Art Review : The Unusual World of Robert Overby

A well-chosen group of sculptures by Robert Overby (1935-1993) at Sue Spaid Fine Art pays overdue homage to this little-known artist’s curious oeuvre.

From July, 1969, to August, 1973, Overby made 336 paintings, prints and cast objects. A graphic designer by trade, he catalogued each piece in a compact, fully illustrated handbook that records, like a Minimalist diary, the date, title, dimensions and materials of every item.

The chronicle begins with snazzy abstractions on shaped canvases. It swiftly moves through various renditions of such Pop objects as Coca-Cola bottles, clothes pins, hangers, flash lights, light bulbs, pencils and socks. Overby’s selection of mundane articles echoes the anonymous objects Jasper Johns used in his art in the 1950s and 1960s.

Latex rubber casts of doors, windows, walls, stairways and even an entire living room follow, signaling the onset of Overby’s artistic maturity. These detailed, skin-like sculptures precede his paintings of portraits and nudes and account for almost half of his catalogued work. The exhibition rightly focuses on a dozen of these fragile, well-preserved casts.

The most impressive are a set of bright orange and yellow kitchen cabinets and a wooden garage door’s front and back sides. Each piece hangs on the wall like a droopy, textured bedsheet that exactly duplicates the contours of the household fixture from which it was cast. Running across the floor are two 30-foot-long strips of rubber that bear the imprint of a brick wall and evoke tire tracks or skid marks.

Overby used some of his latex casts as molds for more rigid fiberglass sculptures, including a beautiful, blue screen-door and an electric-yellow door-frame that resembles a homeless 3-D “zip” from a Barnett Newman painting.

Overby also sewed canvas versions of selected latex casts. Unpainted, extremely detailed and meticulously stitched, they’re less flexible but more durable than his rubber works. He called these pieces maps and modeled them on anything from broken windows to the corners of rooms.

His art recalls that of Claes Oldenburg, Bruce Nauman, Gordon Matta-Clark and James Rosenquist. Overby’s work is distinct, however, because of its diaristic nature. His tireless recording of the everyday environment--and his thorough cataloguing of the activity--leave you with ample evidence that the ordinary world is full of wonder, if seen from the right angle.

* Sue Spaid Fine Art, 7454 1/2 Beverly Blvd., (213) 935-6153, through July 31. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.