David Rosenthal’s Prairie Gallery is an elegant, well-conceived, second-floor exhibition space recently opened in Northside. For its inaugural exhibition Happy Valley or Helltown, Prairie invited Voss Finn to create a complex installation alongside photographic works by Samantha Johnson. Finn’s large work, composed of “repurposed industrial objects,” winds up from the floor to the ceiling and out towards the walls. With the grace of ikebana flower arranging and masterful visual rhythm, there may be no better work with which to introduce audiences to a brand new gallery space: You see and appreciate the gallery more because of the sculpture. (In his statement, Finn even describes Prairie’s particle-board flooring as the conceptual foundation of this work). Johnson photographs urban settings and derelict buildings, sewing images together in a way best experienced by a meandering walk through the gallery. 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Through Feb. 27.
Read an interview with gallery owner David Rosenthal here.
This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2009.