11 Apr 2017

Salt City Abstraction

Everson Museum of Art

Reviewed by Arthur Whitman

The Everson in Syracuse has a reputation for showcasing abstraction, as well as work by local and regional artists. With a nod to the city's industrial heyday, "Salt City Abstraction" features artists with varying connections to the area. (It complements the museum's concurrent retrospective of native son Bradley Walker Tomlin.)

Realm of the Muses II by ceramist Margie Hughto is lush and rigorous, a collage-like construction of slabs in deep tones and gold. Bridging abstraction and allegory, the piece incorporates fragments of a classical relief.

Claire Harootunian's bronze Vest Sebastian is witty and iconic while an untitled one by Rodger Mack has a sleek, Deco-futurist quality. Robert De Niro Sr. is represented by a pair of figurative expressionist oils from the fifties, both gorgeous. Susan Roth's shaped piece My Anxious Heart combines collaged, wrinkled canvas with iridescent, textured acrylic. There's much to like in this thoughtful and generous exhibit.