When I learned the Lynn Peri Collection, a gallery in the Holsum Lofts complex, was closing June 1, First Friday, I took comfort in the Buddhist belief that nothing is lost in the universe—a dead leaf turns into soil, a seed becomes a new plant. The collection will be given new life as a moveable feast showing at various ad hoc locations around town, while owners Jerry Hall and James Drewry keep the same phone number.
Since it opened two years ago, the gallery has been where I go to get my art fix when other galleries disappoint; I’m never disappointed by Leslie Rowland, a local artist and maker of functional fine art furniture with a decidedly vintage look. Unremarkable pre-owned pieces are reborn in her hands as humorous and sometimes wise statements about life. Two of my favorite pieces are “Terrible Beauty,” a silver-hued chest of drawers decoupaged with images of Hollywood femmes fatale, and “Remember the Himalayas,” a red door with a carved image of a lotus (symbol of enlightenment) surrounded by Buddhist teachings such as “The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances” etched into the wood—an ironic comment for a piece of visual art.
Appearance is everything to Agostino Zaliani, one of several Italian fine-art etchers represented in the collection. I can’t get enough of his work. He draws on a centuries-old tradition of draughtmanship and technical brilliance, the most famous exemplars of which being the 18th-century artists Piranesi and Canaletto. Zaliani, their equal in skill, employs his in the depiction of the Tuscan countryside at its most profuse and serene. In his work, you think you are seeing every leaf, cobblestone and blade of grass as if recorded by a camera. But looking closely you see it is an astute calculation of what the eye can interpret as reality. Each branch, twig and leaf is etched with such clarity and precision that it takes your breath away. His series “The Four Seasons” discovers the loveliness of each season as if it were a unique personality.
Enzo Faraoni loves to look at people. The sketchy lines of his figurative etchings, quite different in character from Zaliani’s precise grooves, reveal each subject as an individual—whether looking slyly at the viewer or reclining languorously on a sofa. Like Degas, he has an eye for the instant gesture. Although he works in the same demanding medium as Zaliani, his effect of breezy insouciance illustrates the difference in artistic personality and the versatility of the etching process.
Safet Zec, a Bosnian living in Venice, shares Faraoni’s lighthearted exuberance but works on a larger scale. His etching of an open window with shutters and flower pots is approximately 30 by 40 inches. Making the image life-size was technically difficult, requiring two copper plates instead of the usual one. The choice of a life-size image is an artistic decision that sets up an invigorating tension between the illusion of reality (the life-size) and the expression of feeling (the furious skein of lines that delineate the shapes). Watercolor pigments applied suggestively in the flowers only hint at their coloration, further enhancing the tension between what is seen and what is felt.
The collection is like a cabinet of wonders: Everywhere you look, your eye is caught by something extraordinary and delightful. Among my favorites are the wood-based lacquer vessels imported from Thailand, not only beautiful but fast becoming rare because of their use of crushed eggshells to produce a textural design (chickens had to be destroyed during the bird flu epidemic). Another is the artisanal furniture of Carlos deAnda, in which wood, glass and metal create one-of-a-kind pieces of curved, polished surfaces and intricate, scroll-like metal work.
See for yourself on First Friday. While you’re there, get on the mailing list.
Lynn Peri
Collection
Holsum Lofts
299 W. Charleston Blvd. 366-9171