Current Moberg Exhibition: Exploring Opposites and How They Attract

The current exhibition at the Moberg Gallery highlights paradoxes in nature on a colorless stage where the shadows, shapes, and materials hold suspense for the viewer.

Front of gallery view.  Kathranne Kinght's drawings in the background and Jessica Teckemeyer's animals in the foreground. 



I visited the exhibition last Saturday and was pleasantly surprised that I was the only one in the gallery.  I felt like I was on a black and white movie set that was about to shoot a dream like sequence in a haunted forest (I have a great imagination J ).  Immediately greeting me at the door was an all-white panther hanging vertically in the air with its teeth clenched to a knotted rope.  Artist Jessica Teckemeyer writes in her artist statement that this specific piece represents the human emotion “struggle” .  The emotion of the panther is pretty impressive; clenched muscles, strained limbs, “struggle” is written all over this guy’s body.   

Navigating through the gallery, I wasn’t particularly drawn to Guy Loraine or Kathranne Knight’s works (trees and acorns)  but viewed them more as a back drop to the real action that was happening in both Teckemeyer's and Larassa Kabel’s works.  This is not to say that these works are unimportant but I just found them to be complimentary instead of having a significant role in the show.   



Teckemeyer's fawn with panther mask close up

Teckemeyer's fawn with panther mask

Continuing my trek through the creepy colorless forest, I was greeted by more panthers, confused animals, and beautiful horses.  I was really impressed by Teckemeyer’s fawn with a panther mask.  I learned from the gentleman working at the gallery that she uses taxidermy molds and poly urethane to create the sculpture, then sands it down and paints with exterior car paint to achieve the soft matte finish.  The outcome is outstanding.  It really works to achieve the polarity in soft and sweet vs rough and dangerous found in both the animal and the composition. Smooth surfaces with jagged, dramatic, expressions and movements are executed precisely.  Because the animals have taxidermy eyes, a reflection of one’s self on the sculpted animals is strongly proposed.  

I think I could go on forever about all the opposites touched on in this show, such as: light vs dark, good vs evil, hard vs soft, tame vs wild, but I won’t in this blog because it would bore you.

 East wall of the gallery highlighting Larassa Kabel's horses.

Kabel close up

"The Brave One' Colored pencil on paper by Larassa Kabel

Rounding out my walk around the gallery, I almost passed up on the horse drawings by Kabel.  Boy am I glad I didn’t.  These are amazingly beautiful.  The craftsmanship and detail that has gone into these drawings are amazing!  My shitty camera phone cannot give justice to the high quality of her work so please do me a favor and view her website http://larassakabel.com/and go see these works in person.  I find the pose of the horses breathtaking.  I learned from a friend who has worked with the artist that some of the subjects are diving horses, others are mustangs bucking wildly.  The drama captured in these moments is stunning and brilliant.  I absolutely adore and cherish any artist that puts so much detail and work into a single piece, the end product speaks volumes to their skill level and patience.

Front:  Teckemeyer's fawn casting a wolf shadow.  Again working with light and shadows to create drama and show paradoxes in nature.
Back: One of Kabel's larger works.

This show ends mid-October so get in while you can.  http://moberggallery.com/exhibits.shtml