Around Des Moines

The Thoreau Center (35th Street and Kingman Boulevard) was a good choice for “Walk in Closet,” a display of artwork by Angela Warren and by Rebecca Gehm. The young artists’ bodies of work reflect experimentation in subject matter and in mediums. The layout of the center, formerly a house, allowed the different styles to be kept mostly separate, thereby focusing concentration on each piece during a reception held on May 2, 2008.

The title of the show is intriguing. It could mean a walk-in closet where special items are kept, easily accessible but not on public display. It could refer to the act of walking into or staying within a closet in terms of things a person wants to keep secret. It could also suggest a large space to hide all the detritus that allows a house, or section of a city, to be picture perfect.

In her artist statement, Warren said she wants to “show the time passing in layers, so that there is a sense of travel through every arrival and departure.” She achieves that goal superbly in her oils. “Opt for a Visit?” is a triptych, its scene a row of portable toilets in a muddy field. From the way lined up waiting their turn rest their hands on hips and lean in towards each other it is clear this is the end of a long day. Ghostly figures and a body seemingly trampled into the mud suggest all the people who have been there before. The mud holds the history of each footstep that helped transform the land. The texture of the oil adds a dimension that makes the scene seem more real than a smoother medium could.

Warren’s two-dimensional lithograph, “Overhang,” seems bland in comparison. Yet, there is feeling of suspense as a sole figure stands beneath an arch that could be a cave’s dome or a ledge on a cliff. Is the person safe, protected by the overhang, or in danger of being crushed by falling rocks?

Gehm’s artist statement reveals that she majored in drawing and many of her pieces seem to have been class assignments to showcase different styles of lines and shading. In her series on “The Woman and the Hand,” she uses charcol and gesso as a sculptor might use a rough red clay. The object is more the suggestion of a shape than a delicate recreation of a moment and proportions are not exact. In contrast, “Eye Tube,” in colored pencil and charcol, included many precise circles and proportionate lines. Nevertheless, the drawing still left interpretation to the viewer. The sketch reminded me of olives with pimentos placed as though they were grapes on a stalk, but also of the Martian eyes in War of the Worlds. There was a single figure, suggestive of a female, rising from a pool of water, which turned my thoughts to alien eyes watching humans rise from the oceans. Gehm describes the drawing as “a reaction to the realities of the Internet generation.”

M.R. Field writes reviews for AroundDesMoines.com.