This article oringinallly appeared on artnet.com Magazine Reviews –
LETTER
FROM FORT WORTH: TEUTON FOR TEXAS
by YSABEL DE LA ROSA
The Contemporary Art Center of Fort Worth
On
view at Fort Worth's one-year-old ContemporaryArt Center downtown was a
group show of five local photographers, "Introductions:
Contemporary Texas Photographers," curated by Luther Smith, photography
professor at Texas Christian University. Once a parking garage, the gallery
has hosted some10,000 visitors in 12 months and has also become an important
venue for performing arts events.
Dormith Doherty's large, color works blend mysterious animal and human images
in a way reminiscent of Mexican surrealism. Cranium is all but abstract,
while in another work the face of man and jaguar merge and yet remain distinct.
A Fulbright fellow (who spent time in Mexico) with an Yale MFA in photography,
Doherty is affiliated with James Gallery in Houston.
Aaron Kamelhaar's black-and-white work has a silvery Weston touch and some
of the emotional documentary power of a Eugene Smith. His portrait of a Mexican
child whose hands have been made twice their normal size by hard labor engenders
compassion without dipping into sentimentalism or pity. Kamelhaar's images
of construction workers on Dallas's Central Expressway, however, are totally
haunting. The steely yet watery silvers and grays in his photographs communicate
both the cold metal and the dark dangers of this highway.
Dick Lane's work takes me back to the mosaic ashtray I made in the 1960s.
In fact, all of Lane's work in this show would make great mosaic ashtrays.
Lane takes black-and-white and color photos, which he cuts into small squares
and rearranges -- with no small skill -- into complex and entertaining images.
He says his aim is to communicate the magic world that combines Texas myths
and B movies, the land of horned toads, rattle snakes and men in boots. Brilliant
good fun.
Debra Fox began studying photography at age 32 with SMU professor Charles
DeBus, and her work is full of promise, originality and experimentation.
Currently concentrating on "alternative photograms," her images
are a fresh departure from all things techno-mechanical. Her Gladiola and
Iris are especially mysterious.
April B'lan Kao's work is the show's "wind song" --
the one that stays on your mind. A native of Taiwan, B'lan Kao moved to Texas
at age 22. Her work shows an Interest in visual purity. Each image feels
like it lives somewhere between a Haiku poem and a detective story. Most
arresting image: Bride with a Moon Door Over her Head.
YSABEL DE LA ROSA is a writer and artist living in Madrid.
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