Kathleen Vanesian Reviews "Sue Chenoweth: Real and Applied" at Modified Arts in This Week's New Times

By Claire Lawton Thu., Dec. 6 2012 at 8:00 AM

Categories: Review, Visual Art

Sue Chenoweth

"Do I Have Anything to Do with These Ghosts Trees?" (2012), 14.5" x 15", gouache and Letraset on paper. The only painting executed by artist Sue Chenoweth after returning from her Brazilian residency appearing in "Real and Applied."

Sue Chenoweth is an anchor in the Phoenix arts community, who spent the summer as an arts ambassador of sorts in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil through a residency program with the Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art (phICA).

During her 5-week residency, Chenoweth created a new series of paintings that are shown together with art she created for "here.," a group exhibition mounted at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia in 2011 this month at Modified Arts in downtown Phoenix.

Kathleen Vanesian

Detail, "Wouldn't He Remember His First Home?..." (2011). For Chenoweth, the roads to the top are lined with stalactites and triangular Tibetan prayer flags.

New Times art critic Kathleen Vanesian visited the show, which includes pieces created with gouache and acrylic paints as well as drawing in ink and pencil with mixed media accents, and writes it's "it's often hard to tell what's been painted and what's been applied."

Vanesian writes:

Though spurred by differing thematic concerns, the admixture of the two separate exhibitions does nothing to dilute the power of either group of work, since both deal with what is concretely real and what is purely illusory. It also ends up being a perfect balance between the sacred and the profane.

"Sue Chenoweth: Real and Applied," will run through December 31 Modified Arts. Read Vanesian's full review of Chenoweth's show and see a slideshow of Chenoweth's work.

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