It is axiomatic of large group shows that they will be amorphous affairs, devoid of common threads. It also is a cliché of juried shows that they inevitably betray the biases of the juror.
Well, the Contemporary Arts Collective's 15th annual Juried Show is about as formless as they come, nearly edging into chaotic. But if juror Jane Kaplowitz, a nationally respected artist and guest lecturer at UNLV, has any biases at all, she does not tip her hand. In fact, it seems she barely exercised any judgment at all. The CAC's walls are chockablock with art, in the manner of a 19th-century gallery but without the high ceilings. (That might explain the antic 19th-century engraving on the postcard announcing the show.)
The two-room gallery packs in a whopping 105 works. That might be more than the Salon des Refuses, hung in conjunction with Desert Sculptors in the antechamber. Honestly, it's hard to tell what criteria Kaplowitz might have used, because perfectly fine works hang among the rejections, and some rather weak stuff crowds the walls inside. A good 25 percent could have been shifted to les refusés.
It's such a visual jumble you'll have a hard time focusing and concentrating on the better pieces. To be fair, the CAC has done an admirable job of grouping works in roughly thematic suites. For instance, Sam Davis' second-place-winning C-Print, "Unknown Species, Nevada Desert," depicting a sawfish of sorts seemingly afloat in the desert sky, occupies a short wall with Barbara Lamdin's "Take Off," a painting documenting a jet launching from an aircraft carrier, and two aircraft paintings by Jack Endewelt. One of these, "Collector Card Series, ‘Famous Aircraft of the World,'" took an honorable mention; it depicts an Italian fighter plane, the Caproni, used in the Spanish Civil War, but the airfoil is completely featureless, just a phantom shape.
Best of Show was taken by Rick Metzler for "Piet's Top Drawer," a multilayered pun of a sculpture comprising an upended desk drawer, displayed reverently on a dark-stained, dowel-legged stand. The drawer bottom has been painted in a rectilinearly sectioned manner vaguely recalling that of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. Third place went to John D. Hancock for a small, Sheeler-like painting of an industrial smokestack, set in a rusty frame. Hancock also shows a painting that treats the World Trade Center attack in a manner that seems reverentially intended, but which can only be described as bizarre. At least one other work addresses the loss of the towers and both support the conclusion that it is still too soon.
Honorable mentions went to C.J. Pressma for "Cuba Suite: Ladder to Nowhere," Diane Bush for her "Warheads," and Chad Brown for a painting of two men seated awkwardly in conversation. Brown's work recalls Robert Longo's paintings of the 1980s, only Brown manifests the tension between these soberly dressed men with manic poses.
The closest the show comes to a common element is the elephant, varieties of which turn up in several works, including Kevin Anderson's painting, Tom Umholtz's "Elephant," and one frame of Kevin Chupik's "Pretty Gentle War."
If you wade through the dross, you'll find some strong work here. But quantity often obscures quality, and the viewer has to work to find what's worthy. And maybe that's not altogether a bad thing.