An artist offers us a good choice of mixed media ink drawings of Indian dancers and photos of New Mexico in a new exhibit.
Oklahoma City artist Renee Lawrence is showing her work through April 1 at the Contemporary Art Gallery, 2928 Paseo.
Lawrence is known for the “hatching, cross-hatching, stippling and … scribbling” that give “the illusion of texture, tone and form” to her drawings.
Her six Indian “Dancers” drawings depict not only the color and design of their costumes well, but they also convey a strong sense of the performers’ characters.
Wearing a red headdress and jazzy geometric vest, “Dancer #4” seems to be looking down, and into himself, to find intensity for his performance.
Even more determined, with his jaw clenched and lips compressed, is “Dancer #5,” seen in profile, turned to one side, throwing himself into motion.
Photographs of New Mexico churches, tourist attractions and street scenes, as well as nature subjects, are equally memorable.
A large tree shadow on the adobe wall of a church helps her dramatize the “Living Faith” we get a glimpse of inside one of its windows, for example.
In another highly engaging color photograph, a dark dog is the “Busker’s Companion,” patiently waiting at the cowboy booted feet of a street vendor.
Nature photos include a fine color study of “Bighorn Sheep Above the Rio Grande,” and two pictures of orange birds, “All Tucked In,” but sometimes keeping “one eye open.”
Having some of the presence of Georgia O’Keeffe’s painting of the black door of one of her homes is Lawrence’s photo of a white door in an adobe wall under a blue sky.
In black-and-white photos, sun lights up the white rays of a “Radiant Cross (in a) Window” dramatically, and masses of clouds scud over the “Rio Grande Bridge” panoramically.
The show is highly recommended in the rest of its run.
— John Brandenburg, for The Oklahoman
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