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Review: Reay, Beard and Weiner worth checking out at Bruno David

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, May 31, 2011 - Bruno David Gallery rounds out its season with a fine collection of art and artists.

In the Project Room and Front Room, recent sculptures by Charles P. Reay are an absolute delight. The Front Room houses a reconstruction of Reay's studio, affording a glimpse into his working methods, influences, and a few finished works, all of which reflect the artist's playful curiosity and scintillating imagination. Shades of Charles and Ray Eames abound.

The series of sculptures in the Project Room are finely constructed, erudite works that remain accessible and utterly engaging.

"Thick and Smooth," the exhibition of recent paintings by Laura Beard, is a survey of gorgeous abstractions. Beard's works on paper are spare and fresh, like incipient ideas; the oil on canvas paintings represent the development of her conceptual and material processes, the brushstrokes evolving and accumulating but never buckling under their own weight.

In the New Media Room, a stop-motion video animation by New York-based Ben Weiner shows the delicate growth of crystals, a visually arresting nature study and an interesting complement to Beard's abstractions.

Ivy Cooper, a professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is the Beacon art critic. 

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