Deep Space
Deep Space
fooLPRoof contemporary art
3240 Larimer Street, Denver, CO 80205
January 7-29, 2022
Admission: Free
Review by Ashten Scheller
Space is everywhere. An obvious statement to some, yes; in the most basic sense, we exist as people in a physical space, taking up space, making more space, running out of space, craving space, despising space. In the news, space exploration—in the astrophysical, cosmic sense—continues to become our reality with ever more rocket launches and NASA missions, and less so a fictional concept from Frank Herbert’s 1965 science fiction classic Dune (also relevant in the recent news, with its newest film adaptation from 2021) or the latest Star Wars installment. [1]
Further still, “space” now captures the existence of online spaces and our existence within them, from the transactions of entire economies going digital—including those of the art world—to the emergence of the Metaverse. [2] Perhaps most relevant to us in the 2020s is the existence of the Covid-19 pandemic—now in 2022, having existed for almost two years—which has familiarized us all with the term “social distancing” (notably instead of “physical distancing”) in addition to a greater awareness of the spaces we inhabit in relation to one another. Collectively, the works featured in Deep Space, the current group exhibition at fooLPRoof contemporary art, embody several of these interpretations, asking us to consider the many spaces in which we exist.
An installation view of the current group exhibition Deep Space at fooLPRoof contemporary art in Denver. Image by Ashten Scheller.
Walking into the white cube space of the fooLPRoof gallery—originally a 1930s warehouse in the increasingly-trendy RiNo neighborhood, attached to an equally trendy bar—the high ceilings make the physical space optimal for the various media on display. From large-scale installation to traditional sculptures atop plinths and canvas paintings mounted on the walls, the individual components that make up the current Deep Space show are varied in both media and orientation.
Louis Recchia, Rising Tide, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Just above the gallery’s front door, Louis Recchia’s canvas painting Rising Tide is suspended from the ceiling, precariously floating through the air as if to mirror its fantastical, sometimes flying imagery: dinosaurs, aliens, spaceships, erratic weather, and animals have been painted in a dotted, pointillist style, creating a dreamlike scene. Though Pointillism is a traditional style of mark-making (with its origins in nineteenth-century France), when combined with such imaginative subject matter and the unique display technique it embodies “space” in more ways than one. [3]
Jennifer Hope, Untitled, acrylic on canvas. 76 x 96 inches. Image by Ashten Scheller.
Nearby, Jennifer Hope’s monumental canvas painting Untitled and fooLPRoof gallerist Laura Phelps Rogers’s triptych Deep Space #1-3 take a turn toward the cosmic, with their cool blue tones and abstracted forms. Hope’s large piece is reminiscent of the AbEx color fields of Mark Rothko, or the exploration of the subconscious in the influential works of early abstract artist Joan Miró. The circular forms of Hope’s canvas also create an immediate connection to the planetary domain of “space,” reinforcing the celestial theme. Both of these historical, twentieth-century artists deeply contemplated “space” in terms of our mental and spiritual existence, lending a surreal effect to Untitled as Hope continues this artistic tradition.
Laura Phelps Rogers, Deep Space #4-6, acrylic on canvas, 27 × 33 inches, 25 x 32 inches, and 21 x 26 inches. Image by Ashten Scheller.
Deep Space #1-3 is also accompanied by a large-scale canvas painting, Streaming, clearly showcasing Phelps-Rogers’s larger mural work, juxtaposed with Deep Space #4-6, a triptych of pieces that quite literally jumps off of the wall and into our space. The traditional framing only emphasizes the nontraditional display, in addition to what is being framed. Phelps Rogers began her process by laying the canvas on the ground, playing with metallic textures in hues. For her, Deep Space is about the exploration of our surroundings, whether we’re standing in a gallery or looking out into space, contemplating the cosmos. [4]
Gillie and Marc, They Love Each Other to the Moon and Back, bronze, 17 × 11 x 11 inches. Image by Ashten Scheller.
Taking a whimsical turn, the sculptures of artist duo Gillie and Marc and Tobias Flores include two bronze pieces set in a traditional display case. The larger of the two, They Love Each Other to the Moon and Back, portrays a dog and rabbit clothed in retro space suits, arm in arm, and sitting atop a globe; the smaller, in contrast, shows a miniscule astronaut Bob Ross stepping boldly through space with an anvil on his back. The artists are known for their recurring, beloved characters, Rabbitwoman and Dogman, who represent the coming-together of two unlikely companions through diversity, acceptance, and love. [5]
Similarly, the beloved (and highly commercialized) titular character in Bob Ross as an Artnaut by Flores quite literally carries a heavy burden as he steps bravely forward—an easy metaphor for the difficulty not only of stardom and the heaviness of a creative career, but of supporting ideas of peace and acceptance. Here, space is the setting for the brave, but also perhaps for the lonely or the unique.
