Photo –
Published in the Weekly Volcano, Nov. 9, 2011
By Alec Clayton
 |
| “John and Yoko,” oil painting by Katlyn Hubner, courtesy Feast Art Center |
Seattle artist Katlyn Hubner is well known in
the Emerald City and, if she is not equally well known in Tacoma she should be and
hopefully will be soon after the opening of her show Codependent Menagerie at Feast Arts Center. A menagerie is usually
thought of in reference to four-legged animals, but in this show they are human
animals. And the term “codependent” in this context should be self-evident.
Hubner is a painter and videographer. Her paintings are all about the human
figure and, as she points out, “human emotions. … I am captivated by the extent
to which moments in our lifetime can affect us. My whole point of making art is
to tell stories," she says.
Hubner’s paintings are in a style reminiscent
of the great Alice Neel. She is a realist, not in the sense of photo-realist
painting with smooth modulation of colors and shadows but in the sense of
depicting the reality of humanity with no attempt to beautify or idealize. She
paints with broad strokes and harsh contrasts. Nudes and sexuality abound.
Often in her work the figure is cropped in strange and unexpected ways or seen
from odd points of view. Many are depicted as grotesque or horrifying. In many
there are liberal drips, with painting running down the canvas as if the
figures are melting.
Gallery owner Todd Jannausch says there will be six paintings in the show, all
recent works, to include a wonderfully harsh painting of John Lennon and Yoko
Ono based on a famous photograph, but which does not pretend to look like John
and Yoko. Most of her paintings are in the three-by-four feet range.
Also of
particular note in Tacoma is Two Centuries of American
Still-Life Painting: The Frank and Michelle Hevrdejs Collection at Tacoma Art Museum. This major exhibition from the
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, features an array of still life paintings from
European modern, realist and trompe l’oeil paintings, impressionist painters
and American masters. See realistic paintings by James Peale and Andrew Wyeth,
and stylized modernist paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe and the lushly painted pop
art of Wayne Thiebaud, amongst others in this spectacular exhibition.
In Olympia, this weekend offers the last chances to see Breath and Bone Songs, paintings by Jeffree Stewart at All Sorts Gallery. Stewart is a
longtime favorite among Olympia painters. Tacomans will recognize his work from
his many appearances in the annual juried shows at Tacoma Community College.
His paintings are rich and densely packed with swirling brushstrokes that seem
to trap primitive looking figures of humans and animals — figures inspired by
ancient petroglyphs.
Finally, I wind up this listing of must-see
shows with the best of all, drawings by Marilyn Frasca at
Childhood’s End Gallery in Olympia. As I stated in the Oct. 19 issue of this
newspaper, Frasca’s “imagination,
her empathy with her subject matter and her accomplished drawing skill make for
an amazing show.” This show also closes after this weekend.
Katlyn Hubner Codependent Menagerie, noon to 4
p.m. Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, and by appointment, Nov. 18-Jan. 6,
Feast Arts Center 1402 S. 11th St., Tacoma
Two
Centuries of American Still-Life Painting: The Frank and Michelle Hevrdejs
Collection, through Jan. 7, 2018, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, 5-8 p.m.
Third Thursday, Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific
Avenue, Tacoma, $13-$15, free to
members, http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org/
Jeffree Stewart:
Breath and Bone Songs, 5-7 p.m. and by appointment, Nov. 10-12, Allsorts
Gallery, 2306 Capitol Way S.,
Olympia, https://www.facebook.com/Allsorts-Gallery, 323-254-6220
Marilyn Frasca Drawings,
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, through Nov. 12, Childhood’s
End Gallery artist talk 3 p.m., 222 Fourth Ave. W, Olympia, 360.943.3724.
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