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Amid the transient galleries that make up the Colonial ARTcade is Gallery Ü. Owned by Patsy Kline, the gallery, which is actually two distinct spaces within the urban, mall-like building, is a reliable venue for top-notch art by regional and national artists.
Gallery Ü's current exhibition, Germination: Reformation, Debra DeGregorio & Kevin Shahan , features 11 of DeGregorio's abstract, lucidly rendered drawings of intriguing organic forms in one gallery, and eight frenetically painted, Pop Art-inspired works by Shahan in the other.
The curatorial concept is quite compelling, as DeGregorio's work is about creating fantastical forms that are at times plantlike, at times evocative of human forms. Shahan appropriates and reconfigures signs and text — the visual language of everyday life — in his paintings. The play between constructing (or creating) and deconstructing (or taking apart and reconfiguring) forms and signs is clever, yet it would have been more interesting to see DeGregorio and Shahan's work together, intermingled throughout the Gallery Ü spaces. Such interplay could have served as commentary on the reproduction and deconstruction not only of signs, but also of the intangible, sacrosanct realm of abstraction, which is allegedly more “pure,” as it represents the side of humanity that is primal and spiritual. Integrating the artists' works might have also addressed the way the visual language of popular culture permeates the American psyche.
Despite this limiting curatorial scheme, Germination: Reformation does present large bodies of DeGregorio and Shahan's works, which are visually gripping in their own right. DeGregorio's drawings are simple and resplendent. Done largely in black on white paper, they subtly and sparingly incorporate matted colors such as cool light blue, hot red and muted peachy pink. The artist frequently calls the forms “bulbs” or “pods,” terms that reference plant life, yet the shapes are frequently reminiscent of human body parts. Pink & Blue Bulb, for instance, depicts a blue phallic form, complete with pink “testicles.” But the form is rendered fantastic as tendrils, like those of a sea creature, extend from the round, pink shape. The shapes are accentuated by gracefully drawn pencil lines, which continue beyond them; the lines are deliberate, yet rendered with abandon. While DeGregorio's drawings convey an expressionistic otherworldliness, their anthropomorphic, organic qualities imbue them with a comforting familiarity.
From a distance, Shahan's paintings appear as veritable orgies of images, text and symbols. In a culture filled with floating signs, Shahan's works attempt to congeal free-floating, contemporary iconography. Appropriating images from many facets of consumer culture, including magazines, postcards, billboards, advertisements and graffiti, he re-contextualizes fragmented words and images, as well as lines and colors. The paintings are the 21st century's version of Pop Art.
Time of Her Life , created in August 2001, presciently depicts a passenger plane pointing downward, with birds flying contentedly around it. On the right, the word “non-returnable” is printed in blocked letters that are scratched into, revealing the colors beneath. Shahan says the painting reminds him of the pre-9/11 world, when “things were more idyllic.” Shahan's paintings depict American excess; not only a glut of images, but an overabundance of objects and mundane ideas tied to consumption. Things were perhaps idyllic to some, but certainly not on a global or national scale. Shahan's paintings illustrate the oblivion Americans were living in before 9/11; they also reveal the oblivion many people still inhabit.