"Totally Flat Sculpture?" Cardboard Cutouts and Paper Intarsia by AK Corbin

(PRWEB) November 15, 2007 -- Finally emerging from a long hibernation, Brooklyn artist AK Corbin presents a body of exquisitely refined work at Noho Gallery but also some exquisitely playful work too. Her 'paper intarsia' - intricately crafted mosaic like collages are defiantly representational. They are contrived to satisfy her urge to carve out and slip shapes into the right spot.

An illustrator and former associate of hers used to tease, "If you press any harder, you'll dig out the drawing." Well, he was right, if she could scoop out the entire image from its format and cut it loose, she would. These collages satisfy her conviction that even contours alone can convey mood, that colors enhance it. Original inspiration for these highly crafted collages belongs to the magnificent work of 18th century artist Mary Delany first seen at the Morgan Library.

But drawing is paramount. Corbin finds it hard to respect artists who aren't fine artisans when it comes to draftsmanship. Doesn't matter a wit what gimmick they're selling because if they can't render then they're just smoke and glass. "Paleolithic painters of Chauvet cave in France," she likes to say, "...could out draw many peers today." If you want to play with form, "It works best if your fingers already know how far you're taking it." Then go crazy.

And this holds true for her cutouts, the individual 'critters' as she calls them that populate the other half of the show. Executed in card board and colored with Caran D'ache water color crayons, it's easy to see how they connect up with the rest because these are the very 'dug out' figures finally cut loose from their cardboard sheets and mounted without any trimmings. They cast a nice shallow shadow, "Totally flat sculpture, you could say."

Comedy is key here, does art always have to be dour? And her work with illustration fairly obvious. She was hooked years ago during her in depth research into Civil War illustrators as the Director of Research at the New-York Historical Society. Then came years as creator and producer of among the earliest interactive and animated web cartoons. Her admiration of caricature is boundless, "In fact, my theory is that the greatest art, those iconic pieces that cut through time, are really caricatures. Not picturesque, never that, but always the extreme version of something and exploding with gesture." It has to be something to hang a story on.

She attributes her father - a rigorously trained painter under Grant Wood turned fashion designer - with the operative dictum when he came to preview her MFA show many years ago at Cornell University, "You better decide what you want me to look at first in this painting or I won't stick around to get into it." Better decide the 'what-ness' of the image and be bold about it, then chart a road map and lead the eye around and around. In other words, make it 'sticky' an important web term that has as much merit in fine arts.

"Maybe I should've called the show, 'focal point'..Next time."

At Noho Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, NYC.

November 27th - December 22nd

Tel: 212 367 7063

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