The Sky’s the Limit

As Earthly mortals, we can be as planet-centric or galaxy-centric as we wish, but there’s no getting around space, that final frontier, that outer limit.

Hale-Bopp recently brought that message home, reminder of both the mysterious grandeur of the cosmos and the bizarre and sometimes ineffable workings of human psychology.

Images of the cosmos and otherworldly notions have been affected by media coverage of the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide. Suddenly, there was no avoiding images of sci-fi acolytes, dreaming of the beyond and Nirvana by way of an alien spaceship.

The spherical mug of cult leader Marshall Applewhite, looking like “Star Trek: The Next Generation’s” Patrick Stewart and “My Favorite Martian’s” Ray Walston with an attitude, has invaded our consciousness, cause for amusement and horror.

Into this setting, space-minded art has landed at the Century Gallery with the intriguing new show “Quarks to Quasars.” The show arrives in the gallery with ironic timing. For anyone who has pondered the Heaven’s Gate house blend of hybrid spirituality and cheesy sci-fi lore, or visited its Web site, space imagery now has a nuance of tragedy.

This is not to say that there’s anything tragic about the art here. The range of interest among the six artists runs from quarks--subatomic particles--to quasars, possibly the most distant luminous objects in the observable cosmos. The point, asserted in the curitorial statement by Merrilyn Duzy and Norma Jean Squires (both represented in the show), is the general contemplation of the macrocosmic and the microcosmic--inner and outer space.

For both Duzy and Sam Arno, the starry night sky is a point of expressive departure. They turn canvases into light-pricked space scapes, in which constellations correlate with abstract designs. Duzy also shows monotypes in which starry skies are backdrops for mandala-like images, hinting at the astrology end of star worship.

Artist Squires comes from a space of her own. She uses small square canvases to depict ambiguous occurrences in what we presume is outer space--explosions, disruptions and burning objects.

Squires often works with canvases in clever sequences, as in “Inconclusion,” made up of 16 narrow, vertical panels, which are visually read from left to right. It seems to detail a transition from a clouded sky--as we know and love it--to the more enigmatic realm of space. Still, we’re not sure if Squires is portraying inner or outer space, and that’s the point.

For Victor Raphael, odd technical manipulations allow him to achieve unusual visual effects resembling paranormal activity or cosmic high jinks. He uses gold and metal leaf on Polaroids and other esoteric print media to suggest phenomena beyond our ken.

June Wayne’s lithographs deal with unaccountable visual stimuli, expressing fondness for the unknown, but with a subtler hand than seen in Raphael’s work.

And in the middle of it all sit Jacqueline Dreager’s peculiar sculptural objects, plopped casually on the gallery floor like alien castoffs. Some of these pieces resemble egg-shaped containers, which open up like pods and exist as potential metaphors for life form propagation of indeterminate species.

Space in an art context such as this can be a dangerous proposition, an invitation to culturally suspect interpretations. But the results here, overall, merely attest to the curiosity we have about unknown realms. From the perspective of these artists, space is a frontier that sparks creative minds into action and speculation.

The process of cosmic reflection can be illuminating, maddening or both. Thankfully, in the case of this exhibition, the former rules.

BE THERE

“Quarks to Quasars,” through May 9 at the Century Gallery, 13000 Sayre St. in Sylmar. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Mon.-Fri.; noon-4 p.m., Sat.; (818) 362-3220.