The Natural

Lanny Bergner has always been interested in materials that are simultaneously unusual (for sculpture) and ordinary.

by Robin Rice

Lanny Bergner appears to be interested in viewers' notions that his work is inspired by sea creatures, seed pods or other natural things. But when asked directly, he credits nature in general rather than any particular thing or process for suggesting the gorgeous metallic veils which often encage colorful spheres or organic squiggles.

Bergner has worked in his home state of Washington for over a decade now, but his ties to Philadelphia, where he earned a 1983 M.F.A. at Tyler and worked at Fleisher Art Memorial, remain strong. He's always been interested in materials that are simultaneously unusual (for sculpture) and ordinary. Earlier Philly works, similar in outward form to many in the current show, disturbingly combined things like viscous-seeming silicone and fishhooks. His current work, driven by different materials, is also light-permeable but crisper, with contours softened by delicate fringes of wire. Like fishhooks, the wire looks pretty and could hurt you, but the paradox isn't as obvious.

Bergner's invented techniques for painstakingly splicing spiraling bands of wire screening have the repetitive character of quilting or knotting, linking the work to fiber and basketry. The majority of pieces on view at Snyderman are suspended vertical bulbous shapes suggestive of Moorish lamps. The lamplike feeling is enhanced by the light-filtering and reflective quality of ordinary screening in bronze, brass, aluminum or stainless steel, at once shiny and gauzy, mysterious and dazzling. Tendrils of wrapped wire wriggle at top and bottom, like escaping light or roots or shoots. Inside, suspended balls covered with silicone encrusted with sparkling glass frit might be fruits or nuclei.

Two other related bodies of work also incorporate mesh but are grid-based. One consists of quiltlike panels of suspended puffy squares, each with a circle of bright fritted silicone at its center. Another is composed of squared-off step pyramids, dotted with silicone and in neutral white, beige and gray. Again, curves soften the geometry; however, the suspended pieces are the stars of the show. Bergner says he likes to listen to jazz on the radio as he works. It seems appropriate to this magical conjunction of solidity and permeability, precision and improvisation.

(r_rice@citypaper.net)

Lanny Bergner

Through Feb. 13, Snyderman Gallery,303 Cherry St.,215-238-9576, www.snyderman-works.com