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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Alison Beenken @ Caffetto Café
Wednesday 09 April @ 12:28:07 |
 by Valerie Valentine
Most people wake up in the morning and forget their dreams instantly. If the alarm clock doesn’t jolt a sleepwalker, then hot coffee or a shower kicks the brain into gear. Due to the rapid pace of everyday life, most dreams slip right out of our heads. REM remnants become ethereal afterthoughts. Some dreamers wander into day waggling their noggins thinking, “What was that about?” and then simply wash it down with their OJ.
"Opal and Chair" by Alison Beenken
Alison Beenken, however, has an art for remembering her dreams: she plugs them into her paintings. Using acrylics, oils and found objects, she crafts figurative images that project inward, but reach out with texture. The worlds presented are a glimpse into the human unconscious that vibrates in slumber, but fades quickly in the harsh light of day.
Interacting figures become characters in a delicate drama. “Opal and Char” shows two women placidly lounging in armchairs with wings, stranded in a deserted alien landscape. An orange and red horizon describes a hostile environment. The women are encapsulated in protective shields, yet seem to communicate, indicating intimacy with another soul despite severe outward circumstances.
Sculptural elements stabilize the floating designs. Feathers, coins and metal chunks bring everyday objects into an abstract realm. Despite chunky, brighter-than-life layers, most of the paintings exude lightness. Beenken paints over sections to destruct form and blend color. Figures are like mannequins in a warehouse, disassembled part by part.
The pieces “Apiary” and “Beauty” show loose, anonymous figures merging with the background. Faded features shape ghostly personas; closed eyes give faces mask-like dimensions, but also allude to ecstasy and pain. Still, the true mood of these paintings is expressed through melted reds, yellows, grays and greens. Shades mutate into each other to halo an aura normally only visible with the unconscious third eye.
Throughout, androgynous shapes pause and pose, fragmented in a moment. Static wheels and bubbles anchor the action of human forms. Beenken pulls surreal images out of her psyche’s cluttered attic and fuses them with paint. Some details are messy and scratched out; the various stains stimulate the imagination.
The show is at the homey Caffetto Café and Gallery, which has displayed local emerging artists’ work for years. The café offers respite from the urban grind and workaday world. A visit here would relax and soothe; it’s an escape like we find in dreams, as well as in Beenken’s paintings.
Runs through April 30. Caffetto Cafe, 708 W. 22nd St., Mpls. 612-872-0911.
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