Art: Three Women

Beautiful dreamers

By F. Andrew Taylor

This show consists of the work of three women, but the majority is Nadia Klein's. Jennifer Mann is represented by one painting (a large portrait in blazing colors) and Amy Sol has two. Sol's work combines sharp, almost cartoony graphics against a more blended, fluid background. She has just returned from a three-week tour in Italy, which is very likely to color her new work. Her next show will be the one to look for.

Several of my friends at First Friday were so struck by Klein's work that they spent valuable time raving about it. Time that should have been spent sucking up to me. I've already gone on record that I'm not the audience for abstract expressionism. There is certainly some of that in her work, but with an added narrative element that kicks it up a notch for me. The imagery is personal and initially inscrutable, but that isn't to say there isn't meaning to be gleaned. Much of her work is inspired by her dreams, and that insight reveals much. The half-seen figures and images within images are completely logical within a dreamscape. Any single image from a dream tends to read stiff, static and weird for the sake of weird. What Klein has done is more true to the form of dreams, which take place in seconds, not the hours they can sometimes feel like, and which are rarely linear, although we often remember them as being so.

From a technical standpoint, there is a decided lack of contrast in several of the pieces. Although this lack can be used to great effect, the artist has failed to convince me that this was her intent. But that point may be moot. These works are vastly different from the works of her previous show, just a few months ago. Clearly this is an artist still emerging from her chrysalis.

The symbols in dreams are, for the most part, unique to the individual dreamer. True, there are certain generalities and metaphors that are more common than others, but everyone's dream dictionary is unique. It would be foolish for the viewer to try to sort them out and psychoanalyze the artist. All that we can really do is to view the paintings through our own inner mirror and use them as springboards into the examination of our selves. But don't overdo it. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.