Nick Abdalla's beautifully rhythmic "Emanations" solo show at Artspace 116 allows viewers to witness the aftermath of his transformation from figure painter to abstract sculptor.
Abdalla had his head metaphorically bashed in during a visit to Australia 13 years ago.
Abdalla's head for traditional figurative art had already taken a beating long before his journey Down Under. His realistic paintings and drawings of both clothed and nude mostly female figures had been moving toward abstraction since he began to mirror and fold his imagery many years ago.
His exploration of the Southwestern landscape including American Indian pictograph and petroglyph sites led to a study of small natural vents coming from underground caverns. Temperature and barometric pressure differentials cause these vents to either blow out or suck in large quantities of ambient air. Abdalla often found their interiors covered with Indian rock art.
"Those signs left by visiting Indians gave an emblematic voice to those mythic breathing holes of the Earth. It was as if the earth was speaking," Abdalla said several years ago.
His subsequent adventure in Australia finished him as an illusionist rendering real things. Abdalla's visceral reaction to a rock formation that Aborigines had painted and repainted for tens of thousands of years was a mystical experience. The layered and interwoven imagery silently informed Abdalla that he was going to abandon painting to build physical objects.
"I understood nothing I saw but it was at that moment I knew that I no longer wanted to paint. I wanted to make things, objects with physicality, complexity and undeniable power. That was the genesis of this work and the journey I am on," Abdalla said in his artist statement.
The results of Abdalla's epiphany are mixed-media works made of bent wood furniture parts, tree roots, tree branches, rope, cord, glue and earth-toned paint. One of them even has wheels. Abdalla spends his spare time Dumpster diving and hiking the countryside collecting whatever interests him.
The iconic results are stunning yet charming sculptures reminiscent of sacred idols, religious altars and ancient architectural adornment.
In works like "Desert Shiva," "Cosmology" and "Penitente Go-Kart" Abdalla opens the gateway into other realities, new possibilities and expanding perceptions of the ordinary.
"Desert Shiva" shares a kinship with Hindu gods and goddesses as well as undersea creatures like the octopus.
Abdalla's compositions include sections of worn-out wicker furniture, wooden drawer knobs and other recognizable items, surrounding us with the familiar. But he doesn't stop adding elements, color, layers of rope wrapping tree root to arm rest to branch until the totality becomes an original and otherworldly entity.
Native Australians live in what they describe as dreamtime. Before the European invasion there were people in southern Australia who believed their lives were dreamed by whales. They had an obligation to live interesting lives lest the whales awaken.
It's no surprise that Abdalla's "Dream Catcher" is one of the most complex and elaborate works in the show.
Sweet dreams and please don't wake up the whales.
If You Go
WHAT: "Emanations," six recent mixed-media sculptures by Nick Abdalla
WHEN: Through June 1. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays
WHERE: 116 Artspace, 116 Central SW. Call 245-4200
HOW MUCH: Free
