Double take

Three new exhibits at MCA Denver lure the audience in for a closer look

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In Critical Focus, Monique Crine explores the stereotypical American football star with her photo realistic paintings.

In Monique Crine’s picture “Jake,” a buff man stands alone in a pool gazing at the viewer. When standing a few feet away from the 6-foot-by-9-foot portrait, it seems as if you’re staring at a photograph. But upon closer inspection of the curve of the jaw or curl of a hair, you see the stroke of a paintbrush. Capturing a snapshot of time with a camera is instantaneous, but for her photorealistic style of painting, Crine pours days of work into a single moment.

“It extends the temporality of the image,” Crine says. “You can see the movement of the brush and the artist’s hand. There’s a sense of time, which is something you don’t get with the immediacy of a photograph. You can see the time that went in it, and it makes that moment so much heavier. It becomes ineffable.”

Crine’s show, Critical Focus, is just one of the new exhibits on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, along with Kim Dorland: Everyday Monsters and Thief Among Thieves. The Critical Focus series shines light on emerging artists with a unique point of view. Nora Abrams, curator for Crine’s exhibit, was drawn to the hyper-realistic portraiture that, she says, tricks your eye and seduces the viewer into looking closer.

“The thing that you achieve in painting rather than photography is it really slows you down. You stop and look,” Abrams says. “A photograph of all of these would not work because you wouldn’t find them so arresting. But because they’re paintings we become really curious about the process and curious about image-making and how these things come to life.”

Slowing down also gives the audience a chance to get a deeper look at the men in the portraits. The three Crine painted are all former football players who each made it to the NFL but all retired early due to injury. Part of Crine’s desire with the series, she says, was to show a more vulnerable side to the player. To do that, Crine, who has always been heavily influenced by film, used lighting and framing of the subjects, almost as if taking a film still out of their own lives. Abrams likens the pictures to a story where we don’t know the end or the beginning, but we want to know more. The expressions in each of Crine’s portraits contain a contemplativeness that begs the question of what the future holds.

“Initially, [because of their early retirements] I was going for a darker sense, but I got to know them, and they’re just beautiful people,” Crine says. “These moments feel more hopeful. This isn’t the end. They’re all looking toward the future; they’re all more promising.”

Kim Dorland exploits the tension of the moment in his pictures through his subject matter and technique, like in "Sasquatch #2" he mixes thick paint and fur to disorient the viewer.
Kim Dorland exploits the tension of the moment in his pictures through his subject matter and technique, like in “Sasquatch #2” he mixes thick paint and fur to disorient the viewer. Kim Dorland

The idea of capturing a loaded moment also runs through Kim Dorland’s exhibit, Everyday Monsters. In contrast to Crine’s work, Dorland’s work lives in the abstract world. His subject matter revolves around the mythical creatures that haunt our nightmares — zombies, Bigfoot, Sasquatch and even Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees. While the paintings aren’t overtyly violent, there’s an uneasy feeling present in each picture.

“I feel like I’m a very sober person, and I’m always trying to capture these moments that are pregnant with tension — not necessarily a bad tension,” Dorland says. “It’s about that perfect kind of moment where something is about to happen.”

Dorland’s painting style further unsettles the viewer. He uses unexpected color choices, like hot pink and lime green, in dark landscapes to amplify a nervous energy by giving sweetness to the odd and macabre. Through generous amounts of paint, sometimes jutting several inches off the canvas, Dorland creates texture so lush that the viewer feels as if they can almost step into the world beyond the canvas. But he doesn’t just stop at paint, you’ll see also notice fur, feathers, nails and other props to enhance a multidimensional quality to the work. Dorland uses these abstractions to provide distance and remind the audience they’re looking at a painting.

Variety continues in MCA’s third new exhibit Thief Among Thieves. It features paintings, sculptures and other media from more than 20 artists showcasing several different perspectives and approaches, including manipulating photography, using found objects and appropriating pop culture icons like Mickey Mouse and Stewie from Family Guy. Abrams, who co-curated the exhibit, says their idea was to capture the current climate in the art world.

“There’s this whole generation of young artists that are looking to the past unabashedly. They’re stealing from the past, hence the title,” Abrams says. “They’re borrowing ideas, motifs, processes, subject matter from the past, and they’re exploiting it and transforming it and working with it… Now you see artists and their fingers are in so many different paths, and they’re exploring all of it in their way. Artists aren’t limiting themselves or boxing themselves in one particular way.”

Sam Falls' "Blueberries (2)" is an example of the current contemporary art climate shown in the Thief Among Thieves exhibit.
Sam Falls’ “Blueberries (2)” is an example of the current contemporary art climate shown in the Thief Among Thieves exhibit. Sam Falls

 

This lack of hesitation to borrow from the past allows for a fresh perspective in the art world. There’s a curiosity in the exhibit, with many artists looking at the world around them for inspiration or material. You’ll see blueberries used to make actual marks on the canvas or Disney-themed beach balls or the confetti from a child’s birthday party. Using these familiar objects, Abrams says, makes the art more approachable and engaging.

A common thread stringing all three exhibitions together is the use of iconography — from the football star to Bigfoot to Mickey Mouse. For Dorland, the archetypes poke at bigger societal feelings that most people can relate to. He says he uses these horror characters to work through his own rocky past and his biggerpicture concerns.

“With each painting, I’m trying to elicit a specific response,” he says. “Mostly, they’re storytelling. So if it’s a painting of zombies, I’m trying to use that medium to get the feeling of contemporary isolation and societal decay, or if I’m working with the forest, it’s environmental decay. If I’m working with my family, it’s about social dynamics.”

As Dorland uses archetypes to exorcise his own demons, Crine’s work also led her on a personal journey to release her own preconceived judgments and better understand the men behind the myth. Even though all these men did play in the NFL, Crine stayed away from choosing anyone too famous. She says if she has painted a picture of someone like Peyton Manning, the audience might not have looked past the image to see the person. Crine’s intention was to show these men for who they are.

“I wanted to break down and understand our stereotypes of football players and American masculinity,” she says. “Football players are these American gladiators. In photographing them, I wanted them to be more vulnerable, without the aesthetic protection of their uniform. I wanted them to be themselves …

“I thought they were gonna be big meathead dicks, that they’re just gonna be dudes in the worst way. But they were so nice. That’s what blew me away,” she says. “They were so unbelievably generous, kind, thoughtful and sincere.”

Through her discovery, Crine was able to provide the audience with a deeper look into a well-known subculture, questioning what it means to be a football player and the duality of masculinity and vulnerability. As with all the exhibits in the show, the artists draw you in, whether with a technique, an anxious feeling or a recognizable subject matter. And that activates audiences to take another look and search for meaning.

“All of it it is a way to engage the viewer directly and make them connect in a more intimate way with the work,” Abrams says. “It’s an experience that is universal or an object that’s so familiar. … The work facilitates asking questions on the part of the viewer, which enables a much more meaty and powerful experience.”

ON THE BILL: Critical Focus: Monique Crine, Kim Dorland: Everyday Monsters and Thief Among Thieves. Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, 1485 Delgany St., Denver, 303-298-7554. Through June 28.