The exhibition
“Apparitions,” at the http://www.aescranna.com/michael-bennett-jersey-c-1_31.html Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery, takes its title from Craig Cahoon
’s wispy abstraction in watery silver paint on Mylar. His “Apparition” is barely there, yet gains power from the effort needed to apprehend it. The piece, hushed and beguiling, is typical of this elegant show.“
Apparitions” is 80-year-old curator Elise Wiarda’s farewell, after 17 years, to the healing center associated with the Hisaoka gallery. Before that, she worked at the now-defunct Fendrick Gallery. Wiarda enlisted 15 friends, including such eminent local artists as Joe White, Sam Gilliam and Kitty Klaidman.Not all of the art is ghostly, but most of it features spare gestures and subdued palettes. The most colorful piece is White
’s “Gulf island (Canada),” a large landscape painted entirely in white and shades of light and grayish blue. Gilliam, known as a grand-scale colorist, offers a minimalist miniature that’s all white resin and blond wood. It’s as quiet as Klaidman’s topographic abstraction, whose worn hues suggest earth and erosion.There
’s an Asian feel to works on paper such as Margot Neuhaus’s “Line #2” and Daniel Brush’s “Komachi.” The former uses light gray watercolor to trace part of a swoop made by ripping the sheet. The latter (whose title is http://www.js-lanhui.com/lane-taylor-jersey-c-1_17.html a Japanese term for a beautiful woman) appears to be a single brushstroke but is actually hundreds of contiguous black lines. Each one is painstakingly drawn and utterly solid, but their overall effect is ephemeral.