There is a very cool exhibition at the
Mansion at Strathmore (which unfortunately ends June 23) focusing on the unlikely theme of dogs in art. It's titled
Strathmore Unleashed, and of course it includes work by the
ubercanine artist William Wegman, but it is Kathryn Freedman and Anna Dibble who steal the show with their intelligent, entertaining approach to the subject.
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| Admirer by Kathryn Freedman |
Kathryn Freedman's
Admirer approaches the subject by presenting us with a sexy, superbly composed painting in which the thematic subject (the dog) shares the focus of the piece with the beauty of the female body. It is also a little funny in that the canine is standing by, ready to be called and approach its human, while the feline on the right, is (of course) ignoring everyone.
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| Their Wolf Ancestors by Anna Dibble |
Anna Dibble's immensely funny and immensely smart paintings blend two of my favorite things in art: visual art and text. The above one tells us that:
“Felix, who’d limped into the bar to try and dull the trauma of
alteration surgery, realized he’d made a mistake. Buster, an office
acquaintance, pontificated about how their wolf ancestors royally
screwed up by allowing themselves to be
domesticated. This idea irritated Felix. He was rather attached to
regular kibble and the blue couch at the Chapmans’. He decided against a
2nd glass of Pinot.”
Go see this show before it ends!
