My impatience for the start of the fall art season is somewhat soothed by a handful of group exhibitions in Scottsdale and elsewhere. Summer doldrums are to be expected for all of us who sweat it out here, even gallery owners.
One of the best places to see work by a gallery’s stable of artists all at once is the Lisa Sette Gallery on Marshall Way, where the exhibition running through October 27, 2012, is “Refresh: A Selection of Exceptional Works.”
Stroll through the quiet of the small gallery and get acquainted with such artists as Mayme Kratz, Anthony Velasquez, Matthew Moore, Angela Ellsworth, Mark Klett and Claudio Dicochea. I have seen works by all six at Sette or various museums and am amazed by the output of these artists, most of whom live and work in Arizona.
Velasquez, for instance, makes thought-provoking and highly realistic still-life paintings in which he assembles found objects as diverse as bowling pins, old telephones, quail eggs and Braille books. He arranges and stacks the objects into totems that become entirely new objects, with their own stories to tell.
Kratz is known for her public art around Phoenix and at Sette displays intriguing medallions composed of the tiniest objects from nature — things like fish skeletons and unusual shells. The intricacy of her work is a wonder to behold.
Ellsworth, recently part of a show at the Phoenix Art Museum, lets her multimedia works comment on her Mormon upbringing. Perhaps her signature pieces are the sunbonnets composed of thousands of pearl-topped pins. You have to see them to believe them.
Add to the mix the innovative Arizona landscape photographs by Klett and the paint-by-number style of the social-commentary paintings of Dicochea and you’ve got an excellent show.
Check the site for Lisa Sette Gallery
for summer hours.
Explore Art: Phoenix 