The Art Gallery is one of Biola’s hidden gems, like the olive grove – before they added the bridge, anyway – the Sutherland coffee cart and the courtyard of Hart Hall, it is too easily overlooked and overdue for a visit. Both of the gallery’s two new featured artists are California locals whose work plays with ideas and images from nature. In the main gallery is a three-part exhibition by Merion Estes, an L.A. abstract painter. “Lost Horizons” is a series of 14 pieces that collage vintage illustrations, photos, Japanese woodcuts and swirling paint to create eerie, dream-world landscapes. Paint application is very significant in these pieces. The smears and drips initially act as distractions, but notice the paint is also directing your gaze, drawing your attention or moving it to another part of the piece.
Hanging on the other three walls are large canvas paintings, individually titled. They contain a lot of collage elements as well, incorporating fabric, paper and wax into multiple layers that are full of surprises from tiny flowers to plastic, googly eyes. The titles are often extremely helpful in revealing a little more about each painting: the painting on the military camouflage is titled “Survival Mode.” It is important to take note of the colors used in each painting and keep in mind how they make you feel. “Anxious Thoughts” is mostly composed of blues and purples, colors associated with calm. This makes the red streaks of paint even more jarring as they help evoke the anxiety mentioned in the title.
“Flower Power” is the collection of wax-dipped sculptures made up of silk flowers, thread, and at least one plastic spider. The connection between flowers and power is made even more fascinating by the fact the sculptures resemble not only plants but royal scepters.
Even with all this work in the main gallery, do not forget to go through to the annex gallery — the door covered by the hanging black curtain. Inside is Pat Warner’s glowing wall installation titled “Gardenscape, Night.” Installations are pieces of art that make use of an entire room, not just hang on a wall. In the case of “Gardenscape, Night,” the piece utilizes both an entire wall to display the work as well as the darkness of the room to evoke the solitude accompanying night. Back-lit so it glows in soft red and purple hues, the wall is made up of layers of translucent paper on which Warner drew the silhouetted outlines of plants, trees and flowers. The effect is reminiscent of Japanese painted screens, but with an illusion of depth created by the layers of paper.
After you visit the show, take a moment to look around at nature on campus. There may not be much of it and it may not seem terribly exciting, but just like the surprises that are layered in Estes’ paintings; sometimes it takes a closer look to really see the beauty that we overlook every day. Then after you’ve appreciated nature, go to the Art Gallery again — it’s always worth a second visit. Who knows what’ll be new this time?
