The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 35

[Beth Cavener's] art is extraordinarily emotional
and covers both humanity and inhumanity.

Fox’s use of realism in painting is delicately balanced.

that began when she was young. Her father was an

She is not reaching for super realism in either painting

academic gypsy, moving almost every other year to a

or sculpture, à la Ron Meuck’s disturbing lifelike works,

new university where she would encounter a roomful of

which are betrayed only by their large or small scale.

strangers when she shifted from school to school. Her

Fox’s work is almost real. Her people inhabit a place

coping device was to give her fellow students animal

where they can, for a moment here and there, seem

identities, which calmed her anxiety and also allowed

real in mid pose. It causes a moment of dislocated

her to, if not understand, at least accept some of the

reality for the viewer, but in an instant the figures shift

cruelty to which she was subjected to as a newcomer.

back from life to lifelike. That is their perpetual tease.

What this means is that her art is extraordinarily

The work of Jan Holcomb is defined by tenderness.

emotional and covers both humanity and inhumanity.

Each has the sensibility of a holy shrine. The relief

Humiliation By Design (2009) is painful in the extreme,

sculpting, often with detailed texture, caresses the

like coming upon a torture scene from the Spanish

clay and the cartoonish figures are softly contoured.

inquisition. A goat on a spit is a wonderful repast but for

The deft painting is a combination of stains in engobe

the fact that Cavener’s goats are all too human and so

(slip) and oil and acrylic paint. In Sunny Climb (1982)

the connection to gastronomy is a touch unpleasant.

the artist’s vulnerable mortality is the subject.

The meaning of L’Amante (2012) is a rush of words

Holcomb suffers from multiple sclerosis and at the time that

and phrases about affection and attraction: fond, keen,

Sunny Climb was made he was making the transition to

loving, love, like, be attracted to, enjoy, prefer. We

crutches and pondering how long he had left as a maker.

might therefore assume that this is this avatar-hare’s

He has since ceased ceramics. The iconography in this

purpose. The pose is relaxed, even enticing, and a leg is

work is revealing and considered. The figure’s head is huge

stretched forward, an invitation for seduction, perhaps?

compared to the diminished torso and rail legs, a comment
on the fact that Holcomb’s mind was then at a creative peak,
filled with ideas and works but with a body that could no
longer support his ambitions. I have always found this work
to be harrowing, but also brave and absent of any self-pity.

The surface is painted by a collaborator, Allesandro Gallo,
in grisaille, a style of monochromatic painting in shades
of grey often used to represent relief on sculpture. The
subject matter, however, is highly specific. These tattoos
are traditionally inked onto the Yakuza, the members of

Biography is a key part of Beth Cavener’s art, not just

the Japanese mob. This choice of surface decoration gives

her own, but also the people she encounters. Her lens

a fresh nuance to the title, for in this case love—or rather

is zoomorphism. She translates human behaviors into

loyalty—is certainly “until death do us part.” The only way

the animal forms they most closely resemble. It’s a habit

one leaves service to organized crime is via a coffin.

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