The exciting activities of Heavy Brow Gallery are a welcome addition to our historic town, and the levels of interest this small space generates are extraordinary. When you compare the non-profit, independent exhibition space to other venues in Chicago (The Suburban comes to mind) or New York, the most obvious distinction (if you define it as a distinction) is its size.  Heavy Brow Gallery is no larger than an institutional powder room, with a sweet, old fashion staircase that connects an equally small upper floor.

With Heavy Brow Gallery, and the flexible mission of the Co-directors, Brandon Siscoe and Steve Linksvayer, the creative impulses of the artists, who are fortunate enough to display their works in this tiny gallery, posit questions about our world that are timely, but still irresolute; issues that are mysterious, yet sometimes profound; as the quintessence of any serious professional practice might be.

 

For some, a determined lethargy is their un-confessed imperative. They travel to the limits of their comfortable quarters, looking over as spectators into the uncomfortable realms of original thought… but for others, true creativity takes hold and new worlds are revealed, and eventually it becomes clear to anyone that a complete stasis of one mind, eventually limits all minds.

Brandon Siscoe talking to the artist L J Douglas about the installation prior to the gallery’s second show, Niche, works on paper by L J Douglas and Sarah Smelser

Artists live and think in the visual realm, and in their selfish practice, they are an important component to enlightenment within our culture. Artists, like scientists, authors, philosophers, and other practicing professionals, have the ability to direct thought through the introduction of ideas. Heavy Brow champions large ideas within the tiny, but vital physical space in historic Downtown Bloomington, Illinois. The corporal aspect of this gallery is only one component that makes the work shown within its walls so important. For many, there is a desire to gather around an enterprise that has certain physical limitations. There is an earnest sense of the need for co-operation and social interaction.  

Reception for, Niche, works on paper by L J Douglas and Sarah Smelser. L to R, Steve Linksvayer (off camera), Sarah Smelser, Bill O’Donell (photographer), Brandon Siscoe, L J Douglas (foreground), Dennis French (goldsmith, master cabinet maker and photographer), and Alex Carlson (artist)

The second exhibition of Heavy Brow Gallery, Niche, works on paper by L J Douglas and Sarah Smelser, May 6-May 30, 2011, explores a collection of small, but powerful graphic images. The abstract images of these two artists establish a teasing dialogue with our sense of the unreliability of rational thought and skillfully wrought graphic remonstrations. The impish dissent so skillfully moiled away in these images takes forms that describe states of mind and rebellious patterns of the human gesture.

L J Douglas, Sea Within, 2010. Collograph, solar pate, chine colle, stencil, watercolor, drawing, 9.5 x 11 inches

These images are celebratory, firm, confident and clear. The colors ask the observer to relinquish pre-knowledge and expectations, prodding us to let go…to become unleashed and enter the seemingly impenetrable image where we can reside without any anticipation of a rationale for the manner and placement of marks. The marks and color of these works ricochet the immutable figures of nature, and the emotions that are shaped by it. There is a strong whimsical sense to the work, blithely referencing dominions of play or reprieve, where we stand for some fine moments luxuriating in this glorious visual passage.

Sarah Smelser, Mamba Wamba, 2011. Monotype, 7 X 8 inches

L J Douglas, Thistles, 2007. Watercolor, gouache, marker, with drawing transfers, 18 X 24 inches

 L J Douglas, Anatomia (Liver ), 2010. Collage and marker on hand made paper, 9 x 13 inches

Sarah Smelser, Sure Footing, 2010. Monotype, 6 X 12 inches

Sarah Smelser, Chorus, 2010. Monotype, 7 X 8 inches

L J Douglas, Anatomia (Liver 6), 2010. Collage and marker on hand made paper,8 1/8 x 8 6/8 inches

_{^{Please Visit Heavy Brow Gallery's first exhibition, Across the Wounded Galaxies, featuring the work of Bill Conger, Bob Jones, Steve Linksvayer, and Brandon Siscoe}}

A very fine review of the exhibition Niche by the painter Ron Jackson appears on FB

Many thanks to Manneken Press for publishing the work of Sarah Smelser and many others

Thanks to L J Douglas for the fine exhibition catalog that accompanies Niche

 And many thanks to our dear friend John Brunetti, wherever you are...