Complicated And Contradictory

Jessie Walp "Persistance" Maple, Dye, Concrete at R Gallery in Rochester, New York
Jessie Walp “Persistance” Maple, Dye, Concrete at R Gallery in Rochester, New York

Each of the three Rochester Biennial locations feature curated exhibitions that investigate collaboration, influence and partnership. Leo’s and mine at RoCo certainly had elements of all three facets. Bridget Elmer from Saint Petersburg, Florida partners with Emily Larned in Bridgeport, Connecticut and have formed a collective called ILLSA. Their artwork itself is all about these facets. And at R Gallery Buffalo artists, Bethany Krull & Jesse Walp, life partners and 2006-7 graduates of RIT’s Sculpture and Ceramics programs, collaborate in “Bound” to fill the space with both organic and organic-influenced man-made objects.

According to the wall text Krull “addresses the complicated and contradictory relationship between humans and animals” while Walp creates sculptures that “show no signs of the artist’s hand, making the work seem otherworldly.” I don’t see that but I remain open. Instead of complicated and contradictory I feel more like the animal I am and I I thought hand of the artist was striking, say in the concrete, the carved maple and dye in the piece above. I loved this show.

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