CUT…ting EDGE (Mark Fox)

(Sorry about this photo… taken with my phone)

Last night I attended the first art show opening at the new Culver Road Armory (at Culver and I-490). First of all I'm stoked about this building because it is only a few blocks from my house and the space is very promising for some sweet art extravaganzas. [EDIT: I found out that the building is going to turn into mostly retail space and not artsy-ness. Boo.]

The show was Mark Fox's CUT…ing EDGE, which mostly featured a series of paper cut-out sculptures. A lot of the work was heavily textual although many impossible to actually decipher. I'm definitely a fan of the text-you-can't-quite-read thing, and have been known to do it myself.

Overall the work was certainly aesthetically pleasing, with a sort of "order in chaos in order" sensation. The venue was excellent for this kind of show because so many of his pieces POPPED against the black sky through large glass windows. What isn't windows is half-finished brick and plaster wall, with plenty of stand alone walls in the open middle for more showcasing.

There were a few paper-snake sculptures ("coils") suspended from above, taking up spaces in between more significant pieces. Those were really disappointing. The artist clearly has a meticulous style which he uses to play with light and shadow and contrast-- but those things were just sad; didn't go with the show at all. It seemed like he just wanted to fill the space and ran out of ideas.

I just found out that, understandably, Fox's work is the inspiration for/is used as album art, particularly for The National, whom I love, so there you go.

http://www.markfoxstudio.com/
http://culverroadarmory.com/