Mary Dickey
“He Loves Them All,” detail of a mixed-media assemblage by Mary Dickey, is a response to the 2016 mass shooting in Orlando.
If you take the winding, 20-mile drive from Madison to Sauk Prairie you’re likely to catch a glimpse of bald eagles taking wing above the Wisconsin River. The majestic birds are part of the inspiration for an exciting exhibition at the Sauk Prairie River Arts Center.
The 3rd biennial Wings & Water exhibition, running through March 9 and sponsored by River Arts Inc., features the work of 42 artists from 22 different states. It is free to the public.
While many of the show’s pieces, chosen from a pool of more than 300, are straightforward depictions of bird life or scenes from one of the country’s many waterways, submission guidelines were deliberately left undefined beyond the title.
“The themes of wings and water come from where we’re located [on the Wisconsin River],” says River Arts Inc. executive director Lindsey Giese. “We wanted to leave it open-ended; this gives the artists space to make their own interpretations.”
This broad approach attracted artists working in a wide variety of media: The show has paintings, screen prints, sculpture and even beadwork. That variety is the greatest strength of Wings & Water, as many of the standout pieces are non-figurative.
Installed on a pedestal just beyond the gallery’s main entrance, the mixed-media assemblage “He Loves Them All” by Mary Dickey is quick to grab viewers’ attention. Created by adorning a Christian altar with a series of floral decoration, stones and small artificial birds (in a technique known as bricolage), Dickey’s piece is a response to the 2016 shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub. “I like the idea of giving old things a new beginning and hope they go on to new lives with new people in new places,” Dickey writes in her artist’s statement. The piece radiates a strange, palpable tenderness, and feels like a heartfelt, postmodern prayer.
Also arresting are “Facet Seascape Sculpture 2,” a blown-glass homage to the Pacific Ocean, and “Descry,” a frenetic, painterly abstraction incorporating oils and cold wax.
Wings & Water also includes several outstanding pieces created in more traditional mediums. A poster image for the show, the photograph “Nevermore” by Judi Altman, depicts a raven in mid-flight and slightly off-center in front of a light stone wall.
Done in black-and-white, “Nevermore” manages to capture stillness and dynamism in the same instant: The stark clarity of the bird’s head and beak combined with its motion-blurred wings lends an eeriness to the photo, its title a nod to the famous Poe poem.
Wings & Water should please fans of both traditional and contemporary styles.
Mary Dickey
