At James Gallery in the West End, the exhibit “Second Nature” defines what organic abstraction is all about. That is, finding inspiration in the rounded, wavy, even fractal-based forms found in nature.

“Things like plants, pods, shells and cells have inspired these five artists to take those forms and images into more surreal applications,” says James Gallery director Paul Cicozi.

For example, a number of “Shrimp Vessels” by Eileen Braun of Atlanta, which are displayed on pedestals throughout the exhibit, were influenced greatly by the movement of water — “Ocean, lake, pond and, most recently, the lap pool I swim in,” Braun says. “Water can be soothing, fierce, tempting, playful. It's a theme I never tire of investigating.”

Also inspiring her was an image of shellfish she found in an advertisement for an appliance manufacturer she happened to come across in a magazine.

“The photo featured a close-up of shrimp with colorations I had not been aware of,” she says.

With their subtle gradations of color and slick but highly textured bodies as newfound inspiration, Braun says she also added similar textures — dots of different colored glazes, built up in layers — to the surface of her bowl-shaped forms.

“It was the perfect surface treatment to combine the feel of the ocean and the creatures within,” she says.

Also from Atlanta, Pam Longobardi presents several mixed-media paintings that combine fractal forms with painted figures and other references to our world — natural and man-made.

For example, in “The Plentitude of Nothing,” an astral plane filled with cobwebs and interconnected portals hovers above a small conglomeration of houses, suggesting a great and complex vastness above and around them.

“The painting surface is copper, and it undergoes chemical interactions as I pour and move around various patinas, which dry and crystalize to form a kind of virgin space that I then paint into,” Longobardi says in regard to her painting process. “The interaction of the patinas with copper create a natural phenomenon that acts as a ‘stand-in' for nature and natural forces.”

The imagery and painted portions Longobardi then adds in by hand-painting them function symbolically as the cultural world, or the human interpretation of nature.

“The very act of painting forever changes and alters the patinaed portions, either by interrupting them, the surface, sheen and qualities of it, or by ‘paving' over them,” she says.

Longobardi says the title, “The Plentitude of Nothing,” refers to an idea about “the vastness of nature as a kind of incomprehensible void that becomes completed by human presence.”

In Carrie Seid's mixed-media piece “Frequency,” the Tucson-based artist attempts to move light with static materials in real time.

“I started with simple ‘V' forms made of metal, then formed them inside the metal box in a variety of ways to see which configuration would give me the most saturation of gold light possible,” she says. “Since the piece has hooks on all four sides, I was excited by the fact that the piece works the same way, but with different visual results, in either orientation.”

Thus, she says, with this piece she wanted to set up a scenario in which the viewer would try to “catch” the reflected light coming out of the piece as he/she passes it from side to side.

The exhibit also includes several large-scale photographs by Carla Ciuffo of Nashville.

A standout among them is “The Elders.” Featuring two dandelions that look anthropomorphic in nature, as if standing over a smaller dandelion to tell it something, Ciuffo says it is “about the art of storytelling.”

“The ‘ancients' are gently counseling a younger generation with their customs, tales and rituals,” Ciuffo says. “I have a great respect for storytellers and marvel at how different cultures can share one story, yet each story has its own unique imprint and possesses the ability to help link us to our past and shape our future.”

Finally, Brooklyn-based artist David Henderson's wall-hung sculpture “Convolve 2” appears to be an organic form but is actually the result of pure geometry.

“It is a section across the center of a torus, more commonly known as a doughnut,” Henderson says. “Designed with the aid of a computer, it is made from flat, overlapping plywood layers that are subsequently milled to shape on a machine designed and built for this purpose.”

The resulting form is a shell rather than a volume. The many layers of wood, and the marks from the milling machine, articulate the complex derivative curves, describing in detail this abstract surface while the underlying structure can be glimpsed underneath.

“The mind's eye works to extend the surface beyond its boundaries, pulling in space from around itself,” Henderson says. In this way, the sculpture functions as an object and a space, as reductive abstraction and metaphoric representation.

Kurt Shaw is the art critic for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at kshaw@tribweb.com.

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