Richard Rezac at Rhona Hoffman - Chicago

In May and June, Richard Rezac showed 10 wall, floor, shelf and suspended sculptures made from wood, plaster and metal. Concise and unpretentious, these smallish constructions suggest manufactured goods--automotive trim or basketball backboards, for example--but nothing has any apparent function. Rezac's sculptures all seem to be slightly off-balance. These eccentricities involve us in unexpected ways. We are tempted to tidy up his forms and wonder where his colors came from. This is Rezac's expressive strategy.

Untitled (99-01) consists of seven long rectangular wood blocks in three sizes assembled into an open construction whose upper and lower halves almost mirror each other. Hung from the ceiling, this piece has an aluminum bar running awkwardly through its center that connects to the suspension wire. The work is painted in two shades of light blue--darker above and paler below. As we view this piece, we want to reorganize the blocks to make it symmetrical. Instinct tells us that darker color goes below and lighter above. Can't we do something with that aluminum bar? Rezac has us in his power.

In other works, the artist explores ovals and hemispheres. An untitled, wall-mounted bronze casting has hemispheric holes in it that suggest Swiss cheese. In two other pieces, Rezac fits shiny metal egg shapes into holes he cuts in wooden quarter-rounds. Most pieces are untitled, but the artist has given allusive names to some. Lucia (03-03) consists of a diamond-shaped digital print on vinyl with a yellow-on-white geometric design, attached flat to the wall; affixed to its center, two shiny metal eggs are joined with a small bar, their narrow ends facing the viewer. This work refers to a third-century saint who was tortured by having her eyes torn out. Religious paintings show Lucia holding them in her hands. More resolutely abstract but also bearing a suggestive title, Wenceslaus is a suspended piece, made from 12 long, parallel, rectangular wooden blocks joined at their edges. Nothing in this work appears to have any connection to the real-life Wenceslaus, the patron saint of Czechoslovakia. Is Rezac toying with us?

Does this matter? Rezac is an inventor who creates new forms that suggest industry, architecture and much more. His work absorbs and invigorates us, and persists in our mind's eye long after we part from it.

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COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group