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Trawick Prize finalists at Fraser Gallery

September 18, 2009

Cate being explanatory

I have been pounding my little boot leather to the nub visiting art venues non-stop since I got back to the swamp. (I can hear you all now: ”kvetch kvetch…”) and I am woefully behind, so let me catch up and tell you about some good stuff.
First, the Trawick Prize finalists at the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda, Cate Fraser’s airy, expansive space in downtown Bethesda (I do wish they’d give you a sign on Wisconsin Ave, Cate). Bethesda businesswoman and art patron Carol Trawick endows this extremely generous annual juried competition, awarding $14,000 in prizes, including a $10,000 first prize, to local artists, the definition of which extends at least to Baltimore. This year’s finalists’ show was reviewed last week in the Post by Michael O’Sullivan and I find myself largely in agreement with him.

Molly Springfield's piece

Molly Springfield’s complex and thought-provoking wall drawing, which took second prize, is a treat. Beginning with the story of the inventor of photography, supposedly spurred to his invention by the desire to record his memories in more true fashion than his fairly primitive drawing skills could produce, and progressing to the stage where we now scan images in time increments too short for the human brain to distinguish, the drawings pose questions about the nature of observation and the diminishing of the element of human interaction in memory-creation. Plus the hand-drawn “Xerox” images provide one of those “aha” moments to be treasured.

Greg Minah's painting

I also loved Greg Minah’s paintings and was delighted to see such an old-fangled medium as paint on canvas – and abstract, no less - more than hold its own. Minah drips paint and turns the canvas – there’s nothing at all innovative about the process – but the results are gorgeous. The canvases vibrate with color and movement.

Alas, most of the rest left me underwhelmed. Leslie Shellow’s cut-out drawings are lovely but slight and kind of get lost. Perhaps a show with more of them would make an impact. The first-prize winner, Baltimore artist Rene Trevino, does a wall of small paintings on mylar about being gay, Mexican and misunderstood. The artwork is visually unremarkable and the theme has been done. Over and over in every possible permutation.

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