Jessica Stockholder at Sable-Castelli Gallery (33 Hazelton), to July 10. 416-961-0011. Rating: NNNN Rating: NNNN
If you’ve ever wanted to view an abstract painting from more than one angle, New York artist Jessica Stockholder ‘s exhibit at the Sable-Castelli Gallery gives you your chance. Her bright, expressive sculptures are like abstract paintings without the two-dimensional limitations. Sculptures have to work if approached from any angle, and these do. As you move around Ground Cover Season Indoors, for example, 16 ropes project from the wall, creating a parallactic effect. In other sculptures, simple arrangements of cut-out photos draw your eyes from afar yet entertain you with details when viewed up close.
I use the word sculpture only because her pieces are three-dimensional assemblages of random materials: glass, chairs, plastic, lamps, bowls, gardening machines.
Wall-mounted works function as both painting and sculpture. When viewed head-on, the pieces nailed to the wall work like strong abstract art on canvas, pleasing the eye with their colours and intricate patterns. Swatches of bright solid colour cover old furniture, fabric and broken bits, bringing what some might see as mere junk to life.
Stockholder, whose assemblages are famous for their enormity, rarely shows such concisely scaled-down pieces.
You can dive into the nitty-gritty details, confident that it’s not the magnitude of her usual presentation drawing you in, but the talent.
These works are small only as measured with a ruler.
