INSPIRATION, EXPRESSION, ARE MESSAGE AT ART CENTER

By JOHN CARLOS CANTU

Equal parts inspiration and expression go into the two-man show "Messengers and Messiahs" at the Ann Arbor Art Center.

The featured artists are Phillip Chan, an associate professor of art at Youngstown State University in Ohio, and Kirk R.J.L. Roda, an instructor of sculpture at Eastern Michigan University.

Chan contributes "Fallen Angels," a series of 16 oil-stick creations in which visual tension emerges through the gestural application of color. This delimited repetitive strategy eliminates the individuality of these angels. What remains is a soulful contemplation of universal suffering through a stark iconic image.

"Fallen Angel IV" in particular captures the essence of Chan's expressively abstract work. The painting's thickly applied blue base is contrasted against the angel's defiant wings.

The seraph, whose cone shaped body is nothing more than strafed traces of red oil stick pigment, expresses isolation, reemphasized through his compact appearance. Through his iconography, Chan suggests a melancholy loss of grace.

In their expressive crafting, Roda's bronze "Messengers" are as iconographic as Chan's paintings. But where Chan settles for a single signature figure, Roda instead focuses on expressing the determined demeanor of his subjects. The dramatic poses and postures of his winged "Messengers" tell us everything we need to know about their divinity.

Each of Roda's l3 bronzes - some are miniatures; others reach four feet at their longest dimension illustrate resolute behavior. His "Flying Messenger" glides with purposeful power. "Winged Messenger," on the other hand, strains upward with wings arched up in concentrated energy. And "Relaying the Message" features two winged messengers working in determined concert.

Like Chan's paintings, Roda's complementary bronze sculptures suggest rather than promulgate a particular religious meaning. Their "Messengers and Messiahs" infer rather than explicitly illustrate each artist's spirituality.