The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-29)

E6 PG EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MAY 29 , 2022

Neptune & Brown show, “Rise
and Shine,” consists primarily of
prints, but placed among them
are small, painted-wood
sculptures that amplify the forms
seen in many of the woodblocks.
Inglis calls the pieces “critters,”
and some resemble streamlined
dogs or birds. Among the
inspirations for them are antique
toys Inglis keeps in his studio.
The artist doesn’t construct
sculptures based on his prints,
which feature not blocks but sets
of lines, but the latter
compositions are just as vibrant.
Inglis opposes or overlaps figures
made of tight parallel rules in one
or two colors, devising patterns
that suggest buildings
(“Monument”) or rain (“Sun
Showers”), or that appear to
oscillate (“Sprinkler Gold”).
Reducing everyday things to
elementary patterns yields
surprisingly intricate
counterpoint.
Also on exhibit are four larger
but otherwise compatible prints
by Joel Shapiro, a veteran
abstract metal sculptor. (Among
the New Yorker’s local works is an
askew minimalist spire outside
the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum.) The prints
juxtapose eccentrically shaped
but essentially boxy forms,
usually in just two colors,
although one has four. The
connection to Shapiro’s
sculptures is evident, but where
those exist in the real world, the
prints’ shapes float on expanses of
white paper. This frees them to
be, playfully and sublimely,
insubstantial.

Paul Inglis: Rise and Shine, with
works by Joel Shapiro. Through June 4
at Gallery Neptune & Brown, 1530
14th St. NW.

Howard Mehring

“From the Gestural to the
Sublime” is Connersmith’s third
exhibition in less than two years
of paintings by Washington
colorist Howard Mehring (1931-
1978), but the show is far from
redundant. As before, the gallery
proprietors have unearthed
works that have never shown
publicly, several of which are
exceptional.
The selection is worth a look
just for two subtly dappled
pictures: “Untitled (Blue
Gesture)” is an allover
composition in which blue swirls

GALLERIES FROM E5 dance atop dark-gray ones, while
“Aura II” features horizontal
bands of gradated gray that are
subtly infiltrated by pink. Both
paintings feel as hazy and
enveloping as morning mist.
The emphasis here is on early
efforts, made between 1956 and
1961 and including two oils from
before Mehring adopted the then-
new acrylic pigments. One of
those early pictures, “Larch,”
contains a glimmer of green that
hints at the heathered
compositions that would arrive
not long after. Another harbinger
of Mehring’s later work is
“Untitled (Yellow Gray
Diagonal),” which maintains soft
hues while splitting them into
two triangles, thus anticipating
the artist’s future hard-edge style.
Even viewers who’ve seen a lot of
Mehring’s work will likely gain a
new appreciation from seeing
these path-finding pictures.

Howard Mehring: From the

Gestural to the Sublime Through

June 4 at Connorsmith, 1013 O St.

NW. Open by appointment.

Sally Davies

In her Art League show, “Our

Fractured Life,” photorealist

painter Sally Davies employs two

distinct modes to visualize

pandemic-period isolation. One is

depicting socially distanced

outdoor activities as seen — in a

trademark Davies strategy — from

above. These purple-shadowed

scenes are painted on small

square canvases that are arranged

in checkerboard patterns, leaving

both symbolic and actual open

space to separate them. The other

approach is to portray women

(and one girl) in such extreme

close-up that little more than a

single eye is within the frame.

The latter pictures, vertically

oriented and much larger than

life-size, dominate the show. The

Maryland artist complicates the

simple compositions with

intricate detail, notably in irises

alive with reflected light. She also

adds literal depth to the faces by

partly layering them with

handmade ceramic tiles, some

imprinted with fingerprint-like

whorls. The images are too tightly

cropped for their subjects to be

recognizable, yet each painting

has a strong sense of individuality.

Sally Davies: Our Fractured Life

Through June 5 at the Art League,

To rpedo Factory, 105 N. Union St.,

Alexandria.

FITSUM SHEBESHE/HARMONY HALL ARTS CENTER

PAUL INGLIS/GALLERY NEPTUNE & BROWN

ABOVE: A gallery view of

“Sculpture Now 2022 ”

featuring works by 48 Mid-

Atlantic artists. This year’s

show leans toward the delicate

rather than the monumental.

LEFT: “Bird/Window” b y Paul

Inglis is included in the “Rise

and Shine” exhibit of prints and

small, painted-wood sculptures.

Inglis calls the pieces “critters.”

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