Continuing through June 15, 2016
Before viewing "Small is the New Big," I stopped in at Pink House Antiques a few doors down. The narrow shop is a showcase for Paul Mannick's monumental collection of 17th, 18th and 19th century objects. Rugs, chairs and copper pots hang from the ceiling. Old paintings hide between great cases of fine china. I asked co-owner Jeannie Colburn Hernandez about her neighbors at Nisa Touchon. "It's a collage gallery, and they have an international collage archive," she said. "Very different stuff." Hernandez seemed unaware that her shop, with its thoughtfully gathered and suspended objects, is something of a postmodern collage itself.
In “Small is the New Big" we get a bracingly wild approach to the display of mixed media artworks. Tiny, intricate collages and sculptures balance on shelves and atop wooden art crates. Some pieces rest on the floor, and others climb up the walls in a neatly gridded salon hanging. Most of the artwork in this show measures no more than a few inches across. Matthew Rose presents a comic book composition that splices together swooping action lines and frenetic cartoon limbs. Zach Touchon rearranges splatters of pigment on paper in meandering woven works. Melinda Tidwell, who runs a delightful process blog on her website, plays collage like chess with elegant book compositions. The gestalt of the exhibition is that of a single, immersive work, as densely patterned works find common vibrations.
