A R T   L E T T E R

The Timely Magazine of Art

Letters:

Dear Bill: I'm dismayed because artletter has passed the line between hard
and pure on the one hand and hard and mean on the other. The tone of the
reviews of Kim O'Grady's show (AL 6 & 7) seem unnecessarily hard. I don't
see why you need to bash her three times. Good Luck, Elizabeth McBride



The Big Show at Lawndale                                          ends 8/5

Forrest Prince's pieces are clear and utterly convincing. His The Greatest of
All is Love is the ultimate valentine. The tiny mirrors are laid with a care
which transcends the kitschy disco ball connotations. Like Byzantine
mosaics and medieval stained glass, a hokey effect is transformed through
faith into a spiritual manifestation. I read the Lesson, and its matter of
fact conviction made it seem, for a moment, reasonable. Maybe I'll become a
vegan. David Aylsworth's Once I was a Schleppa, Now I'm Miss Mazeppa is
complex and fascinating like shattered candy, but I like his uvula-waving
yodeler even better: mouth wide, he exposes a junkyard of wrecked
biomorphs, like the parts of lost ships in the whale's belly in Disney's
Pinocchio. Maya Anderson's disturbing Flea and Fly show relations between
the sexes to be a  nightmarish sci-fi parasitism. Jim Rizkalla's Incognito is
a parade of oddities: a human disguised as a dog disguised as an elephant?
The waxed-papery surface hints at the thinness of the identities we base
our lives on. Andy Mann's Sparkle Box has the magical quality of any
kaleidoscope: the inside is vastly larger than the outside. My fascination
with its high tech psychedelia lasted for about two minutes, isn't that
enough?- B.D.

The Big Show at Lawndale	8/5

This show is an exercise in shedding expectations and looking at things for
what they are. In principle I like the style of weird cartoons and crudely
painted characters, but crudeness does not automatically equal raw power
(see Thornton, Kremers, Abrego). Mark Allen's Bad Kitty, with its
happy-diseased background, has a touching personality, and his sad critter
boy video has a strange appeal. Prince's mirrored heart is everything you
could want: true and perfectly executed. Aylsworth's paintings floor you.
Shiny, layered with round shapes that seem awkwardly made, there's
somehow more there than you can know.-Delfina



Address letters to: Bill Davenport, 801 Tulane St., Houston TX 77007

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Look for Artletter 9 on July 15