'Form from Form' at the Phillip M. Meyers, Jr. Memorial Gallery

‘Form from Form: Art from Discovery,’  an exhibition about a scientific concept (in this case Darwin and natural selection) could risk artwork that is didactic, not self-sustaining in its own qualities.  Certainly some of the work here veers too much into that category, such as Stephen Geddes’  Darwin in Paradise (though its playfulness rescues it).  But in Darwin-Muybridge Fantasy (2009), Geddes’ stuns with intricately-sculpted avian creatures in pseudo-evolutionary phases, giving the effect of the stills of motion picture reels. January Marx Knoop creates each image from a previous one (Metamorphosis, 2004), a thoughtful use of one form lending itself as a blueprint into the next.  And poignant is Anthony Becker’s Death Toll (2009), in which he documents his beautiful drawings of bird road kill. His artifice records their beauty, reminding us how art, arguably an extension of natural laws, represents nature’s highest culmination even when its subject matter is nature’s own dark side.  And on it goes: there is a unique take on natural form and adaptation throughout the exhibition.  Whether or not the art in each case relates to Darwin quickly becomes secondary to the art itself, a triumph.
-A.C. Frabetti

For Tamera Lenz Muente's review of this show in CityBeat, click here.

'Form from Form: Art from Discovery,' curated by Mary Heider, at the Phillip M. Meyers, Jr. Memorial Gallery, University of Cincinnati College of DAAP.  Through Dec. 11. 
Becker, Anthony.  Death Toll, 2009 (Floating Files). Wire, Steel, legal size hanging folders; wax pastel drawing on paper, several drypoints, 10”x144”x16”.
Geddes, Stephen.  Darwin-Mubridge Fantasy, 2009.  Polychromed wood, wax, metal, glass.  15”x127”x12”.
“. Darwin in Paradise, 2009.  Polychromed wood, metal; 26”x19”x13”.
Knoop, January Marx. Metamorphosis, 2004.  In painting images #52-100 on CD-ROM.
In photo: Merida-Paytes, Lisa.  Quill Installation, 2009. Copper and steel wire, porcelain, paper, clay, fiberglass.

The following is the video recording by the University of the presentation of the exhibition: