Scenery and Sight Gags Are on Display at Michael Warren Contemporary

Not So Far From Here, at Michael Warren Contemporary, is made up of works by three artists – Jeff Baldus, Paul Sisson and Meghan Wilbar – each presented in depth. Baldus is represented by some exquisitely done ceramic pots, but it’s his sculptures of eggs and tree trunks that provide...

By Michael Paglia

March 3, 2015

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Not So Far From Here, at Michael Warren Contemporary, is made up of works by three artists – Jeff Baldus, Paul Sisson and Meghan Wilbar – each presented in depth.

Baldus is represented by some exquisitely done ceramic pots, but it’s his sculptures of eggs and tree trunks that provide a gossamer link to the work of Sisson and Wilbar.

Sisson, an emerging photographer working in the contemporary landscape tradition, has created a cogent body of work in color photos depicting regional scenes such as abandoned buildings on the plains.

The Wilbar landscape paintings, which are one part abstract-expressionist, one part representational, are extremely well done.

In the back gallery is the conceptualism of Yoshitomo Saito, in his solo Art Toys ‘R’ Us. Saito loots the history of art and then creates tongue-in-cheek responses to specific pieces, deconstructing the originals. In a photo, Brancusi’s “Kiss” becomes the twin towers of the World Trade Center. In another piece, pointillism is conveyed via a cast-copper canvas with divots all over it.

Through March 7 at Michael Warren Contemporary, 760 Santa Fe Drive, 303-667-2447, michaelwarrencontemporary.com.

Michael Paglia is an art historian and writer whose columns have appeared in Westword since 1995; his essays on the visual arts have also been published in national periodicals including Art News, Architecture, Art Ltd., Modernism, Art & Auction and Sculpture Magazine. He taught art history at the University of Colorado Denver.

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