Prevailing Perspectives

Art City, Ventura’s unique, two-location artist compound, has been in the news of late, and not for aesthetic reasons. Two fires have struck the original Art City site in the last two months, leaving artists there with a sizable cleanup task. For some of those artists most badly hit, the destruction of artworks has left them with a sense of tabula rasa.

But you wouldn’t know about any such aura of calamity in visiting the more public of the two locations, Art City 2. The ample gallery space there, home to many a provocative and alternative-minded group show, is hosting a bounty of art under the telling, teasing handle “Womenswork.”

Like most of the group shows here, the focus is on art for both the wall and the floor, between art in two and three dimensions. The difference here, of course, has to do with the artists’ gender, but not necessarily in predictable or socially relevant ways.

Close to the entrance is Julie Dahl-Nicolle’s “Self-Evocation,” depicting a nude woman, contorted and contained in a box. The theme of constriction and of female repression is inescapable in this piece, a darker companion piece to her current showing of unusual nude studies at the Buenaventura Gallery.

This piece is an anomaly, however. Mostly, the show is not politicized or feminist by any inherent, discernible nature. Instead, female perspectives are personified in forms and themes.

Because of the nature of the show, we are tempted to read more into the work than we might otherwise, readily picking up the anatomical reference, for instance, in Helle S. Todd’s green glass sculpture “Entry” or viewing Ursula Wolf-Rotkay’s large diptych painting “Alkalai Paradise 2” as a social allegory of femininity. It’s a surreal tableau of melting and overlapping imagery--clouds, religious architecture, cracked earth and a hazy impression of a woman in apparent expression of pain.

On more of a conceptual front, Holly Charlon’s assemblages leave a strong impression and encourage individual readings of their meaning. “Tendril in the Mesh” is a box lined in floral fabric, with human hair intertwined in a rusted metal grid. It conjures impressions of female archetypes, locked in a confined space. Nora Yukon shows one of her Native American-influenced assemblages, “Life Giver,” an entity and artifact that suggests its own spiritual and cultural powers.

Elsewhere, sensuous sculptural contours seem to suggest a female perspective, from Maureen Fischbach’s sinuous “Three Leaves” to Alexandra Morosco’s bold female torso, “Forte Ma Gentile.” Michelle Gould’s “Self-Portrait” depicts a nude, gently distorted by the watery visual effects of a pool, and Jane McKinney shows one of her small but potent mystical landscapes.

Heidi Zin’s chromagraph prints, such as “Orchid Memory,” are all about vegetation and other nature-oriented imagery, with a subtle Georgia O’Keeffe reference, tapping into the secret life of plants. Similarly, Elizabeth Cathcart’s macro-close-up cibachromes celebrate the almost otherworldly beauty of orchids, seen point-blank.

“Womenswork” is just that, and more. It’s an exhibition that doubles as a survey of Ventura County’s wealth of women artists and a casual investigation into the nature of being female and being an artist. Beyond those factors, the show seems to arrive at a time when a strong presence is necessary for the spirit of the place. Fires come, hard times go. Art City, it would seem, prevails.

DETAILS

“Womenswork,” through Feb. 20 at Art City 2 Gallery, 31 Peking St. in Ventura. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Wed.-Sun.; 648-1690.

* Josef Woodard, who writes about art and music, can be reached by e-mail at joeinfo@aol.com