By Juli Steadman Charkes

Marc Straus, director and co-founder of Peekskill’s Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, has a specific wish for viewers of his venue’s current group show of 23 works of figurative sculpture and video – to ‘figure it out’. A pun on the exhibit’s title of “Figure it Out”, Straus’s humor also serves to underscore a more serious message. Figurative art, linked as it is in our collective unconsciousness to luminaries like Michelangelo, can continue to evoke emotional resonance, even when realism is replaced with what can seem strange, even bizarre. But it is up to the individual to go beyond the confines of what is often meant by the human form. “I mean to challenge you,” Straus explains, “and I don’t want it to be so simple.”

Culled from an international representation of what Straus describes as some of today’s best contemporary figurative artists, the exhibit took a year to plan and several months to install. Artists from 15 different nations are represented in either sculpture or video form, intelligently installed in the 12,000 foot interior of the Center, which has been open to the public for just over a year.

While viewers will be treated to established figurative artists including Red Grooms and Nan June Paik, the bulk of the show focuses on members of a newer generation whose work may or may not be instantly recognizable, yet whose unique contributions demonstrate the ongoing power if the figurative tradition. Patricia Piccinini’s “Leather Landscape”, for example, invites viewers to contemplate a planet-of-the-apes-like setting complete with baby toddler who happily observes a colony of half-human, half ape-like creatures. What initially appears surreal begins to resonate on a more human level however, upon further observation. While we may not recognize the exact origin of these otherworldly creatures, their gestures, emotions and attitudes are the familiar mainstay of quotidian life.

Likewise, Berlinda DeBruyckere’s “La Femme Sans Tete,” while a clear distortion of the human form, succeeds in evoking empathy for the human condition regardless of the inexact anatomical design. Equally compelling is a work by sculptor Deborah Butterfield, “Laying Down Horse,” which is woven from chicken wire and mud, yet evokes a response normally reserved for actual flesh and blood.

Humor, albeit perhaps of a gallows nature, can also be found on display in a work by British artist Damien Hirst. His “Death is Irrelevant” depicts a human skeleton complete with ping pong eyeballs bobbing cheerfully above the eye sockets, suspended by air currents. And the artist Paul McCarthy’s “Michael Jackson” evokes a wry smile, referencing as it does today’s pop culture.

“Figure It Out” is currently showing at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, located at 1701 Main Street in Peekskill. Further information may be found at www.hvcca.com or by calling (914)788-7166.

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