Review: Arnold Kemp at PDX
By D.K. Row, The Oregonian
November 27, 2009, 10:15AM
kvitka.jpgDan KvitkaInstallation view of Arnold Kemp's show at PDX Contemporary Art.Sometimes, a work of art isn't as commanding as the idea behind it. Sometimes, something just gets lost in the transmission of ideas.
Looking at the paintings, photographs and mixed-media works in Arnold Kemp's show at PDX Contemporary Art, I'm fascinated by the ideas he presents, ideas about race and the African American experience. Those ideas linger, float and hover in and around this eclectic body of work.
But that's the quandary with this show, which arrives with a slightly pretentious title: "This Quiet Dust, Ladies and Gentlemen." These quiet, even lulling works aren't as intriguing as they should be, aren't as potentially commanding as the ideas behind them, which are themselves enigmatically transmitted. I'm not convinced the works stand alone formally.
Kemp has been living in Portland for just several months, having moved here from the Bay Area to chair the new and much anticipated visual studies program at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. That important position has quickly made Kemp a presence here, a person of interest.
That position is one reason why Jane Beebe, owner of one of the best and most coveted galleries in town, gave Kemp a show, even though the number of artists long vying to get a show at PDX Contemporary could fill Memorial Coliseum. Skeptics charging another example of Portland clubbiness hardly matter, Beebe says. It's her gallery, after all. Besides, Kemp's work rises above on its merits, she says.
Inspired by an Emily Dickinson poem, "This Quiet Dust Was Ladies and Gentleman," Kemp's show has been described by the gallery as "elusive." Indeed. The paintings are small, monochromatic works called "Vampire" and are, on the surface, all black. Look closely, however, and vestiges of colors painted first can be glimpsed.
A similar aura of suspense, a kind of pregnant pause, suffuses the mixed-media pieces. Kemp liberally applies paint, glitter and doll's eyes to craft patches and swells of color and texture that are both creepy and lovely. At times the doll's eyes seem, in fact, like eyes staring out at you. An ugly specter concerning race looms as well: Think of Al Jolson's eyes when he was painted in black face.
On the other hand, there's an almost mournful quality to the dense, bare branches Kemp has photographed. These funereal prints connect viewers to the "quiet dust" of the title. Are we looking up, skyward, from the earthy burrows?
It's not clear. Kemp's work operates on the fringes, on the margins. It helps to know that Kemp is African American and that much of his past work has explored issues of race and identity. That knowledge gives his black paintings and mixed-media works a current, a charge. Powerful ideas are embedded within the different shades of black color, literally.
But in this show, I find those ideas vaguely transmitted. They're searching for a more articulate messenger. And for the lack of it, these ideas are murmurs, waiting to be heard.
As for the works, they are lovely whispers.
