February 10-16, 2005

artpicks

Insider Art

by John Vettese

exhibit

Participants in Will Ursprung's art classes can't use scissors or penknives. They aren't allowed to wire their canvases and are limited to blunt, nontoxic work materials like acrylic paint and drywall tape. Such stringency no doubt stalls the creative process, but as resident psychologist and art therapist at the State Correctional Institution at Graterford Prison, Ursprung takes restricted expressionism over none at all. The inmates he works with are in need of an outlet, and he firmly believes art can help rehabilitate them. "The Prison Aesthetic," a collection of work from his classes on display at Montgomery County Community College, shows a wide range of talent and style from the inside.

The most represented artist is Nicolas "Spel" Dematteo, who paints evocative layers of free-form words, images and bright colors akin to Robert Rauschenberg's. His canvas piece A Big Mistake somewhat belabors the show's "art can heal" message, but Dematteo's dozen other works (including Yo Sigo Mirando, pictured) overwhelmingly veer away from the literal, instead drawing viewers in with intricate swatches and hidden faces. A similar mood is struck by Lamont T. Brown's mixed-media piece Count Down, which collages found objects and news clippings in a gritty landscape showing Philadelphia and its surrounding countryside, with industry sprawling into the fields, cows forced to wade in the Delaware River and the Limerick nuclear plant sprawling across the background. Other pieces are lighthearted, like Antonio Sierra's anime-inspired fantasyscapes and Thomas Schilk's recurring perturbed clock-man character. The most striking element of "The Prison Aesthetic" is the way it is presented — free of editorializing or grandstanding despite a clear agenda. There are no biographies on inmates, no tags and no supplemental information. Short of the name, nothing indicates from whence these works came, instead leaving them presented simply as the works of art they are.

"The Prison Aesthetic: Art From Within," through Feb. 20, Multiple Choice Gallery, Montgomery County Community College, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell, 215-641-6505, www.mc3.edu.