Shaken, Stirred, Savored / 5 Decades of Art
Jean Smith and Lydia Riegle: Shaken Stirred, Savored; Suzanne Frazier: 5 Decades of Art
D'art Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204
August 26-September 19, 2021
Admission: Free
Review by Ashten Scheller
D’Art Gallery is currently contemplating the past—and it’s entrusting us to the capable guidance of artists Jean B. Smith, Lydia Riegle, and Suzanne Frazier. Their exhibits Shaken, Stirred, Savored (Smith and Riegle, Main Gallery) and 5 Decades of Art (Frazier, Gallery East) both interpret the theme of “retrospective”—the former in terms of “looking back on or dealing with past events or situations,” and the latter in terms of “the development of an artist’s work over a period of time.” [1] In the midst of more than a year of upheaval and uncertainty, a theme of such reflection could not have come at a better time. Focusing on lively, mid-century design principles and on the lessons learned over a full artistic career, respectively, these exhibitions are a joyful escape.
A view of Lydia Riegle and Jean B. Smith’s exhibition Shaken, Stirred, Savored at D’art Gallery in Denver. Image by DARIA.
Beginning in the Main Gallery space, Shaken, Stirred, Savored is a collaborative show exploring Smith and Riegle’s separate reflections on the mid-century modern design movement that was popular between roughly 1945 and 1969 in the post-World War II United States. It emphasized clean, simple lines, and playful color combinations during an era of optimism after years of war-time restrictions.
Jean B. Smith, Hanging Sculpture #2, Hanging Sculpture #9, and Hanging Sculpture #15, 2021, ceramic and metal, each approximately 36 inches long. Image by DARIA.
Founding gallery member Jean B. Smith’s ceramic sculptures exude a bold, graphic playfulness and draw the viewer into the physical space. They are strung from the ceiling in eclectic stacks or mounted on the wall in energetic configurations of color and fluid shape. Three hanging pieces, Hanging Sculpture #2, Hanging Sculpture #9, and Hanging Sculpture #15, suspended almost precariously in the air, compress the space between each ceramic component with their heavy weight.
The sculptures are reminiscent of the bold metal mobiles of Alexander Calder and the vertically balanced sculptures of Jean Arp and Anne Truitt, emphasizing a defiance of gravity and a colorful, simple presence. In the context of the Colorado Rockies, they resemble the stacked-rock cairns of a hiking trail, guiding the viewer through this exploration of the artist’s own upbringing in a mid-mod home. [2] The solid, bright colors of the glazed, flat sides—oranges, reds, sea foam greens, muted yellows, soft violets—contrast vividly with the textured, curved sides of each individual ceramic piece, evoking the bold-yet-simple nature of the mid-century modern inspiration.
Jean B. Smith, Wall Sculpture #45, 2021, glazed ceramic, 27 x 42 inches. Image by Ashten Scheller.
Just across from the hanging pieces are the perhaps most striking works of Smith’s collection. Wall Sculpture #45 is comprised of various shapes and colors within a palette of greens and blues. Though less varied in color, the overall appearance is more varied in terms of spatial layout, arranged in a way that leaves as much as possible to the viewer’s imagination. Is it an abstract fish? A collection of children’s building blocks? Dinosaur bones? A firework? A mosaic? The wall installations are bright pops of abstracted, exciting color and shape much in line with the synesthesic works of Wassily Kandinsky or the cut-paper shapes of Matisse, which directly impacted the work of such mid-mod artists as Joan Miro, Carmen Herrera, and Etel Adnan (the latter three being the artist’s own inspirations). [3]
Lydia Riegle, Rolling Stone, Contemplating Stillness, and Time Traveler, 2021, monotype and collage on archival paper, 20.5 x 16.5 inches (framed). Image by Ashten Scheller.
Continuing through the space, the mid-century modern focus shifts to the two-dimensional with works by painter and printmaker Lydia Riegle. Similar to Smith, her process involves asking and answering questions through creative experimentation: she describes her color-mixing technique as almost alchemical in nature, seeking a touch of flatness here, a hint of sparkle there. [4] Three of her framed, side-by-side prints, Rolling Stone, Contemplating Stillness, and Time Traveler, present a combination of colors, textures, and shapes synonymous with the simple, abstract modernism of the ‘50s and ‘60s not only in their balanced colors, but through their use of collage and graphic patterns, akin to modernist artists Robert Rauschenberg and Hannah Höch.
Lydia Riegle, Party Time , 2021, monotype and collage on archival paper, 42.5 x 34.75 inches (framed). Image by Ashten Scheller.
