Woodstock Times

July 14, 2005  

Smart Art / Paul Smart

There's something otherworldly about Tom Gottsleben's new sculptures on view as part of the Birdhouse III exhibit at Elena Zang Gallery in Shady through September. Unlike his chunkier pipe-cleaner-like constructs of bluestone and metal that have twisted themselves into a variety of regional settings in recent years, the current "Stand of Scapes" and "Spires" and similar pieces are naturalistic in both form and near-seemless construction. They rise from the earth like steel, but utilize polished and cut local stone to mimic the perfection of the plant world, up to their shiny metal tips. And though not the same sort of house-like "avian real estate," as Zang has described the show's collection of over 40 pieces, they are instantly recognizable for the sense of comfort they should suggest to our feathered friends.

    The Gottslebens punctuate the new exhibit beautifully, like tuning forks that center each section of Zang's beautiful gardens, centered by a burbling brook and a pair of bridges. And comgined with his better-known older works, from polished stone benches to those characteristic pipe cleaner constructs, as well as a host of other fine work by several dozen top regional artists, they make for what will likely be the Hudson Valley's top sculpture exhibit this season, hands-down.

    This is a joy of a collection to wander amidst, both playful and magical, as all the best sculpture should be. Grace Wapner is represented by a pair of white ceramic whispers of birdhouses, floating like clouds above the garden's sloped flower beds. Jonah Meyer has a tall and short birdhouse nestled next to where the vegetables grow, effortlessly furthering his enigmatic explorations of the crude and the graceful with their mixture of classic house shapes with seemingly disparate materials. Sweet.

    Sarah Mecklem continues her journey into unmarked turf with a pair of talisman-like abodes festooned with antler/brances. Donald elder's made a chess-like construct, playful and inviting. Joel Schuman's high tech whirligig of a Martin house is a subtle homage to the great modernist architect, Le Corbusier, while at the same time fully cogniscent of the sculpture's intended inhabitants, who Zang says have been coming to visit the new exhibit in increasing droves

Just like the nearly 200 two-legged fans who made their way to the grand opening for Birdhouses III, according to the curator/gallerist and her partner, Alan Hoffman.

    "Enough to require two people handling parking," added he.

    In addition to the actual birdhouses are other fine new pieces, including a series of new works by Mary Frank, Stephen Robin and Bo Gehring.

    Try and get by the exhibit when you have the time to sit with this art. Enjoy the garden. Listen to the brook as it dances through these pieces.

    And especially, visit when you can really spend some time with the new works by Gottsleben. They'll haunt you, as all good art should, and possibly even change the way you look on all that is natural, and not.

    Talk about getting a new take on that old adage involving birds' eye views. +