Photo By Graham Lienhart

Ana England's "Self-Portrait with Ancestors

Think sensuous. Think lyrical. Think discarded rubber tires. Sculptor Chakaia Booker's raw material is that awkward cast-off of our peripatetic society, used tires. From them she makes sensuous, yes, lyrical works that are a perfect pleasure to the eye, as can be seen in 3D: An Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture at Carl Solway Gallery.

An untitled example of Booker's work is a key piece in this exhibition, which surveys recent sculpture by nationally and internationally recognized artists, some with Cincinnati ties. The varied exhibition, continuing through July 29, was planned in conjunction with the International Sculpture Center Conference held here last month. Booker was a keynote speaker.

Aesthetic considerations were a top priority in forming this show -- no messy, message-is-all work here, although messages might be the backbone of many conceptions. While a few of the 31 artists are represented by two or even three pieces, most are seen in a single work. A show with so many points of view, each so briefly exposed, runs the risk of incoherence and fractured, overall spottiness. The experienced hands at Solway Gallery have not let this happen. The show is stunning, installed so that one work sets off another, the whole becoming an electric experience.

In the first gallery, Petah Coyne's untitled, other-worldly, virginal-white construction of wire, wax and found objects, suspended by a metal chain, is beside Nick Cave's "Soundsuit," made from found beaded and sequined garments, pieced together into an eye-popping, color-splashed costume of sorts. The works play off each other in dynamic fashion, and are in turn enlivened by the artfully lighted, corner-mounted piece by Amy Kao called "The Beautiful, the Ugly and the Dangerous," a construction of floating shapes in pale pastels.

In a farther corner of the same gallery Judy Pfaff uses woven magnet wire, steel and blown glass to construct "Matterello," its sweeps and swings of line-like motion caught and stilled. Around the corner Carmel Buckley works similar magic with a tea strainer and wire in an untitled work that appears lighter than air.

Two of Allan McCollum's ubiquitous "Perfect Vehicle" sculptures are here, 6-foot-6-inches tall in this incarnation, each painted in many layers of brush-marked, singing color. McCollum mimics mass production with these reproductions of antique Chinese ginger jars, turning them out in small and large sizes, but does mass production one better by making each collection of small versions unique and never repeating color for the large individual works.

Cincinnati-based artists hold their own handily in this selection of national and international artists. Ana England's arresting "Self-Portrait with Ancestors" stands taller than most viewers and is constructed of what appear to be small bones fitted together with extreme care. They are made of porcelain, epoxy and polystyrene; the artist cast the first two, she told Carl Solway, but after that just made them by hand.

Another Cincinnatian, Anthony Luensman, made the most engaging of the works in the gallery given over to new technologies. His "under wire cloud," a cymbal played by dancing wires when activated, is quite beautiful, whatever disquieting thoughts he might have had in mind. Alan Rath, who grew up in Cincinnati but now lives in California, has three playful works in that gallery, which also includes work by Fabrizio Plessi of Venice, Italy. Significantly, this gallery can be entered from the room dedicated to a memorial exhibition of the work of Nam June Paik, whose video sculptures told us this kind of thing was coming.

The exhibition continues upstairs, where former Cincinnati resident Joel Otterson's "Marriages Made in Heaven: Covered Dish Museum" is a delightful ode to collecting mania. A small work by the late George Segal, one of an edition of 15, points up his affinity to the painter Edward Hopper who, like Segal, considered loneliness the human condition.

While some works are weaker than others, this handsome exhibition mostly moves from strength to strength, beginning in the parking lot where Jay Bolotin's fiberglass head, "The Cretin," surveys arrivals. Grade: A

---

3D: An Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture continues at Carl Solway Gallery through July 29.