Riegle has done her research into the era, drawing direct inspiration from past art and the joy and prosperity of these post-World War II decades for her colors, prints, and found objects. Several of Riegle’s prints, such as Party Time, use actual fishnet stockings to create pattern and visual interest in a way that is both recognizable and fresh, like a shared secret or personal party invitation. Just as Riegle applies several layers of stencils, collage, and etching ink to each print, the completed works speak to layers of time and place.
Lydia Riegle, New Ideas & Rippling Effects, 2021, acrylic and oil on canvas, each canvas 48 x 36 inches. Image by Ashten Scheller.
One of the most striking pieces in the room is the diptych New Ideas & Rippling Effects. It’s what Riegle describes as a “cross-pollination of painting and printmaking,” featuring the large, flat fields and bold, solid shapes of her prints, but with the addition of bright, hand-painted raindrops and intricate forms with depth and shading. [5] The placement of the diptych is intentional for more than just this shared process, however—Riegle created the maze-like forms from one of the printmaking stencils seen elsewhere in the show.
An installation view of Suzanne Frazier’s exhibition 5 Decades of Art at D’art Gallery. Image by DARIA.
Suzanne Frazier’s exhibit of her work from the 1980s to the present is on display in the adjoining Gallery East. Self-described as a “contemplative artist,” she carefully guides the viewer through her body of work as “collected emotional responses from residing in Colorado since 1972.” [6] Walking into the space, it is immediately clear that each wall is devoted to a separate stage in her career and exploration as an artist.
Frazier’s belief in the power of both meditation and contemplation to let you “lose time, place, and if you’re really, really lucky, yourself” is apparent from the beginning of her career. [7] Her BA in Philosophy and emphasis on the “why” behind every creative thought and action come across in her oil paintings. Her influences include various world religions and spiritual practices such as those of Indigenous groups, Hindu and Buddhist mythology, and Carmelite monastic practices. It is easy to draw a parallel between Frazier’s physical practice of working or re-working a painting—her cloud series being one example of reflection—and her lifelong practice of working out or re-working life’s meaning.
Suzanne Frazier, Sky Saga Reverie, 2021, oil on canvas. Image by Ashten Scheller.
This is a retrospective that celebrates the full human experience, from the natural setting in which we exist to the spiritual plane that encompases the universe, and the combination of the two is evident in pieces like Sky Saga Reverie (2021). Much of her work focuses not on specific observation, but on the feeling that arises from meditation, which she expresses through color, light, and increasingly heavy texture as in Door to Shambala (2021). This approach is similar to the nineteenth-century Impressionists’ desire to capture an impression of light or atmosphere. Frazier also draws on the Japanese concept of “boketto,” the process of gazing vacantly into the distance without forming specific thought—a contemplation of what it means to truly just “be.” [8]
Suzanne Frazier, Door to Shambala, 2021, oil on canvas. Image by Ashten Scheller.
Prior to her artistic career in the ‘70s, Frazier was a promotions director at a popular Denver radio show—a job that exposed her to the joy of a creative environment as well as the politics of the time. Later, working at the Stapleton Airport, she was called “the skirt on the runway” by her male colleagues due to her position as the sole woman on the staff. When she began her arts education, two older male professors made it clear that they believed a “middle-aged woman couldn’t create good art.” [9] This pushed Frazier to evaluate exactly what kind of artist she was, and wanted to be—an early moment of contemplation, and a motivation to succeed.
Suzanne Frazier, Incessant, 1989, oil on canvas. Image by Ashten Scheller.
Frazier’s personal position in society is apparent as she works through social themes in Chauvinistic Man Homeless in a Feminist Society (1993) and the importance of therapy in Incessant (1989). As the viewer takes in the visual history of Frazier’s life and art career, it becomes clear that she is a contemplative artist not only in the artistic sense, but through her careful storytelling and self-reflection. Though only on view for a limited time, the two shows at the D’Art Gallery find their strength in the personal connections the artists offer to the public.
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, and in 2020 she completed her master’s degree in the History of Art, Theory, and Display at the University of Edinburgh.
[1] Definitions of “retrospective” from the Oxford English Dictionary.
[2] From Jean B. Smith’s artist’s statement, available in the gallery.
[3] From Jean B. Smith’s artist’s talk on August 29, 2021, and as described on her official website, https://www.jeanbsmith.com.
[4] From Lydia Riegle’s artist’s talk on August 29, 2021.
[5] Ibid.
[6] From Suzanne Frazier’s artist’s statement.
[7] From Suzanne Frazier’s artist’s talk on August 29, 2021.
[8] From Suzanne Frazier’s website, https://www.suzannefrazierartist.com/works.
[9] From the supplementary piece of text in Frazier’s exhibit, titled “1980-1989.”
