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COMEDY RELIEF AT GALLERY : IT’S ART FOR FUN’S SAKE AT SAN DIEGO EXHIBIT

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Old Town’s A.R.T. / Beasley Gallery is making an annual tradition of supplying comic relief in the art world.

For three years the Beasley has tickled local funnybones with this juried exhibition, tempting a raft of artists to go for the sight gag, the trompe l’oeil effect, the double-entendre and the visual pun as a means of making an artistic statement.

For the record:

12:00 a.m. May 3, 1986 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday May 3, 1986 San Diego County Edition Calendar Part 5 Page 3 Column 1 Entertainment Desk 1 inches; 20 words Type of Material: Correction
In the April 18 edition, an artist exhibiting at the Beasley Gallery’s Humor in Art show was incorrectly identified. His name is Terry Noel Tyler.

This year, A.R.T. / Beasley’s search for the zany side of art has uncovered a profusion of subtle and satirical works, and several blatantly obvious rib-ticklers, expressed in materials as diverse as paint and canvas, wood, metal, fiber and papier mache. As usual, there’s a crafty melange of mixed-media concoctions among the artworks.

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Steve Kelley, political cartoonist of the San Diego Union, judged the show and culled the long list of entries down to 46 pieces for display. The selections, bundled under the weighty umbrella of “Third Annual International Humor in Art Exhibition,” will be at the gallery through May 14.

“We felt Steve Kelley was perfect (as a judge),” said gallery owner Dottie Beasley, in a pre-opening interview. “We felt he would be able to understand where the artists were coming from. I don’t put myself into the judging, because if I were always involved, the shows would only reflect my sense of humor.”

Beasley is convinced that “behind every serious artist, there’s a comedian screaming to get out. They’re observers of the world. They’d be the most devastated people if they didn’t have a sense of humor.”

“This is not a silly show,” she said, to dispel the notion that an exhibition of humorous art is just a one-joke affair. “We have a lot of returns, and a lot of first-year people. In fact, we’re getting a much bigger response each year we do this, and the quality is so much better now than it was our first year.”

The show is dear to Beasley’s heart, because “it’s one way we can show (the public that) all art dealers are not only out to make a buck. And it gives people who don’t have regular gallery affiliations an opportunity to show their work. We want to do more of that kind of thing.”

Among this year’s bag of assorted whimsy is a life-sized work titled “Mrs. Beasley Goes to an Art Show,” which lampoons the pomposity of art critics--and pokes fun at the proprietor herself.

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“When I saw it, I asked (artist Terry Nolan), ‘Do you know me?’

“What makes it so hysterical is that he had never met me,” Beasley explained, marveling at the accuracy of the parody.

There’s one uninvited guest in this year’s show--a dangling skeleton that stares vacantly from an anteroom and provides a real dose of gallows humor to the exhibition.

“It was part of last month’s show,” Beasley explained, “but Steve said, ‘Let’s keep it, it’s perfect.’ ”

This year only two works were singled out for special recognition. Both are wryly comic and well-crafted works by area artists--and both were conceived in ceramics. John Rubesha’s “Fellow Travelers,” the grand prize winner, is a clever variation on the “flasher” theme, while Carl Johnson’s melting gun, “Make My Day Hot” (honored as best of show), takes its title from Clint Eastwood’s on-screen brashness--and uses the violent, highly realistic imagery of a handgun to make an opposing point.

“It’s sort of like changing guns into plowshares,” said Johnson, by way of explanation for the symbolic work. “I typically do wood sculpture but I made this (in ceramics) because I wanted it to have a cold, hard look.”

Rubesha’s “Fellow Travelers” is the second in what has become a series of ceramics depicting people seated on a bench. The artist describes this one as “sheer whimsy. Actually, the other figure on the bench is an extraterrestrial being and the flasher has no idea of whether it’s a male or a female--but he’s still ready to flash.”

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The 56-year-old artist is a first-time exhibitor at the Beasley Gallery and grateful for this recognition as an artist, not merely as a craftsman.

“There’s a definite prejudice (against ceramicists),” he said. “It’s actually because there’s so much dreadful pottery around.”

“As long as a craft is brought to a fine art level, then I accept it,” Beasley said. “I call it crafted fine art.”

Some of the pieces don’t seem all that funny--until you read their titles. For example, “Oyl on Canvas” is a painting of Popeye’s heartthrob, and “Tickle my Fancies” is a pair of ceramic feet with a handy feather nearby.

Photographer Tom Szalay captured his subject enjoying a hearty horselaugh in “Laughing Horse.” Ceramic “people” are packed into the partially opened sardine can in “Some People Live Like Sardines,” a miniature work by Sidney Searles. And man is unmasked as his ancestral ape in “Darwin,” a delightful evolutionary work by Craig Hawley.

Pamela Kozminska’s “Tea for 3 and an Extra” would be useful as well as beautiful if you could figure out a way to pour from the three-spouted pot--or manipulate the cups with interlocking handles. And “Catscape,” an appealing drawing by Barbara Young, plays with a feline landscape.

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There are several cartoon-style artworks included in the show, but the closest to a political cartoon is “The Day the Dinosaurs Returned to San Diego,” a witty collage of prehistoric creatures.

Beasley is the biggest fan of her annual show and vows to continue, “although we still get into the hole every time we do it. It’s our way to say ‘thank you’ to the area and to the artists. We hope it will help San Diego gain recognition as an art community.”

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