An
artist who brushes aside convention David Szafranski's abstract works convey wit while confronting barriers Janet Kutner Art Critic of The Dallas Morning News Published: June 15, 1993 David Szafranski
is an abstract painter of sorts, but he seldom touches
a paintbrush and pigments are foreign to his
vocabulary. Instead
of using traditional materials to apply color and
texture, he relies on an idiosyncratic assortment of
things like lawn-chair webbing, chenille fabric, bang
caps, theater tickets and videotape from old porno
films he has collected. Given
the hodgepodge character of his materials, one might
expect his work to look crude or messy. On the
contrary, everything is seamlessly woven together. Mr.
Szafranski comes by his orderly approach naturally.
Although he has been an active member of the local art
community for almost 10 years, he also holds down a
regular job as a chemical engineer. His irreverent
artworks have provided him an escape from the tyranny
of middle-class life, but they're more an expression
of gentle reproof than outright disdain. Ms.
Szafranski grew up in a suburban area of Minnesota, so
the world he parodies is one he knows well. His
commentary extends beyond suburbia into the realm of
art itself. The pristine square formats he prefers are
a direct takeoff on minimalist grids, and the
repetitious use of elements like tickets and computer
tape harkens to serial imagery and multiples. Simplistic as
the work might seem, it's extremely sophisticated on
some levels. Some pieces fit flush against the wall,
but others jut out at right angles, thus "invading'
the viewers' space and forcing them to become
participants by walking around the work. Despite
the decidedly commonplace character of their
components, his works also can be quite beautiful in
their way. The porno piece 24,000 Inches of Adult
Videos is positively elegant, because the light plays
across its woven surface, creating a wonderful
shimmering effect. Mr.
Szafranski has succeeded in transforming tangible
symbols of the everyday world into illusory wall
pieces that represent the formalist value system on
which modern art is based. He is adhering to his own
set of rules—square compositions, meticulous
craftsmanship, an emphasis on form over content—as
rigidly as the abstract schools that have prevailed
throughout much of this century. At the
same time, by locking things into a context for which
they were never intended, Mr. Szafranski has robbed
his materials of their true character. The tickets
have no admission value; the porno tapes are no longer
titillating; the chenille can't keep a body warm; the
bang caps are rendered mute. He
carries the fiction a step further with deadpan
titles, making ponderous tongue-in-cheek references to
stylistic pretensions. The distinctions between Normal
Small White Chenille and Sideways Small White Chenille
relate only to the way the warp of the fabric is
turned. Humorous
as Mr. Szafranski's works can be—and there's no way
not to smile at what he does—an underlying sense of
social unrest comes across in certain instances. One
piece consists of row after row of wallboard tape on
which the warning "Police Line Do Not Cross'
repeatedly appears. Another serial-image weaving
simulates a classified ad for a jailer, complete with
job description. These
particular works are perhaps the most blatant
examples, but much of Mr. Szafranski's art addresses
the issue of barriers within our society and the price
exacted when they are crossed. This has been an
ongoing concern of the artist, as reflected in last
year's exhibit, to which he charged a $2 admission
fee. Mr.
Szafranski also makes intriguing mixed-media
sculptures, two of which are part of the current
exhibit. Again, there's a sense of the ridiculous
involved. By being most
closely related to the art style in which the method
of production becomes the subject, his Extended Heat
Lamp Device and Tall Illumination Device have a raw
presence. The latter, which is one of a series he has
done using electric lightbulbs, also is quite elegant,
its tall cluster of light resembling a huge floral
bouquet. But like the Heat Lamp piece—in which ceramic
heat coils emit a fiery warmth in the observer's
direction—it also alludes to the machine age in which
we live. Mr.
Szafranski is one of the most consistently imaginative
talents to come out of our area in recent years, and
his recent works build on past strengths. A continuity
exists between the woven grids he is showing here and
the monumental dice constructions that first earned
him notoriety during the mid-1980s. But the work has
matured significantly since the days when he was using
dice to satirize the uncertain politics of Ronald
Reagan or the standardization of suburban tract
houses. What
happens next is subject to conjecture, but any artist
with the grit to title his current exhibit "Mister
Szafranski and His Show of 1001 Illusions' is sure to
come up with something. EXHIBITION INFORMATION "Mister Szafranski and His Show of 1001 Illusions' will be on view through June 26 at Gray Matters Gallery, 113 N. Haskell between Elm and Main. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and by appointment. Admission is free. For more information call 824-7108.
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