Laura Phelps Rogers, Down the Rabbit Hole, hanging installation with bronze sculpture and painting in culvert, 46 inches in diameter. Image by Ashten Scheller.
The wall of whimsy continues, again with an added SciFi element, with Phelps Rogers’s nearby installation piece Down the Rabbit Hole, which features a cast-bronze rabbit suspended from the ceiling, leaping into a hanging metal trough thickly painted with abstract, zigzag lines and drips. Is this a portal? A dead-end? A source of time travel, perhaps? Is the rabbit the object of a chase, moving in fear to its only means of escape, or is it voluntarily leaping forward in curiosity? The answer is unclear, but it adds a dynamic energy to the space in a way that once again takes advantage of the high ceilings.
On the left: Sahand Tabatabai, Walking on the 40th Parallel, oil on linen, 42 x 32 inches and on the right: Sahand Tabatabai, Watching Orion and Taurus with Thor, oil on linen, 42 x 36 inches. Image by Ashten Scheller.
Perhaps the most conceptually interesting pieces are the quantum theory-inspired paintings of Sahand Tabatabai, Walking on the 40th Parallel and Watching Orion and Taurus with Thor. Situated in a corner of the gallery, their proximity to one another creates a small world of their own, and one that is occupied by the energetic movement of abstract lines and colors as if whirling around the universe. I’m struck by a similarity to the Futurist artistic movement of the early twentieth century, which emphasized dynamism, technological advancement, and speed, as if unable to be contained by the two-dimensional canvases against the flat wall. [6]
The swirling hues and lines evoke a sense of the molecular—everything in the universe is constantly moving and changing, shifting from solids to liquids to gasses and back again. In this sense, we are all constantly in a state of change: the space we exist in now (including ourselves) will always be different than the space of both the past and future.
Nearby, this dynamic energy is continued by a suspended sculpture Mrs. Automatic Orator by David Lobdell that almost seems to mimic the moving lines of Tabatabai’s paintings, but this time in three dimensions. It is both delicate and strong, hanging in our space and looking to move out into it. It is instead frozen in time, a snapshot of movement in the present that has been preserved for the future.
A view of the Deep Space exhibition with David Lobdell’s hanging sculpture Mrs. Automatic Orator in the foreground on the left. Image by Ashten Scheller.
As I drift through the exhibition, I can’t help but note that the direction of my conversation with Phelps Rogers begins to shift toward the gallery’s future—and not just the future of fooLPRoof, but of the art space as it exists in a general sense. Like many gallerists, Phelps Rogers shows great concern for the impact of Covid-19 on these smaller galleries. She has altered the space to include upgraded air vents that can “switch out the gallery air in fifteen minutes,” as well as a clear protective barrier behind which she can sit and work while still engaging in conversation with visitors and keeping an eye on the gallery. The pandemic has prompted her to expand her online exhibition opportunities for the artists she represents, and also led to a new model of membership for applying artists that is designed to provide them continual, year-round exposure. [7]
The digital space is also of great interest to Phelps Rogers in terms of the increasingly-popular sphere of NFTs (non-fungible tokens): what role do they play for galleries both small and large? Are they of interest to the Denver community, in terms of the art market? With the interest in cryptocurrency and the developing Metaverse (both with markedly positive and negative reactions from people both local and global), these are questions that cannot be avoided in 2022. Though I’ve now physically left the gallery, my mind is still occupied by the expansive spaces Deep Space has opened.
Ashten Scheller (she/her) is an art historian, writer, and researcher based in Denver. Her scholarship focuses on the intersection of art with (inter)national politics, accessibility, display methods, restitution, mythology, and otherness. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Art History and International Relations from the University of Denver, as well as a master’s degree in the History of Art, Theory, and Display at the University of Edinburgh. She also volunteers as an assistant editor and social media coordinator for the intersectional, online arts platform Femme Salée.
[1] Dune, written Frank Herbert in 1965, is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time. Set in the distant future, it explores themes such as human evolution, planetary exploration and exploitation, religion, politics, ecology, and power. For more, see: https://dunenovels.com/frank-herbert/.
[2] For more information about the launch of the Metaverse, see Facebook’s statement at https://tech.fb.com/connect-2021-our-vision-for-the-metaverse/ as well as this insightful article from NPR: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/28/1050280500/what-metaverse-is-and-how-it-will-work.
[3] The process of mark-making involved in Pointillism includes the application of small strokes or dots of colors which, at a distance, appear to blend together to form an image—due to the science of optics. Famous Pointillists include Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, who are credited with the development of the style.
[4] From my in-gallery interview with Laura Phelps Rogers on January 13, 2022.
[5] From the artists’ website rhttps://gillieandmarc.art/pages/about, accessed 15 January 2022.
[6] Some well-known Futurists include Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, and Joseph Stella. More background information about this group and their works can be found at https://www.britannica.com/art/Futurism.
[7] This information, and more about the membership details at the gallery, are available at https://foolproofcontemporaryart.com/about.
