Steve Reber and Deb Sokolow: Uncertain Contours
@ O'Connor Gallery
Dominican University, 7900 W Division, River Forest, IL 60305, Lewis Hall 4th floor
Opening Wednesday, September 17th, from 4PM - 6PM
On view through Wednesday, October 22nd
By means of different vocabularies, the works of Deb Sokolow and Stephen Reber help us make space for uncertainty and states of discomfort with an economy of language and perfectly pitched humor. Practices of drawing, painting, sculpture and text become scaffolding for idiosyncratic subjective responses, holding both memory and expectation. The work reminds us of the somatic presence that transforms spaces and objects, often through granular attention paid to what is sometimes considered marginal.
Sokolow’s architectural renderings inject a sly humor and subjectivity into a form that usually strives for the ideal. Historical anecdotes nudge us to consider how chance and temperament play a bigger role than we care to admit. Elements of color and abstraction formally encase these musings with nuance, reminding us of the futility of trying to see history ‘all at once’. There are always rough edges, elision of boundaries and the capriciousness of mood.
The abutment of recognizable yet uncanny references in Reber’s sculpture remind us of how uncertain contours can make the familiar strange. They may provoke thoughts of ‘catching’ a mood or moment-highlighting the impossibility of fixing it in space and time. He emphatically repositions the subjective into arenas that make you reconsider the relationship of the whole to its parts. These objects invite us to consider how they might be operated and who might be making those choices, suggesting tentative affinities that subvert expectations about the built environment and broaden our sensibilities.
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Tags: Deb Sokolow, O'Connor Gallery, River Forest, Steve Reber, Uncertain Contours
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