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How will you react to Cruzen's props?

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 21, 2012 - Jake Cruzen’s “Nikki and Jan” at Los Caminos is a conceptual exhibit, consisting of two props in different locations.

The first of the props is the show announcement, featured on Los Caminos’ website and in some printed flyers: a photograph of two pretty girls, relaxing in a park, along with a narrative account of the photographer’s chance encounter with them.


The second prop is a set of three electric cord lamps in the empty Los Caminos space, affixed with chunky broken hunks of colored glass that gleam like mystical crystals.

What happens between these props, what occurs to us about what connects them, is the real subject of the exhibit. That will be different for everyone.

What struck me was an overarching sense of disappointment: the photographer’s encounter with Nikki and Jan approaches titillation but never quite gets there; the lamps are pretty but tawdry, unable to deliver on promises of their own.

Cruzen, a St. Louis native and Washington University MFA, has made a distinct impression on the local art scene, exhibiting around town at teaching at his alma mater. Now he’s moving on, but we’ll keep tabs on him from a distance.

Ivy Cooper is the Beacon visual arts reviewer and a professor of art at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Ivy Cooper
Ivy Cooper is the Beacon visual arts reviewer and a professor of art at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.