An exceptional artist will change her style as she matures, while at the same time retaining a unique handwriting.  Such is the case with Ellen Tuchman’s new body of work at Pan American Art Projects.  The mind boggling intricacy of it has remained consistently impressive over the 15+ years that I have been admiring it.  Using material traditionally associated with women, she creates elaborate landscapes of memory using sequins, beads, old matchbook covers, and other bits of ephemera from the past that are individually stitched onto mylar.  These lie on backgrounds painted with eye shadow, powder and other non-traditional pigments.  The pièce de résistence in the current exhibition is Gone but Not Forgotten:  Lux Lost or It Was the Best of Times, a fitting ode both to our current economic times as well to the fact that it will be the last show at this wonderful gallery.  The central image is composed of remnants from earlier eras of luxury that also, inevitably came to an end.  The surrounding field is composed of hundreds of “quills”, strips of paper that are meticulously and painstakingly hand twirled. 

In the past few years, the quills have become the dominant element in Tuchman’s work.  This trend has continued in the exhibition.  In Brain Tumor, the colored quills add a dynamism to the saturated color field beneath them. 

 

While Tuchman’s color is usually intensely vibrant, its absence speaks just as boldly as in the magnificent Loves Me Loves Me Not.  The solid white field of quills looks like an enormous cloud waiting to envelope the viewer. 

Several of the works in this exhibition have taken a completely new direction in which the quills are used to write out words and phrases.  Think Pink is one of these that uses seemingly 100s of pink painted quills to spell out Think in three dimensional letters that measure 11” each.  As a devotee of the color, for me, it provides the most perfect form of inspiration.  I could immediately imagine it over my desk.

I will miss Pan American when it closes, both the gallery and its wonderful staff.  They found the perfect balance of supporting an outstanding stable of local artists as well as exposing the city to exciting new work from abroad.  I wish the artists as well as the gallerists much luck as they forge ahead and hope that the Dallas art community won’t be deprived of their talents.