Trash Talk

Susan Fenton: Work from Ballinglen

by Robin Rice

The Irish seacoast was a good choice for Susan Fenton's residency. That misty vastness; those stark, looming rocks; the pearly light: All are in harmony with the moody stillness that surrounds her typically static, theatrically clad female subjects. This time, Fenton took her pictures in the studio, but replaced her favorite models with pieces of litter, chunks of the traveling trash that washed ashore in the North Sea. The photographs are elegant and awkward. The detritus manifests an amusing gaucherie when hand-patinaed with a colorful, grubby haze. The series succeeds as a commentary on the immortal garbage of the past, but the peachy freshness of flesh that dominates Fenton's figure pieces is missed.

Another group of earlier photos presents a provocative, almost baroque contrast to the Irish still lifes. The "Nocturne" series records the almost clichéd objects that tend to gather in an artist's studio: bottles, jars, drapery. Soft gradations of light and shade are the result of long exposures, recording the passage of the full moon over arrangements that might be suitable for a drawing class. The generic, predictable quality is, oddly, part of their charm. This work, like the North Sea series, reflects Fenton's feeling for geometric compositions.

Nostalgia is the dominant mood of these paintings. Here it's accompanied by a soupçon of foreboding, like a brooding cello in the background.

(r_rice@citypaper.net)

Through Jan. 8, Schmidt Dean Gallery, 1710 Sansom St., 215-569-9433, schmidtdean.com