Monkeys! Chimps and fighting baboons have come to Gardenfresh gallery, posing and screaming with delicate flowers and a bloody, half-eaten gazelle. Emily Roz’s large colored-pencil drawings, which also include a leopard killing an impala, are vivid and deft portraits that evoke both Francis Bacon and Planet of the Apes. There is inevitable anthropomorphizing here, especially in a drawing of a mama chimp and baby, but the dangerous teeth, dark red mouths and exquisitely rendered coats of the baboons supersede the impulse to humanize, filling the gallery with an equal sense of our distancefrom the wild kingdom. Roz’s skill ensures that even the most violent image is continually engrossing. Roz’s fellow Brooklynite Cammi Climaco has chosen a befuddling set of works for this exhibition. A Jenny Holzer-style faux-neon sign reads “Giving increases treasures in heaven,” while a soft black cloud dangles above the space from an arched pole. To the right is a witty work on paper—the word “Solitude” is writ in gangster gothic script with the poignant title “Study for Matching Tattoos.” Unfortunately, these different elements never come together as cohesive installation and each work suffers from the impact of that incongruity. (Rachel Furnari)
Through April 5 at GARDENfresh Gallery, 119 N. Peoria.
Related Stories
The American Experiment: A Review of Is It A Good Time? at Mana Contemporary There is variety in the work indeed, and yet in so many of the pieces there are suggestions of duality. It makes sense—all the artists whose work is featured are currently living in America and experiencing it through the lens of a different culture.
Lost in Translation: A Review of Crip* at Gallery 400 The strongest works in the exhibition succinctly express the ways the artist relates to their own body while calling out how the artist’s body and body of work has been perceived or coded against norms or ideals.
Repurposing AI: A Review of Stephanie Dinkins at Stamps Gallery While this show is timely for everyone, I consider its setting within a university art gallery and emerging tech hub like the city of Ann Arbor a subversive provocation which Dinkins invites the greater public—including members of the university community—to consider our own positionality to AI and technology.
