Ron Moppett, "Sculptur(al)," Nickle Galleries, Sept. 24 to Dec. 19, 2015

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This survey of Calgary artist Ron Moppett’s work from 1972 to 2015 includes 39 installational works. Moppett is widely known and liked as a maker of vibrant, multi-paneled paintings with strong narrative elements. Kudos to Christine Sowiak, the exhibition’s curator, for showcasing a less familiar body of work. The exhibition covers the main floor of the Nickle Galleries with small, whimsical works like Box (2012), large installations like Magpie (2), a 2015 piece created with fellow Alberta artists DaveandJenn, and some gems like the Working Class Pictures in between. 

Surveys are characterized by their expansive, hoarding temperament, which is a good thing, unless one is attempting to review them. After three visits, I decided to focus on Working Class Pictures, a series of four installations from 1980 that brims with references to artists such as Pablo Picasso and Barnett Newman and sports heroes like Muhammad Ali. The most elusive, the explosive Mona, contains enough details to enthuse all Moppett fans. They are conceptually complex and interdisciplinary, presenting a plethora of narratives executed as ephemeral dreamscapes that make viewers feel as if they are in their own private dioramas. All four are three-dimensional, arranged to create the aesthetic distance expected of theatre’s fourth wall. One can almost hear Moppett telling stories about his childhood, art school days, studio, old flames, cabins, gardens and a whole lot more.

Moppett’s unfettered curiosity is evident in his choice of what to include in each installation: oil paintings, framed ephemera (text, images from newspapers and art magazines and remnants of arithmetic calculations), snow shovels, a camping stove, a garden rake, a tobacco box, toys and tablecloths, just to name a few. He seems fascinated by the complexity of art and the everyday alike, and has given us works that are intricate, at times humorous, and forever mutating in form or meaning – a tinkerer and a trickster at heart, Moppett is. The most fascinating aspect of the works – a brief stop along the way in a long career – is the equivalency accorded to art objects and objects from daily life. All become tools for Moppett’s storytelling.  

As I walked around the exhibition, the words of philosopher Alva Noë, in his book, Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature, kept coming to mind: “Works of art are tools, but they have been made strange … sometimes art leaves things as they are and gives you an opportunity to notice … and at others times art bangs you over the head … sometimes it does both at the same time.” Moppett’s Sculptur(al) offers opportunities for all three experiences. Not to be missed!

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Nickle Galleries

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