Two recommendable art shows open today Two recommendable art shows open today
Published: July 6, 2007
There is something wonderfully weird about the mosaic compositions of Oklahoma City artist Brooks Tower, even when his subjects are as naturalistic as a "Serpent” with a funky, toothpicklike tongue or fangs, and a "Pelican,” looking straight at us, down its long bill.
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A show of Tower's "contemporary mosaics” and an exhibit of Thomas Batista's acrylic paintings both open from 6 to 10 p.m. today at JRB Art at The Elms gallery.
Perhaps it's the common wet saw with which Tower cuts out his tile and stone creations, using the ancient opus sectile (cut work) style, dating back to ancient Rome, or the fact that grout lines are made integral to the composition, but nearly all his works have a strong fantasy element.
A strange, almost onionlike figure wearing a flowing garment and a jazzy tie seems to be dancing in a cosmic landscape to demonstrate "The Freedom of Irrevelance” in a mosaic that embodies what a gallery spokesman called Tower's "cartoon style of personal mythology.”
Similarly, a bizarre, redheaded birdman flies parallel to the ground and a windblown line of trees in a Tower mosaic depicting something that we hardly need to be reminded has "Never Been.”
Almost equally fantastic, despite its more overtly naturalistic subject, is Tower's mosaic of a bearded, dreadlocked, nearly bug-eyed, pot-bellied man in the suburbs, squirting black water from a hose onto a potted plant, "Come May.”
In two works from Tower's "Lunch” series, a man in a felt hat who looks a little like the Frankenstein monster wolfs down a yellow "Sunburger,” and a grim, gray figure sits with his back to us at the counter of a diner beside a mysterious red rock on a stool that may be one of "The Seeds of Pomegranates” referred to in the title.
Conveying a timeless feeling of medieval Europe is Tower's largest work in the show, a mosaic of a middle-aged, heavily robed couple dancing, almost frenetically, in "The Clearing” of a forest, as if trying to fend off the ravages of old age.
In the second show at JRB, Venezuelan-born Oklahoma City artist Batista manages to suggest vague, impressionistic outlines of figures that he then combines with glowing, landscapelike yet semi-abstract shapes.
Sunset- or dawn-hued figures appear to be forming from "Pathways” in the clouds in one Batista acrylic, and the sun seems to have broken through to bathe rows of sky people in yellow-white light in a second, called "Mindful Flight.”
Darker, contrasting colors give a cabaret feel to Batista's "Closing Time,” while we seem to be seeing a line of stately trees reflected on the other side of a body of water in two luminous, figure-free, semi-abstract landscapes called "The Perfect Day” and "Southern Sunrise.”
Both the Tower and Batista shows are highly recommended during their run through July 28 at JRB.
— John Brandenburg
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art review
Brooks Tower/Thomas Batista
•Where: JRB Art at The Elms gallery, 2810 N Walker
•When: 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays through July 28
•Information: 528-6336
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