Mikel Glass Exhibition

A A A Comments By Marya Summers Thursday, Jan 31 2008

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Using classical techniques to render contemporary subjects, "Mikel Glass Exhibition" plumbs the emotional depths of subjects and viewers. When his subjects are human, they are vulnerable. Instead of a beatific expression, a ballerina's round, black face sags with the weight of obesity and an impossible dream. Like an Old Masters painting, the woman's lumpy body radiates against its black background. The classical technique gives Iwanttobeaballerina a timelessness that is appropriate to its theme of longing. Emphasizing the universality of the theme, Iwanttobeaballerinatoo depicts a gaunt, white male in dance clothes and strap-on angel wings, Band-Aids on his heels, as he confronts the viewer with his gaze. This is one way that this New York artist creates intimacy with his viewers; he engages them emotionally — asking sometimes for empathy and other times for humor. His bouquet of multicolored rubber gloves as floral still life winks at us and elicits a smile. Glass somehow manages to put us in the role of voyeur. The frame around Insiders resembles the shape of an old-fashioned TV screen, and in the painting, whole dolls play with broken ones. Only from our vantage point are we privy to the shattered head that one doll hides behind her. Also on display, several cardboard sculptural pieces — like Love Foiled, a replica of a carton of aluminum foil seized as evidence in the Kurt Cobain death — reproduce aspects of pop culture and lampoon their value. (Through February 1 at Present Global Art, 5301 S. Dixie Hwy., West Palm Beach. Call 561-588-1965.)

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