You may want to take a cake home from Buzz Gallery [1]’s latest show. They look delicious, piled around the gallery with their fluffy white frosting and chocolate or yellow layers, but don’t try to taste one, these confections, reminiscent of Claes Oldenberg’s works, are made of foam and plaster.
The exhibit is cleverly titled “Kitschen and Dish� and features the ceramics of artzy_grl [at] yahoo [dot] com">Gina DeSantis and the collages, sculptures and installations of natalie [dot] lanese [at] gmail [dot] com">Natalie Lanese. The opening Friday June 3rd was fun and well attended. Lanese was serving glasses of her father’s homemade wine. The label on the bottle was an example of her work.
Gina DeSantis’s ceramics are appealing and very affordable. Most of her works are created on the wheel, but some are hand built. This show includes a wide variety of forms: mugs, bowls, cake plates, vases and platters. She also makes custom pieces. Some of her works have an Asian aesthetic. In more than a few of her pieces, her choice of slips/glazes brilliantly compliments the form.
Natalie Lanese’s works are unified by the theme of kitschy, vintage home decorating. In her artist’s statement she describes how her works in this show were inspired by the American obsession with redecorating, the “collage� that exists within the American home because of this obsession and a redecorating project at her own home. Her collages created from provocatively arranged images from vintage magazines are given titles such as Male Fantasy on Green Gold and Pure Pleasure. Her four installations, all inspired by rooms in the home such as the bedroom and kitchen, are not for sale, perhaps because they are made with furniture and decorations from her own home that have sentimental value. Lanese also proves herself a competent painter in a work titled self-portrait – a group of small oils on panel and canvas with found objects. But, the cakes are definitely her wittiest, most humorous pieces.
“Kitschen and Dish� continues through June 17th.