Al Loving It was easy to fall for Al Loving’s exuberant collages in this exhibition, “Lighter Than Air.” Mad from vibrantly painted paper, the works were mounted on Plexiglas and hung, hovering, two inches frome the wall. At first they evoked Frank Stella’s curvilinear metal relifs and the shaped canvases of Elizabeth Murray. But unlike those works, Loving’s pasted-together spiral forms, sometimes compsed of cutouts woven like a quality and appeal. Together they constituted a distinctive universe of funkadelic form.
Time Trip Part II, #9 (2003) is a cloud evoking conglomeration of treble clef-shaped curlicues. Some of the spirals are solid colored; others are voben and exhibit a harlequin-like pattern. Most of the shapes are cobered with an acrylic gel and have a glossy sheen.
In spiral Collage #3 (2004), which takes the form of a whiling tornado, the spirals are flattened and resemble interlocking rings. The effext is somewhat akin to that of watching a circus clown in the process of twirling 20 plates at once.
The dancing mood continues in Orisha for Big J (2002). Here the spirals wrap around themselves like an expanding and contractiong diagram of a DNA molecule-some resemble a long lock of curly hair being pulled; others are tightly woulnd like the top of a fiddlehead; and still others are so thin they appear to be suspended in three-dimensional space. Orisah, in the language of the Yoruba, means guardian spirit. Big J is lucky. His protector is destined to keep the blues away.
