Harmonizing the visual language of two artists: Liminal Spaces at Material excels as serendipitous collaboration – The Utah Review

Demonstrating another dimension of collaboration in the wake of its critically acclaimed Grief Work multidisciplinary show, Material Art Gallery’s Colour Maisch and Jorge Rojas have curated Liminal Spaces, an absorbing paragon of harmonizing the visual arts languages of two artists, which— when combined— reside in a threshold between the worlds each artist has envisioned. 

It is a serendipitous endeavor, as curators sensed how the creative outputs of Katie Green  and Wren Ross fit holistically. Think of Green’s watercolor characters and personae and Wren Ross’ evocative mythological natural environments, created primarily with water-based media and often incorporating natural materials such as minerals, earth, herbs, and salt. Their respective creative outputs work together for viewers to consider and contemplate in a threshold of visceral emotional tension. Viewers are encouraged to inscribe their interpretations through their own experiences of their own power and relationship struggles, interior emotions and the zeitgeist realities in their lives. 

While both artists were approached separately and were not particularly aware of each other’s aesthetic and philosophy at the outset, the goodness of fit was serendipitous and the evidence for it emerged almost immediately. Ross, born and raised in Utah, completed her bachelor’s degree in fine art 20 years ago at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2006. After earning. a master’s degree in social work at the University of Utah in 2016, she also became a clinical social worker and therapist. 

There is a complementary counterpart embodied in these dual roles for Ross. A good example from a 2023 group show at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, A Greater Utah, is An Emanation, a 2020 watercolor with colored pencil, ink and casein. That work was a compelling visual choreographic statement of how catharsis might be manifested in our inner psychological and cognitive realms. In landscapes and lakes, the baggage of detritus gathers figuratively and metaphorically as it does in our individual and collective consciousness. This is carried through in the works she presents in Liminal Spaces which ground naturally and impressively the works of Green and how they might illuminate how we see ourselves in the interior spaces of the environments Ross creates.

Green, who is based in Moh’kínstsis (Calgary, Alberta), works in multimedia worlds, with painting, ceramics, masks and large-scale murals, which have earned the University of Calgary graduate numerous honors and international acclaim. The parallels with Ross’s works and their intersections with the miniature portrait-style personae Green creates inspires the gallery viewer to interpret the works of both artists on their own emotional responses without having to ask or decipher what they assume the artist was trying to convey. These character watercolors also gave Green the foundations for creating a mural on the wall in the parking lot opposite the South Salt Lake gallery location. The City of South Salt Lake and The Mural Fest supported the exhibition.

Just as both artists discovered to their satisfying surprise about their creative congruence, viewers should be able to easily decide how the fluid, ethereal apparitions in Green’s character-driven works mark out their emotions in the story-making worlds tht Ross’s works convey. The sum of each artist’s conceptual approach to the function of art as therapeutic meditation and contemplation emphasizes the wisdom that made this collaboration so natural and synergistic. 

The dance of symbolism which both artists have engaged in while creating works that eventually found themselves joining up in Liminal Spaces. For gallery visitors who keep journals and diaries for autobiographical purposes or for those aspiring to write fiction, this show vividly conveys how symbolism transports us beyond the literal boundaries to points of hidden significance so that those who encounter it can discover their own dance with rich layers of meaning. Ross and Green harmonize exquisitely the elements that can only emerge clearly when we also appreciate their subtlety for not overshadowing or crowding out the story we’re trying to weave or understand. Liminal Spaces encourages us to let our own intellectual curiosities flesh out our instinctual emotional reactions to the artworks, as they evolve and deepen in our individual psyches.

The exhibition continues through May 22, which will conclude with a reception, starting at 6 p.m. For more information, see the Material Art Gallery website.