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David Stanley Ford

Landscapes, sculptures anchor show

By John Brandenburg    Comment on this article Leave a comment
Published: January 31, 2010

CHICKASHA — A sense of understated but expressive celebration pervades a show of acrylic landscapes by Regina Murphy and earthenware sculptures by Howard Koerth at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. The exhibit by the two Oklahoma City artists is on view in the USAO Gallery.


"The Rio Grande,” an acrylic landscape by Regina Murphy.Photo provided

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ART REVIEW
Works by Regina Murphy and Howard Koerth

• When: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, through Friday.


• Where: The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma Gallery, Chickasha.


• Information: 574-1239 or

www.usao.edu.

Murphy celebrates picturesque rivers and mountainous scenes, from which people are absent, in two related but distinctly different series of paintings. Less realistic but suffused with a special glow (of dawn or dusk) are the 11 acrylics of stylized, simplified orange trees, often beside blue rivers and in front of purple hills, in her "Special Places” series.

Similar in their subject matter, mountains and rivers for the most part but more detailed, differentiated and representational, are Murphy’s 19 other paintings. Yellow "Blooming Chamisa” in the foreground helps frame our view of a placid river bend in Murphy’s work of that title, as well as in a second acrylic, done in "Enchanted New Mexico.”

A little more dramatic is Murphy’s vertically hung painting of masses of evergreens leading our eye back to a "Distant Vista,” while the "Scarred Earth” of exposed ravines adds interest to a second painting. Depicting subjects closer to home are Murphy’s acrylics of a field of yellow "Oklahoma Wildflowers” and an "Arbuckle Gulch” with an overall orange cast.

Koerth combines strong texture and sculptural shapes with rich earth tones and exaggerated, arbitrary colors and decorative patterns in works from his "Shi Series” that dominate the show. Several works from the semi-abstract series resemble a vaguely doglike creature, with nostril-like holes but no head, an arched back, broad undefined legs and a vessel-like back spout.

Displayed in one alcove is a more funnel-like earthenware and golden metal leaf sculpture from the "Shi Series,” gouged with repetitive marks, closer in spirit to his earlier "Nature/Nurture Series.” Koerth has been an art professor since 1994 at Rose State College in Midwest City. The two-person show is recommended viewing during its run.

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David Stanley Ford


Related Topics: Nature and the Environment, Visual Arts, Painting, Plants, Trees


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