Post Times: Bride of The Far Side (January 30-March 9)
A toothsome, tusked boar provides a watchful eye for guests at this show, before handing off viewers to its peer (life-size) bunny sculpture sat on a log in the middle of the gallery. The “Far Side” of this group exhibition’s title is a world of whimsical creatures it seems, bow-tied and all. Not to be outdone, Al Freeman’s Soft Camels stands tall on the wall opposite the entrance. It’s sumptuously plush in vinyl texture with a polyfil interior. The great Bonnie Lucas lends Some Girls’ jewel-encrusted bird to the display of flora and fauna as well, while Adrianne Rubenstein’s Yellow Sky suggests an abstract tableau of sky featuring its own darkly brooding bird on the top of the canvas. The gallery is alive with Rainen Knecht’s curatorial vision, a world carefully constructed from gestures of playfulness and nostalgia, wildness and refinement. Knecht’s selections call forth a dreamlike bestiary, inviting viewers to consider what lies beyond the immediate—what happens on the Far Side of perception and memory. For deeper insight, look to Morgan Ritter’s poetic meditation, which lingers over the show like a riddle: “She’s making a world from work and play / of junkyard archival salad education / Throwing goop into the heat until it burns through the questions.” A fitting reflection for an exhibition that revels in the absurd, the tactile, and the tenderly strange.
—Sam Falb
Gladys Nilsson, Missplaced, 2022. Watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper, 18 x 24 inches.