and Barbara Tisserat’s untitled lithograph collage from her “Field Studies Series” endows her signature poetic approach to the ephemera of life with some unexpected tiny pink floral tokens from the new flower-child generation.
The One/Off exhibition continues its range across the scale of aesthetics, print techniques and the myriad psychologies of art. Jack Glover bestows the show with one of his funny, poignant human-interest profile pieces to add some warm humor to the room. Peter Calvert also provides a sketchy, amusing vignette on human nature and feminine group dynamics in his “Women, Three.” Joan Gaustad gives the show a sharp spasm of visceral agitation, which runs acutely through the linocut marks of her “Walkin.” Meanwhile, Ed Steinberg goes the cooler mathematical route with a nice series of intimate screenprints that consider once more the impact that dots, lines, circles and squares in complementary colors can have on one another. Although a couple of works on display have been decorator-framed to some disadvantage, the only dogs in the show are Warren Corrados’ “Borzoi”s, and they are as engaging as dogs can be. S
Eric Schindler Gallery, 2305 E. Broad St., hosts this year’s One/Off printmakers’ exhibition through April 7. For hours, contact gallery 644-5005.
