At the end of chores last Saturday I headed over to Decatur and sat down to interview artist Elliott Boswell about his latest endeavor, an art gallery fittingly named The Boswell Gallery’. The Boswell is currently featuring works by six different painters, one photographer and a wire sculptor.
From the deep-gloss, high-fashion floral paintings of Leann Marie Zafuto to the gestural wirework of sculptor Luke Eldridge, color and light and texture cover the walls of a gallery smaller than a four-car Alpharetta garage. One of the most fun things I discovered about the gallery is how different artists’ works coexist in this compact gallery space, stacking up with unexpected and delightful combinations (as seen in this photo where one of Elliott’s own landscapes provides a dramatic, hellish backdrop for one of Luke Eldridge’s small continuous wire sculptures).
Those wire sculptures seem to inhabit the gallery, flying amongst its rafters, skulking in the shadows. Two lightboxes hanging on the back wall are from two chapters of a book that Eldridge is writing, a diorama for every chapter. Elliott says that he plans to have a special show for Luke later this year to show the story in its entirety. I’m not sure if those two lightboxes are for sale, but don’t miss them when you visit the gallery.
I was especially intrigued by the illustrative nature of painter John Tindel’s pieces, from the subject matter to his linework and his color palette. I have to say that I wouldn’t mind seeing a Tindel hanging on my wall some day in the future, although I do have some issues with the execution of his seal coat on a couple of pieces I liked.
Criticism or haggle point? You decide.
There are some mesmerizing photographs by Bill Mahan that look more like paintings than photography, and perhaps the most intriguing items in the gallery are two paintings by Ibrahim Kodra, the last of the living Cubists.