Art for Mid-week Wednesdays: Static and Statue

INTERPRETATIVE A new kind of sculpture-portrait.

For MFA student Matthew Segotta's Merlino work, this is an art that has more to do with its materials and the story to how it was made, which includes the main ingredient, Segotta's brother, Tim. "The Sculptor," as noted on the room plaque, or casually just "Scout," employed his younger bro for the casting of this untitled piece, and then a rich mix of materials: concrete, hydrocal, silicone, sisal, aluminum and steel.

The details are so specific to the subject—if you look closer at the right arm, you'll see human hair. But the unconventional presentation of this sculpture form is what stood out to me the most. The artist, who is on-hand during the entirety of his exhibition, will tell you about the process and the subject. The viewer, simply me, will tell you how soothing it is to finally walk into a room bare of wall art and stories locked into a perimeter of a few square dimensions. Statue work is normally seen erect, standing, but makes more of a statement here, where it's thrown and naked on the ground. This show makes more an impact with less and gives sculpture art some kind of new air of coolness. It works with the new tradition I've seen coming out of CSULB artists, like with Julia Haft-Candell, an MFA ceramics student who in spring transformed Merlino into a sculpture-cocoon, or BFA student Sean Flaherty, who adds himself into the end product of even his most sensual work. Space and identity are displayed and explored to dynamic exponents.

S.P. BALTAZAR A new character for Patrick Ballard gets its debut behind locked doors, and an overwhelming voice with an equally charged volume.

Another sculpture student who I find repeatedly "adding himself into the end products," is the unparalleled Patrick Ballard.

I stood there knocking, afraid I was missing the show. As soon as I stepped inside the FA3 building, the walls were throbbing from the noise outpouring one of its first-floor showrooms. Though, really, I was in a sequence of two shows in a row (see above) where the audience was challenged to restrain from and resist usual gallery expectations.

In a dramatic sense, it felt like God was speaking to me.

"S.P. Baltazar" is in the FA3 building through Saturday, 7 p.m. Matthew Segotta's work can be viewed through Thursday (12 p.m. to 5 p.m.) in the Merlino Gallery in the Gallery Courtyard.