Good as new

Fitchburg hunts down budding talent for its fifth biennial

by Leon Nigrosh

NEW ENGLAND/ NEW TALENT
At the Fitchburg Art Museum, 185 Elm Street, Fitchburg, through March 26.

"New England/New Talent" may be a catchy title for an exhibition, but for the Fitchburg Art Museum's fifth biennial it's only half-right. While it's true several New England states are represented, virtually all of the artists have been around -- several for some time. But this is not necessarily a bad thing, because the quality and mastery of the artists is professionally consistent.

Yet it should be noted, among the 18 artists represented, there are no risk-takers. Much of the work, while competently executed, is rather bland; the artists seem more concerned with the painterly pursuits of surface and texture, than concentrating on subject and content. This approach is certainly not going to deliver a deeper appreciation of the artistic endeavors on display. And it could be argued that this is symptomatic of the current trends in the visual arts, or that this exhibit was based on a conscious, or subconscious, bias on the part of the invited jurors -- or even the curator -- who, after all, could choose only from the artists who submitted their works.

But that's not to say there isn't good work here. The first paintings to greet you are a group of panels depicting robust young boys doing kid things. Jayne Adams painted these blocky, colorful images while her own teen-aged sons and their friends posed. Her five-foot-long, oil-on-panel Rehearsal has five inset images of a bare-chested boy playfully using a stick as a sword, a rifle, and other fanciful weapons. Her large two-panel painting Chainlink shows four young friends -- arms connected -- in a rich view of camaraderie.

Diane Dahlke is another painter who continues to create realistic portrayals, but her subjects are all dead fish. She sees fish as a metaphor for the disquieting things that lurk in our consciousnessn sexuality, corruption, death, and fear of the unknown. Her small, highly detailed painting Breastplate offers us a semi-nude girl doll with a dead, red sand crab on top of it. The brilliant color and the natural symmetry of the crustacean do little to lessen the feeling that the blind doll is really the Bride of Chucky. A raven-haired doll and a meticulously rendered mackerel are shown sharing an intimate moment in Kiss, while in Innocence and Experience another fish is swaddled in a lacy blouse. As unsettling as these images may be, they are executed with such precision we are drawn to them repeatedly.

Great Barrington artist Lori Schafer is an avowed vegetarian who respects all things living, which is obvious in her series of large portraits of organic vegetables. In charcoal, pastel, and chalk, she renders every crevice and bump in Munch's Beet to produce a thoughtful likeness of this unique plant. Her seven-foot-long Zuka's Sweet P. glorifies the lowly, lumpy sweet potato. By carefully examining each of her subjects, Schafer has imbued them with perceptible personalities.

Pete Guenther lives in Vermont, works on a farm, and photographs cows. He really knows his bovines, and his direct, close-up, black-and-white pictures bespeak an intimacy that is unlike the standard barnyard fare. But it is Paul Cary Goldberg's large-format Gicleé photographs that make an effective argument for the appropriate use of this computer-enhancement technique. His two-foot-square still-lifes, Pottery, Tin, and Pods and Three Green Shades, are not only exquisitely composed, but also are drenched with riveting colors that emanate from the patinaed tin pot, the Grueby pottery, and the remarkably spherical melon. These objects are made even more luscious by the dramatic way Goldberg has lighted them against an inky-black background. Without losing any of the clarity, which occurs with traditional photographic techniques, computer enlargement -- in this case -- enhances the tonalities and textures inherent in his subject materials, making them appear to glow.

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