Local artists shine with new works
'Moon Shadows,' is one of Kendra Ezekiel's richly textured handmade paper based artworks, this one is wall mounted, all being displayed at the Rock Island Cafe. The list of materials itself reads like a poem, "paper, soil, pastel, charcoal on silk".
Black and grey textured waves of paper combine to form a very pleasing piece. It is one of the works in 'Kindling: Recent Works,' by Kendra Ezekiel now showing at the Rock Island coffee shop.
This work is ideally suited for this small exhibit place. There are two 'Pod,' lampshades hanging in windows made of paper and palm fibres. One is about a foot and a half and they both open pod-like to let the light from the light bulb out through the bottom and edges.
Hanging in the middle of the room are four more richly textured lampshades in handmade paper. The names are description in themselves: 'Crumpled Sphere', 'Cylinder', 'Cube' and 'Blown Pages'.
The later is like pages of a fanned open book. 'Moon Reflections,' is another wall mounted piece in shades of grey, glass is embedded in the handmade paper becoming a part of it.
In two other pieces she has also used spiralling metal and natural rope which protrude outside the edges of the pieces. The largest and most striking work in this show is 'Bottom of the Barrel,' on a very black, slightly rectangular square.
Mounted on it is an interwoven circle of cedar bark, tapering to fine points outside the circle, handmade paper and Norfolk pine branches with needles. Mounted as it is on the back wall it is a good anchor to a wonderful show.
If you are looking for variety in abstract paintings Eden Salon, also on Reid Street, is the place to go ? there are no Bermuda landscapes in the place. Most of the artwork is brilliantly set off by the peachy- orange walls.
Without labels, or a price list, it is an interesting exercise to look at the work without necessarily knowing who did it or what the titles are or even that the work is for sale.
Manuel Palacio has two paintings of still life in the show. A mango with shadows askew and out of proportion. Nothing about it is striking. It's a nice contrast of colours with blue and red but nothing like the vibrancy of his well known figures.
Kevin Morris has four small pieces in the show with his colourful horizontal strips cut from other paintings. But there is also a stunning blue, green and pale yellow painting that is a cross-like burst of colour.
Another long piece has a border of multicoloured lines pasted onto it and pointing to the centre of the piece, the corners especially seem to blast into it.
There are three interlinked diamond shapes in a work that is predominantly yellow with green and orange with some dripped in blue. It seems somewhat lost against the orange of the wall.
No one colour dominates in a piece by Bens Benson that leans slightly towards orange and looks a bit like amoebae playing in fun circles. Paint is dropped, dribbled, brushed or applied by palette - whatever seems to be needed.
In another more subdued piece, with a circle and some lines, he uses sand for a concrete-like effect. Another piece, that also looks child-like, is made up of patches of different coloured paint, some thin and poorly mixed.
On the back wall is a blue painting of the back of a figure by Glen Wilkes which is set off nicely by the orange walls. The figure is looking towards a place where edges are all askew.
Another piece that includes a more abstract figure and designs with balls and odd angels works well as a composition but is difficult to describe.
There are a variety of paintings by Stella Shakerchi. One suggests perhaps a window, perhaps an arch with swirls.
Another shows parts of a man in the water ? half his head and an arm ? which seem suspended in the blue.
Another seems complex and interactive suggesting feathers and movement with lots to speculate on.
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