It wasn’t meant to be such a departure from her usual style and subject matter; it just turned out that way. “People are going to expect the girls,” says Gina Quaranto, artist and owner of Blackbird Studios. “This is a different show. Completely different.”
Those “girls” have been her signature subject in recent years, wide-eyed women with melancholy gazes. Quaranto tried to paint them and to incorporate color, but it didn’t work out this time. Instead came Regarding the Moon, a black-and-white sculpture-based show, the artist’s first in nearly five years. The exhibition focuses on books, birds and the moon—recurring fascinations of hers.
Suspended in the gallery’s entryway are books adorned with birds in various states of departure. “I’ve always wanted to do something where a bird came out of a book and freed itself from the pages,” Quaranto explains from her Commerce Street gallery. “It’s not in a cage; it’s in a book.” The books are old strays, picked up around town and during travels. In one piece, carved wooden waves, which evoke Beetlejuice, rise from the pages of Encyclopedia Brittanica. In another, black bird feathers explode from a painted book’s pages.
Regarding the Moon Through February 28, call for hours. Blackbird Studios, 702-782-0319. Artist reception February 6, 6-11 p.m.