This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 3, 2010 - “Remix” at Art Saint Louis features works by local artists Catharine Magel, Melody Evans and Leslie Macklin, who respond to the chaos of contemporary world by mixing and re-mixing visual cues, artistic media and techniques of production.
Magel’s works are extraordinary: huge mixed media paintings combine drips and splotches, recognizable symbols and abstract forms, all floating over ethereal fields, while “Bird Plane” assembles dozens of white clay birds in a ghostly, terrifying airplane shape on the floor.
Macklin’s works combine clay, plastic bags and plastic bottles into scenes from a post-apocalyptic world.
Evans’ assemblages are more straightforward ceramic sculptures, but her pencil and marker works on paper are absolutely effervescent, filled with countless minuscule gestures.
Accompanying the main exhibition is an appendix of sorts titled “Open Sketchbook,” in which the artists have collaborated and contributed to each other’s works-in-progress.
“Remix” is a forceful show, with the three artists’ strong individual voices combining, clashing and complementing one another.
Also on view is “Articulated Vision,” the latest Art Saint Louis group show judged by Brigham Dimick of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Patricia Olynyk of Washington University.
Ivy Cooper, a professor of art at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is the Beacon's art critic.