New views

DeCordova's annual exhibition highlights the area's emerging artists

by Leon Nigrosh

>THE 1998 DECORDOVA ANNUAL EXHIBITION At the DeCordova Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, through September 7.

Every summer since 1989 the DeCordova Museum has mounted "Artists/Visions," an exhibition that showcases some of New England's finest emerging artists. The tradition continues this year as well, but in conjunction with the opening of the newly constructed gallery space, this important show has been renamed the "DeCordova Annual Exhibition." Rather than attempting to squeeze the work of 10 area artists into some ethereal unifying theme, curators Nick Capasso Rachel Rosenfield Lafo continue to stress depth, diversity, and originality.

Upon entering the spacious, well lit, new space, we are greeted by a group of large, biomorphic objects constructed by Vermont artist John Hughes. Meticulously fabricated of steel, paper, and wood, these freestanding abstract sculptures are suggestive both of tools and machines as well as organic structures. No Title 1998, soars nearly seven feet into the air, its bulbous wood base holds a translucent paper form aloft and is reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty flame. No Title 1997, suspended in air, conjures images of a Japanese lantern seed pod or a swan with a graceful patinated steel neck. Yet these works are none of these things. They are enigmatic, mysterious, and undeniably beautiful. Sensuous curves meld with lines and planes to create visual stimuli with pleasing proportions and subtle relationships that offer their own rewards.

Boston artist Vico Fabbris needs an entire room to take us into his magnificently colorful world of Unknown Botanicals. Fabbris lets us peek into dozens of large-format books richly illustrated with highly detailed watercolors or metalpoint drawings, complete with extensive explanations floridly handwritten in Italian. (Translations are posted nearby.) These images are accurately drawn with an eye toward botany.

We are inexorably drawn into these wonderful images with the growing feeling that we are being exposed to some newly discovered historical phenomena. And indeed we are, for it eventually becomes evident that these exciting pictures of flora are based entirely on Fabbris's own imagination. Like the "archeology" of contemporary artists Kahn and Selesnick, Fabbris has created an elaborate and convincing fiction backed by seemingly irrefutable artistic information. The works may be real, but the subjects are not. However, since the entire premise is that these images are historical evidence, do the drawings themselves become fake? It is an interesting conundrum to ponder, which only enhances the effect of the entire body of work.

In case you missed Boston artist Stephanie Chubbuck's recent solo exhibit at the Heywood Gallery, you can see an expanded selection of works in her witty installation, Corporeal Harvest, in an upstairs gallery in the DeCordova. Dozens of lifelike pears, nectarines, and plums are set, usually in pairs, on tiny shelves around the perimeter of the room, which has a fully set table for two in the center. Simple, unassuming, and elegant -- until you look closely at each piece of fruit. Chubbuck has refastened some of the latex fruit skins with eye hooks, zippers, and even garter snaps. Several pears are stitched with needle and thread, while others have their flesh surgically sutured together. Some have human-like beauty marks and some have hair stubble. By juxtaposing disparate elements in this manner, Chubbuck has elevated these mundane fruits to metaphors for the human condition. We can easily read these objects as signs of love, despair, sado-masochism, and conformity -- but all with a humorous twist.

A former music student, Bedford artist Thomas Halloran has been fascinated with Beethoven's death mask for a long time. He has painted a number of versions of this mask, four of which are currently on display. Halloran pays homage to his hero by working in heroic scale -- the smallest painting is seven by six feet. Each painting is an extreme close-up of the composer's face, to the extent that Beethoven Death Mask Variation IV is primarily upper lip and nose.

The works are painted in murky brown tones and distressed with dirt, ash, and charcoal to create surfaces that appear to be in decay. The canvases take on the look of rocky landscapes, but within each one Beethoven's visage can be seen, suggesting the enduring power of the artist and his music.

Paint, photography, carved stone, and mixed-media make up the rest of this refreshing look at some of the concepts New England artists are currently exploring.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 781-259-8355.