Seventeen artists are showing art of all mediums, including photographs, prints, paintings, sculpture, ceramics and glass.

The artists are predominantly local, which gives an idea of the kinds of art people are making in and around Toledo rather than in more major art centers such as New York City or Chicago.

The gallery space is composed of two areas, one on the ground floor and one on the fourth floor of what was probably an old warehouse at 237 N. Michigan St.

Both areas have approximately the same amount of two- and three-dimensional work and are approximately the same size.

It's possible to get a pretty thorough idea of both areas in about one hour.

Each artist is showing an average of about five works - enough to get an idea of the context of each work in relationship to the artist's larger oeuvre.

One of the show's highlights are paintings by Charles Caldemeyer, chair of the Department of Art at Ashland University.

Caldemeyer makes dramatic, large-scale oil paintings with multiple layers, using such things as rope nets and metal grates as stencils.

The sweeping gestures of his paintings play against a subtlety of color and texture, which make the work very appealing.

Also impressive are the works of Casey Bradley, who turns salvaged wooden scraps into strangely-scaled sculptures that seem to possess a kind of natural life force.

In one work, pieces of wood become bones and the twisted strands of beeswax connecting them become ligaments.

His smaller pieces, though, have a more effective sense of scale than his large piece, in which the beeswax strands seem insignificant and ineffectual in their relationship with the eight-foot high pieces of wood.

Philip Hazard's pieces, which combine mixed media with neon signs, are somewhat interesting.

Conceptually, these works are the kind your mom would call "fun" - they're inoffensively kitschy and have absolutely nothing to say.

The choice of media, however, is intriguing both because of its unusualness and because of the possibilities it might have for further exploration, even if they weren't realized fully in Hazard's pieces.

Hali Lynne's ceramic pieces in the upstairs gallery are also "fun," though her visual language seems to be somewhat more personal than Hazard's.

Her colorful abstract ceramic forms compose a psychedelic totem pole, hung with wires and metal fasteners, implying some kind of narrative (or are just things she happened to have lying around her studio).

Another ceramic artist with a large showing is Kristin Kowalski.

Due to the large number of pieces, it's obvious Kowalski has a definite vision of what she wants her art to be.Her pieces are sumptuously textured forms, several of which interact with each other in each piece, either playfully or erotically.

Her forms stay somewhat constant among her pieces, which allows her to experiment heavily with texture and color.

In the end, the show suffers from the diversity that initially makes it so interesting, seeming busy and unfocused due to the abundance of different types of art.

Some of the art comes across as amateurish as well.

Critic's Conclusion: There's enough quality artwork here that it's worth a visit if you want a varied view of the regional art scene, though not an awe-inspiring one.

- "Untitled." runs until Dec. 30.

Transitions, 10-2004

Toledo Blade

Toledo City Paper

Toledo Blade & City Paper

The Independent Collegian
(The Student Publication of the University of Toledo)
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The Schultes Dubreuil Show, 6-2006

The Independent Collegian
(The Student Publication of the University of Toledo)

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Imperfect Beauty, 1-2007

The Blade & City Paper

The Philadelphians, 10-2000

Canvas vs. Steel, 1-2001

Metals, 3-2001

Nine in Space, 4-2001

Before & After, 10-2001

Take Back Toledo, 6-2002

Newfangled, 10-2002

Holiday Open House, 12-2002

Liquidation, 3-2003

It Came from Above, 4-2004