‘Bantam Yard’ Pays Homage to Chickens

“The Bantam Yard,” Steve Rogers’ quirky, endearing exhibition of glazed terra-cotta bas-reliefs and linoleum cuts at Rosamund Felsen Gallery, pays homage to chickens. Although it’s strange for contemporary art to pay homage to anything, much less to chickens, Rogers manages to turn this seemingly anachronistic approach and extremely unstylish subject into an engaging show.

Not a bit of cynicism, nor any sort of critique, enters his decidedly un-hip depictions of cocks, pullets, chicks, frizzle fryers, white Cochins and cockerels. As a boy, Rogers bred chickens, winning a drawerful of ribbons at county fairs. His knowledge and devotion come through in his art, making the exhibition seem like a 3-D love poem to the wide-eyed birds.

In the main gallery, each of the four walls is adorned with a four-part relief that measures more than 6 feet across and depicts incidents in the daily life of chickens. In Rogers’ handsomely sculpted and subtly glazed works, two roosters stand off, seeds are pecked from the ground and a trio of hens move in unison. The most dramatic scene shows a worm being pulled from the ground as five pullets look on.

Rogers refrains from anthropomorphizing his chickens. Rather than serve as metaphors for various human emotions and behaviors, the birds he depicts are simply animals. Rogers’ art lets chickens be themselves while embodying the artist’s fondness for them.

* Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 828-8488, through July 13. Closed Sundays and Mondays.