It is a quirk, really, that oil on canvas is the gold standard of where the billionaires park their money to beat inflation. Paintings have a proven track record of lasting centuries when they are just left alone on a wall or in an attic. But the elemental truths that great paintings tell are not theirs alone to gather and disclose.
Sandra Vista is an exemplar of an artist who reveals the deeper truths of existence with a reductive formal vocabulary that is nonetheless as beautiful as it is sensual. Her solo show WALKING ECHOES – curated by Kene J. Rosa – at Avenue 50 in Highland Park was a tribute to the infinite grace of industriousness.
Beads and zipper handles substitute for oil paint but the forms of her work echoes the giants of high Modernism. Her walking sticks can be seen as a sacred contemporary meditation on the archetypal “Zip” paintings of Barnett Newman and her beaded gourds carry on many experiments in volume that a myriad of proto-Modernists investigated. In a climate where identity seems to be the secret password to allow bad figurative painting onto gallery walls around the world, Sandra Vista labors to echo the greatness of the art that got us all here, that saved us from the maudlin and the pithy.
Beyond the formal strength of her work in this exhibit rests a deep spirituality. Seeing four separate approaches here — her walking sticks, her zipper handle assemblages, beaded cellphones of yesteryear and her hedonic gourds — calls to mind the four suits of the Tarot deck. The walking sticks are the suit of wands ready to accompany the viewer on a creative journey. The gourds are the suit of cups, holding in emotion until it is time for consumption. The cell phones are the suit of swords, bent on communication and analysis of how far we have technologically come. Finally her zipper handle assemblages can be seen as the suit of pentacles, offering the glitter of material wealth and the allure of having it all.
In an era of cloying gasconade, the satisfying experience of interacting with Sandra Vista’s art is its many possibilities to seer, seeker, modernist, post-modernist and agnostic alike. The structured curation of Mr. Rosa allowed the work to shine with touches of color (on walls and tablecloths) and organization that were inspired. The lighting creating multiple shadows on the walls of the sculptural work was nothing short of majestic. Sophistication triumphs when sensitivity is privileged. Bravo.
The exhibit ran thru December 30, 2023.