Prospectus One — Deanne Dunbar and Ben Gersch

The Brew House Space 101

Now…

Prospectus One — Deanne Dunbar and Ben Gersch

The Brew House Space 101

Now until February 27th

412-381-7767

The canvas is two-dimensional, but the face on the canvas is not.

Portraits become complex character studies at the hands of regional artists Deanne Dunbar and Ben Gersch, whose works are currently on exhibit in The Brew House Space 101’s Prospectus One. Though the artists have strikingly different portraiture styles, the glances and gestures of their subjects reveal the artists’ similar interest in the depiction of personality complexities.

Dunbar’s nine-painting “Emerging Artist” series reveals the deep and surprising contradictions at the core of a young woman.

In each 24-by-36-inch portrait, the same thin, cartoon-like, young girl stares out at the viewer from behind black pigtails. The complexity of emotion and intention in each piece is shocking and enthralling.

Dunbar captures feelings of aggression, violence, haste, shame, pain, and coyness in surprising combinations. The feeling in the girl’s upward glance as she slips off her black underwear or places her hands between her splayed legs is simultaneously shameful, defiant and erotic.

Dunbar’s expressionistic, impasto brush strokes are strong, quick, and sketchy, overlooking detail in favor of mood. The mouth in each is concealed beneath a thick splash of white that often runs down the painting’s surface. The brilliant, flat hue of each girl’s arms and fingerless hands is the only color in the compositions.

In her artist’s statement, Dunbar describes her amazing work in terms of societal assumptions about gender roles, such as the conventional subjugation of women to men. “The perpetuation of machismo stereotypes,” she writes, “make[s] the position of the young female especially complicated.”

Perhaps it is this gender tension that makes Dunbar’s portraits pop with vivacity, and Gersch’s somewhat pale in comparison.

Not to discount his paintings — Gersch vividly captures the essence and energy of each of his subjects. His modern-life themes freeze exact moments in time, making sound, smell and taste materialize beyond the canvas. Yet his work, next to Dunbar’s, lacks the insight that makes you want to stare at a painting for hours.

The larger-than-life, pierced, 20-something man in Gersch’s “Self Portrait with Ron Moffat” glares out, seeming to be growling deeply and gutturally. His arms are by his sides with palms upturned and half clenched, displaying every tightened muscle in his large arms. His apartment floor is strewn with empty condom wrappers and garbage. Porngraphy is taped to the walls.

At first, “Self Portrait” rings with aggression and anger. But the reflection of a second man’s serene expression in a mirror that faces the viewer adds something comical to the piece that pins it down as an expression of wild, youth culture — one guy showing off for his buddy.

Gersch’s oversized surfaces are bright and smooth. The exaggerated tones are applied in distinct contours and splotches that undetectably blend at the edges. Gersch’s work is Chuck Close without the glaring realism.

The Brew House Space 101, located in the old Duquesne Brewery building on the South Side, is a non-profit exhibition space dedicated to the exposure of underrepresented artists in all media. Space 101 events are free and open to the public.