While the Collective Becomings show at the Brookly Artists Gym was not well attended (compared to the last show on Small Art Works that occured a couple of weeks ago) there were some good artists in the show – artists that are serious about their work.

“Artists: Marvalisa Coley, Lillian Feldman, Jack Johnson, Leah Keller- Transburg, Natalya Rolbin, Dmitriy Stadnitsky.

Collective Becomings features six artists hailing from New York and Detroit: Marvalisa Coley, Lillian Feldman, Jack Johnson, Leah Keller-Transburg, Natalya Rolbin, and Dmitriy Stadnitsky. The diverse media in which they work, including mixed-media sculpture, paint, and digital imagery, matches the wide range of their voices spanning from gestural abstraction to emotional narrative to raw, graffiti energy. Whether scrawling text, painting in oil, or throwing enamel, these artists together present a richly layered, harmonious ensemble in a perpetual state of becoming.”

I spoke to a couple of the artists and took photos of Leah Keller-Transburg’s two screen paintings. Leah, who started out in Detroit, spent some years in Africa and now shows here in New York.

   

I think Leah has put some thought and work into how her works are presented and that carries though to her website, where work in this series (above) from 2006 are shown.  Based on her resume, she has the time, energy and means to persue an artists’ career, as well as the talent.  Comparisons, it’s easy to compare her work to calligraphy, to Jackson Pollock or to a rorschach test.   I would have liked to have seen some of Keller-Transburg’s oils such as renaissance ii or the paintings in “Spirit, Dust and Fire that were shown at the Cafe de Troit last year, in Detroit.   I suppose it would be more interersting to know the Mozambique, New York, Detroit division of time spent and how that affects the work.

Here’s a bio from her website: Leah Keller-Transburg. Since studying painting at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, Keller-Transburg has exhibited in both New York and Detroit. Her work has been described as “a celebration of creation – both in terms of life and the artistic process” (www.thedetroiter.com). She is currently preparing for a solo exhibition entitled “Dancing the Line,” at the Pump House Regional Arts Center in La Crosse, WI (April ’07). Keller-Transburg divides her time between New York City and Mozambique. For more information, visit www.leahkellertransburg.com.

Natalya Rolbin also is showing in the Collective Becomings show  and is and illustrator and painter. I don’t really see that much difference between illustration and painting – but there used to be.   I think the paintings in the show grew on me the more I looked at them and I’m always careful what I say to artists as they are putting their soul out for others to see and touch.   I think Natalya would be well served to combine her commerical art and illustration with her painting – make a painting about a brochure – or make a statement that’s a brochure on canvas – smash though the conventional.   Of all her work, perhaps the Illustrations is the most satisfying visually.  I would challenge her to go beyond Illustration, yet not renounce it – sounds like a paradox but it’s really not.

There appears to be a theme about Detroit – perhaps Natalya and Leah know each other from Detroit….I wonder if the other artists in the show are connected in some common way?

Perhaps the most intersting link on Natalya’s website is to the Super Human Golf Club head covers - I really must research the market for this and write it up on Webmetricsguru.com – certainly it will be an interesting read!

If anything, what is most interesting to me, in this show, was not the art in it, but how the artists are connected to each other.