Mark Lightfoot at Manna Gallery
Mark Lightfoot’s exhibition Of Things Past has closed after its month long showing at the Manna Gallery on 25th Street in downtown Oakland.
Mark Lightfoot is one of five artists shown by Manna Gallery. The gallery runs shows on a monthly basis and exhibits between one and five of its artists in each show. The gallery is a small single room that is part of a larger complex of galleries at 473 25th street. Entering the complex off 25th street there is a long corridor and gallery doors are dotted along the length. Manna Gallery is towards the rear of the corridor and a poster for the exhibition marks the entrance. The space is quite small and this is not aided by a large column directly in your path when you enter the gallery. Sitting at the base of the column is a small, black bench holding promotional materials about the gallery and the Lightfoot exhibition. The rear of the column is colored brown while the plane facing out is a convention white. Immediately to your left as you enter the gallery is a high white desk which was manned on the day by the artist himself. This provided a valuable experience in gaining insight into the works that were presented. The interior of the gallery space was conventional with a polished concrete floor and flat white walls, however there was the addition of a small brown carpet in the center of the gallery; its purpose was unclear but it may have been used to prevent reflections from the polished concrete bouncing onto the works and effecting their lighting. It may also have been used to complement the brown coloration of the rear of the column. The only other elements present in the gallery were the names of the gallery, artist and exhibition, the latter two rendered in papyrus typeface - often derided for its kitsch connotation.
There are thirteen works shown in Of Things Past. All works are two-dimensional paintings; five on canvas and eight on paper. There are a range of sizes, formats and media used in the production of these images. Many of the works use a muted and limited palette however Kimono uses a vibrant canvas full of reds and greens and both Salome I and Salome II use much brighter tones. In each of the works a form is located centrally and surrounded by a flat singular color, which acts as the background and aids the perception of spatial depth in the images. The forms in these works are abstract, however it is clear that each has been influenced by the human figure and traces are left in the shape of body parts; arms, legs, heads, torsos, chests and shoulders are all suggested. Creating figures, which do not take on a unified form or identity, asks questions of the viewer. You are forced to create your own narrative for these elements, piecing together separate works or extrapolating the information, which is provided by Lightfoot.
The opportunity to speak with an artist is always an illuminating experience to someone who is in the early stages of their art practice, however this experience was further enhanced by the ability to talk to Mark Lightfoot in his gallery in front of his own works. Being one of the principal artists in a commercial space would encourage the artist to engage a role as a salesperson. This is the nature of working in a commercial gallery as a professional practitioner. However another element of professionalism is the ability to transcend your role as gallerist and salesman and engage personally with your patrons. Lightfoot was a pleasure to talk to and provided a wealth of information about his works free from the paradigm of commercial engagement.
In the press release for the exhibition Lightfoot alludes to his past and current interest in archeology. This is in the pieces that are on display in this exhibition. The forms in these works appear as artifacts, which have been discovered by Lightfoot, broken pieces of a greater whole. Their muted palette implies the weight and confusion of distance and age, while the singular, unified colors of the backgrounds call to mind backdrops used for documentary purposes. This archeological reference point allowed Lightfoot to move into abstraction for the first time in his career. He believes that exploring the abstract has been liberating and in doing so he has been able to more fully explore the human figure in his art practice.
Perhaps the most effective and telling example of Lightfoot’s work in this exhibition is Salome I, which appears next to Salome II on the back wall of the gallery. Salome I has a sky blue background and central form which suggests a head, torso and waist comprised of reds, ochers, yellows and a gauzy, white over lay. The white layer of acrylic paint folds away from the central form, revealing more layers leading to a deep red core. The bodily connotations inherent in the form and the blood red core suggest a greater humanity to the form than many of the works in the exhibition. This humanity is necessarily injected by the viewer and posits the viewer as the inhabitant of these figurative forms. The peeling back of layers in Salome I only serves to enhance the access of the viewer. In creating a form that is unidentifiable by race, gender or era Lightfoot is hinting at a shared humanity in all viewers. In his own words, he was attempting to process some form of universal human truth. This is a grand claim to make for any artist, however it stems from a greater tradition of artists working with abstraction to inform and develop a universal human truth. Two other notable white, cis-gender, male artists sought this truth. Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock were the figureheads of Abstract Expressionism, a movement that sought to do away with traditional conventions of artistic practice in order to gain some greater insight into the human condition. Lightfoot is not disregarding the past; he acknowledges his ancient and archeological influences however the suggested purpose mirrors those great artists.
Significantly, Lightfoot appropriates the methodology of artists such as Pollock. While Pollock used a stick to spatter paint across the canvas, Lightfoot uses paper and cloth in the creation of a base pattern, both unorthodox tools. Both men allowed a pattern to emerge, then allowing this dominant pattern to dictate the direction of the final form of the work. This layering of pattern is evident in all of the works in this exhibition and as mentioned above it is critical in the delivery of Lightfoot’s work.
In some works in this exhibition, Lightfoot adheres too closely to the human figure. Although maintaining a formal abstraction the figurative elements in the work are distracting. This is most evident in a series of oil on gessoed paper works, which are named Ezekial, Isaiah, Joshua and Nehemiah; all names from the Hebrew Bible. This decision by Lightfoot to animate Biblical prophets has ushered him into an area of distinctive figuration, not as evident in other works. This literal interpretation of figures distances Lightfoot from his intention of creating a universal humanity, able to be occupied by any viewer. While other works in the exhibition reference Greek and Roman myth and legend I believe that the introduction of a currently practiced religion also serves to distance the works from their original intention.
Of Things Past is a thought-provoking exhibition. It is a pity the works were in such a small space, not allowing them adequate room to breathe or the viewer to contemplate. The basic principle of Lightfoot’s work is interesting and well-directed, however it is too great a vision and he does not achieve what he sets out to. Salome I is a stand out piece in the show and is indicative of the new direction that Lightfoot is taking his work. This is a promising direction if he continues to explore and develop his work.
