Shadow Lands
Three-dimensional work by TLaloC, Nancy Sansom Reynolds, and Ajay Kurian; portraits by Ken Marlow
THE INTRODUCTORY TEXT FOR TLALOC'S VisArts exhibition is in two languages, English and an imaginary one constructed of runes and glyphs. But the show's title, "Los Extranjeros," is in Spanish, which is telling. This elaborate installation doesn't directly address the issues faced by migrants from Latin America, but their sense of alienation does seem to inform the Mexico-born artist's dystopian tableaux.
In the darkened expanses of VisArts's largest gallery, TLaloC (aka Eduardo Corral) has constructed multiple 3D vignettes that suggest an abandoned, formerly industrial landscape. Several patches of scruffy earth fail to nourish dead trees and plants. An old radiator, part of a ventilation duct, and other obsolete metal mechanisms are scattered through the space. Four figures -- two female, two male -- wearing stretchy gray unitards stand at attention in separate zones, each enclosed by a chain-link fence. The effect, according to the gallery's statement, "mirrors the experience of being a foreigner in a new space."
A scene from TLaloC’s “Los Extranjeros” (Courtesy of VisArts)
The artist, who teaches at Baltimore's Maryland Institute College of Art, intensifies the mood by wafting smells (including gunpowder and burnt sugar) and a soundtrack (by Miguel Soto) through the space. The installation was initially swathed in fog, but the smoke machine was turned off at the behest of the local fire department.
The gloom is punctuated by glowing glyphs, projected or backlighted, whose meaning is cryptic but clearly significant. Their importance is underscored by the fact that each figure has a glyph-like 3D form over its head. The way the humanoids's features are concealed suggests that their identities are alien -- or, it might be said, illegible.
The show, which was overseen by VisArts 2024 Mentoring Curator Mehves Lelic, is intentionally ominous. But the illuminated glyphs aren't the only bright touch. Colorful flowers bloom at the feet of each of the strangers, as if germinated by their presence. They offer, if only tentatively, a promise of rebirth.
”Wave 11,” Nancy Sansom Reynolds (Courtesy Addison/Ripley Fine Art)
AN ALMOST-MINIMALIST SCULPTOR, Nancy Sansom Reynolds shares none of TLaloC's baroque tendencies or narrative inclinations. But the local artist's Addison/Ripley Fine Art show, "Wave," does overlap slightly with "Los Extranjeros." Sansom Reynolds mostly makes sinuous plywood sculptures of delicately curved wood. But she also crafts wearable pieces that somewhat resemble the head-covering objects in TLaloC's installation. In a slide show, the artist models hats and bracelets made of shaped wood, slightly incongruous yet graceful.
The sculptural pieces in the show, which also includes some drawings, are all titled "Wave" plus a number. Yet the elegantly curved forms hint at other things, notably the solar radiation suggested by the most complicated piece, a semicircle outlined with 13 symmetrically arranged rays. Other creations resemble curls, shells, or partly squashed circles. Several multi-part sculptures evoke objects or forces in motion, or simply motion itself. Another kinetic element is provided by the shadows the curves throw, continually deepening or receding on the gallery's white walls.
Color is crucial to most of the artist's sculptures, but she never entirely obscures the quality of the wood. Grain shows through the streaky, lightly applied pigment, and some of the pieces are mounted so that the painted side mostly faces the wall rather than the viewer. The brighter hues emphasize Sansom Reynolds's playfulness, while the uncolored wood is raw and more severe. These sculptures teeter between artifice and austerity, riding the wave.
Ajay Kurian, “Hiranyagarbha (Back Again)” (Courtesy of Von Ammon Co.)
THE SHADOW PLAY is even more dramatic at Von Ammon Co., where Ajay Kurian is showing five large sculptures, three of them perforated egg-shaped assemblages suspended several feet above the floor. The Baltimore-born, Brooklyn-based artist is of Indian descent, and Hindu cosmology is one element in his eclectic vision. The artist's "Peanuts" also draws from other mythologies, as well as Steely Dan (whose music provides the show's soundtrack) and American pop culture. The last, as Von Ammon regulars will know, is among the gallery's wellsprings.
The oval is an archetypal shape, and the spotlighted sculptures feel unified and primal. Yet their interiors are messy. The eggs are stuffed with objects, and one contains a simulated garden. Strings of bare LEDs are curved into smile-like shapes that leer from within the eggs, less evocative of the Cheshire Cat than the Joker. In his note on the show, Kurian cites Krishna, Loki, and other mythic tricksters as inspiration for the disembodied grins.
The other two pieces are wall-mounted sculptures of an equally primordial form: a coiled snake. Inspired by the cosmic serpent Shesha, whose movements are said to begin or end the universe, the creatures are elemental, while made partly of disposable everyday items. Nestled within their scaly loops are miniature parasols from tropical-styled cocktails, and each includes a lighted orb coated in melted gummy bears. Kurian likes to sometimes use "materials that keep me in my own reality," but his artwork strives to evoke phenomena beyond our comprehension.
TLaloC: Los Extranjeros
Through Oct. 13 at Kaplan Gallery, VisArts, 155 Gibbs St., Rockville. www.visartscenter.org. 301-315-8200.
Nancy Sansom Reynolds: Wave
Through Oct. 19 at Addison/Ripley Fine Art, 1670 Wisconsin Ave. NW. addisonripleyfineart.com. 202-338-5180.
Ajay Kurian: Peanuts
Through Oct. 19 at Von Ammon Co., 3330 Cady's Alley NW. vonammon.co. 202-893-9797.
Ken Marlow, “Self-Portrait” (Courtesy Susan Calloway Fine Arts and Consulting)
Ken Marlow
THERE ARE SEVERAL PRECISE STILL LIFES, and a few loosely rendered pictures, in the one-week memorial show of Ken Marlow's paintings at Susan Calloway Gallery. But the selection potently demonstrates that realistic portraiture was the primary calling of the local neoclassical painter (1960-2023). Marlow's renderings of faces and torsos are expertly modeled and shaded, with meticulous details and glowing skin tones. His shirtless self-portrait is an Old-Master-style depiction of a new master.
Ken Marlow
Through Oct. 12 at Susan Calloway Fine Art and Consulting, 1643 Wisconsin Ave. NW. callowayart.com. 202-965-4601.