Criminals in multicolor, indeed. Though both Shawn McNulty and Michael Sweere have had numerous shows at the Rosalux Gallery, this will be their first together, and it does promise to be a bold visual gobstopper. Michael Sweere's work features recycled and found materials employed in a playful manner. Using commercial products like broken glass bottles, cereal boxes, and published cover art, Sweere creates new images like magic. Mosaics include Sea Monkeys, where a family of pink mer-people are proclaimed to be on sale for "only $1.25." Barcodes somehow manage to be whimsical when used to represent rain in Downpour, and using recycled tin nailed together in Shooting Arrows at the Sea, a Native American aims an arrow into the sky as he stands atop a mound of flowers. Shawn McNulty's paintings and collages are certainly more abstract, but no less colorful, as bright boxes, circles, and strips of red, blue, white, and black clash and compete for space. No worries, though; these two artists' works should complement each other nicely. Artists' reception 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, March 8. — Jessica Armbruster
You’ll also have to resist the temptation to touch the shimmering textures of Michael Sweere’s collages, a dazzling array of which are now on view in a joint exhibit with abstract painter Shawn McNulty at the Rosalux Gallery in the Open Book building downtown. Sweere repurposes the surfaces of discarded commercial packaging materials in mosaics that place illustrations of blushing Victorian girls, bow-wielding Native Americans, stag heads, and myriad others in unexpected juxtaposition to one another. Even when bitingly ironic, these glossy, meticulous mosaics convey an oddly moving respect for the commercial illustrations—simultaneously manipulative and naïve—that litter our lives.
y and Michael Sweere have had numerous shows at the Rosalux Gallery, this will be their first together, and it does promise to be a bold visual gobstopper. Michael Sweere's work features recycled and found materials employed in a playful manner. Using commercial products like broken glass bottles, cereal boxes, and published cover art, Sweere creates new images like magic. Mosaics include Sea Monkeys, where a family of pink mer-people are proclaimed to be on sale for "only $1.25." Barcodes somehow manage to be whimsical when used to represent rain in Downpour, and using recycled tin nailed together in Shooting Arrows at the Sea, a Native American aims an arrow into the sky as he stands atop a mound of flowers. Shawn McNulty's paintings and collages are certainly more abstract, but no less colorful, as bright boxes, circles, and strips of red, blue, white, and black clash and compete for space. No worries, though; these two artists' works should complement each other nicely. Artists' reception 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, March 8. — Jessica Armbruster