Review
EVAN PENNY: ABSOLUTELY UNREAL
Evan Penny
Runs until January 30
Glenbow Museum
I saw a lot of familiar faces over at Glenbow Museum when I visited there the other day. Ali was there without any clothes on. Gerry was hanging out with his usual quizzical expression affixed to his face. And yes, Libby was back looking just as good as ever.
Ali, Gerry, Libby and an assortment of other rather "stiff" looking folks are part of Glenbow’s exhibition Evan Penny: Absolutely Unreal. Here we visit a group of figures that sculptor Evan Penny has created for himself and graciously shares with the rest of the world.
Absolutely Unreal is actually a resurrection of previous Penny exhibitions, including one mounted at Trépanier Baer Gallery in 2002 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Alberta College of Art and Design. As legend goes, Penny toiled away at ACAD from 1971 to 1978 where he learned what he needed to know to become a sculptor extraordinaire.
Today Penny lives in Toronto, where he has built a solid reputation as the creator of larger-than-life and sometimes smaller-than-life sculptures. These are not romanticized examples of the human form. Instead, we see in magnified detail the wrinkles, pockmarks and open pores that comprise the human face. What sounds like something distasteful is actually a visual allegory for the human condition.
Penny’s sculptures are celebrations of the ordinary human being. People who would never stand out in a crowd become iconographic figures through Penny’s technique and artistic vision.
One series of works are busts (and photographs of busts) of Libby Faux. That is not a clever play on words by Penny, but the real name of the model (she pronounces the name Fox) whose image the sculptor has now immortalized in various epoxy resin pieces. The sculpture of her head measuring more than a metre wide stares out with its super-sized glass eyes, inviting (daring?) viewers to examine every detail of her face.
L. Faux is the equivalent of a looking glass as she casts her knowing gaze over everyone who meets her. In her, we see something familiar. A beauty that is not the domain of supermodels that dance across our magazines or television screens; a beauty earned from living long enough to have wrinkles and confident enough to let others see them.
In another room, Ali, a four-fifths life-size sculpture, is standing nude in all of her Rubenesque glory. She isn’t toned, she isn’t buff and isn’t worried about her core. And by looking at her form we understand why Penny loves her for it. Because of the smaller stature of this piece, Ali doesn’t dominate the room like Libby, yet she stands confidently. Like all of Penny’s sculptures she is open to inspection yet reflects visions of our own forms and physical realities.
In another part of the gallery is Gerry, who is part of Penny’s No One in Particular Series created between 2002 and 2004. Following the now-established trajectory, the artist gives us an epoxy version of a plain-looking figure who seems like the guy who just filled up your car at the gas station or helped you find the latest release at the video store. Gerry is No One in Particular but magically becomes everyone.
Although the exhibition is entitled Absolutely Unreal because of the size and details of the figures, it could have just as easily been called People We Know and Love. |
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