PORTLAND, ORE.- Adams and Ollman’s final exhibition of 2022 brings together new sculptural works by Vince Skelly (b. 1987, Claremont, CA; lives and works in Claremont, CA) with recent two-dimensional works by Lynne Woods Turner (b. 1951, Dallas, TX; lives and works in Portland, OR ). The exhibition, on view from December 10, 2022, through January 14, 2023, explores form through juxtapositions of scale, material, dimension and the playful interplay of positive and negative space.
Vince Skelly uses a chainsaw and traditional hand tools to reductively carve sculptural design pieces from large blocks of wood from a variety of trees from the West Coast of the United States. Following grain patterns, knots, and other characteristics inherent to each block of wood, he teases out simplified and essential forms that emerge in consort with the uniqueness and singularity of each block, each bearing its own spirit, rhythm, and personality. Skelly combines elements of ancient structures with those of modern design and architecture, turning edges, intersections, shapes, holes, and patterns into narrative devices that interpret human activity throughout time and space, making possible novel readings and at times illuminating and surprising connections.
For example, in Paulownia Coffee Table, an ovoid form intersects with the plane of a table calling to mind a prosthetic or a home built into the side of a mountain—perhaps a nod to Isamu Noguchi or ancient cliff dwellings seen in various forms across the globe. At other times, Skelly’s works probe our relationship to our built and natural environments through juxtapositions of positive and negative space, scale, and formal resemblance. The portal-like Redwood Arch swaps the proposition of the body present in his other sculptures as something that acts upon, or encompasses, to being the acted-upon, the encompassed. The opening of the archway is impossible to consider without imagining what might come or go through it—especially a human, given its size and shape. Skelly invites us to consider ways in which design is not simply based on a set of abstract criteria, but is fundamentally a dialogue between humans and their natural and built environments.
Lynne Woods Turner’s intimate paintings and drawings triangulate the unseen through careful, meditative linework and subtle coloration. Formally, her lines and shapes bring to mind cellular forms, figuration, language, and mathematical diagrams, and recall the structured contemplation of the work of predecessors Agnes Martin and Nasreen Mohamedi, or the perceptual tinkering of Carmen Herrera. Spiritually, however, Turner’s work resides in the nitty gritty of mystery, seeking to give shape to the hidden rhythms and arcana of the natural world, like intuitive schematics for the unknowable. Like Skelly, she is interested in the role of entropy in reproduction, reveling in slight morphic changes or circumstantial interruptions in the surface like a hole or fold that guide her marks to convey their meanings. Even negative space, for Turner, is never empty but alive and rich with potential, often forefronting itself as the primary occupied space, or confusing the distinction between positive and negative entirely. This slippage functions at times like an optical illusion, creating a tension between what is seen and what is actually there, encouraging the viewer into perspectival fluidity.
Sometimes, works contain relationships to one another that further elucidate their constituent parts, or introduce other complexities. For instance, Untitled #1608 and Untitled #1609 each contain similar iterative patterns that resemble a fish or drops of water, but could be further linked to one another through their similar linework, perhaps temporally. Untitled #9825 could be Untitled #9378 in a state of entropic disorder, or its fertile potential before its content was given delineation. Turner’s work bears witness to the mystery of transformation—to the unfathomable but deeply felt oscillations between energy concentrations and their physical manifestations, the movement of time and its effect on the physical world, and the mysterious balance that conserves and perpetuates the cycles of life.
Vince Skelly holds a BS from San Francisco State University, CA. His work has recently been exhibited at Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR; the Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA; and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, Pullman, WA.
Lynne Woods Turner holds a BFA from Stephens College, Columbia, MO and MFA from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. Turner’s work is included in the permanent collections of many public and private institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; the Hammer Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
