The Fox Gallery is presenting an exhibit of two different media which really works. Painting and graphite don’t always partner well visually, but in this case the contrast in the techniques, shapes, and colors particular to each, makes for a flowing and stimulating perambulation.
The 2012 graphite by Frank Boros, “A Number for Elaine,” with its intertwining and overlapping lines, circles, and spatial areas, illustrate Boros’ statement: “I began to explore, to push, to question and to wonder. This simple play of the circle and a square has become an inquiry.” Inspiration for these works came to Boros from a more than six-hour stay in a hospital emergency room, gazing up at the ceiling--a firmly creative response to an inhospitable and unwelcoming setting.
John Haubrich takes his inspiration from more traditional sources: the beauty of the countryside with its numerous rivers, lakes and grid of the farm fields from his boyhood growing up in southern Minnesota. But he also finds beauty in damaged and decaying elements, such as abandoned farms, factories, and gravel pits. His painting “Smile” from 2011 juxtaposes rectangular areas—one with human bones, a smiling face with eyes blackened over, and blood-red swashes of color interspersed with running lines of text which seem to merge his responses to beauty and decay.
Elizabeth Davis
