Susan Falcon-Hargraves: Dreams and Totems
Through April 13, 2008
Susan Falcon Hargraves exhibiton opens at West Valley Art Museum February 22. In a scant five years she has managed to carve out an artistic niche here in the Valley, first on the East side and now in the West as recent forays into juried shows have yielded top awards in the West side art arena.
The recent works in this show continue to evidence a quirky manner of realism. The paintings have the cache of family album photographs. This is even exaggerated as the restrained brushwork flattens the space in the paintings even when the subject is out doors as in the steer riding suburban cowboy against a cityscape. Everything in these paintings is presented as a stage set up with actors in front of a sometimes unlikely backdrop or next to strange animal companions. Witness the cocktail guzzeling ladies sitting in the middle of a Rousseau jungle in "Red Leopard". The little red leopard, which is a figurine on the bar, seems to be the object of their amusement - or is it? Two snakes ominously writhe through the scene, the ladies oblivious of their presence. Part of the attraction of these works is the myriad number of scenarios one can conjure up contemplating the paintings. The reference to snapshot photography is underlined by rendering the women in "Red Leopard" in black and white while the rest of the scene is in color. Hargrave's story-telling capacity is enormous when approached in this open-ended way.
Another device Susan employs that deepens the psychological tension in the interplay of her characters lies in the rendering of faces. We are all aware of the difference inherent in the two sides of our faces. The left side is never a mirror image of the right with perfect symmetry. (Dozens of magazine articles have put together mirror images of one side of famous faces and they become unrecognizable). Most of the faces in these flattened dramas have the aspect of difference accentuated. The painting "Random Eccentricities" has this feature most flagrently presented. It all adds up to a sense of unease in the group dynamic in the picture that makes the viewer unable to look away.Given this artistic background in dance and theater, it perhaps is a short stretch to understand the underpinnings for these works. It is definitely a show not to be missed.
