| Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
Friday, May 3, 2002
VISUAL ARTS
Seeing what smallness can show us
By
Jerry Cullum
For the Journal-Constitution
Size really does matter, in art as everywhere else.
It’s just that the size that matters doesn’t have to
be big.
Spruill Gallery sets out to prove the virtues of
smallness in this engaging, eccentric show. The
overwhelming feature is the immense number of small
photographs by Los Angeles photographer Gary
Leonard: over 100 pictures, hung salon style. But
each is eminently worthwhile, and collectively they
add up to a big picture of L.A.: Jerry Lewis, street
gangs, strip clubs and a host of other phenomena
past and present.
Another big group of little things is found in King
Thackston’s incredibly detailed “The Wrong Side of
the Tracks: The Dark Side of Model Railroading,” a
miniature Southern town of the 1950s that is
comically horrific. From the strike at the textile
mill to scenes of more clandestine activities, this
sendup of Southern Gothic critiques yesterday’s
reality with engaging good humor. In the adjacent
gallery, Gretchen Hupfel’s tiny scale models of
crashing DC-10s are equally dark but considerably
less funny.
Another category on view here is little paintings of
big things. Amanda Crandall’s tiny, elegant
renderings of scenes in Yellowstone National Park
and Sharon
Weiss’ “Teton Storm” depict vast Western vistas.
David Ivie’s drawings and paintings also deal with
large-scale subjects, but they work by crowding
remarkable amounts of evocative or darkly comic
detail into a small canvas.
Single objects – Deanna Sirlin’s little abstract
painting, or the tableau inside Helen Cohen’s
“Samsonite Streamline,” Adrienne Anderson’s little
artist’s book – extend what smallness shows us,
while Barbara Schreiber’s two pieces offer more this
provocative artist’s instructively comic view of
live. Living nature creeps in with Mike Redgrave’s
bonsai trees, and the exhibition is finished off by
Daniel Guggin and Aaron Anderson’s insanely inspired
mix of songs on the dual theme of “little, big.”
Their ironic juxtapositions perfectly sum up this
show’s strange tone.
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