What is “grok”? The word seems like something plucked out of a science fiction novel, and quite literally, it is. In Robert Heinlein’s novel Stranger in a Strange Land, a human returns to Earth after being raised by aliens on Mars, where he groks, or “understands intuitively or by empathy,” with his new neighbors. In a new art exhibit at Kibbee Gallery titled Grok, artists attempt to evoke the same sentiment between humans and nature with their art.
In the three-artist exhibition, the gallery juxtaposes established Atlanta artists with emerging and undiscovered talent. All three artists use different media but produce work evoking the natural world and get the average art patron to appreciate, even just for a moment, nature and the environment.
Miriam Karp, a prominent local painter, dabbles in a different medium this time around and presents sculptures created from found items. Her work commands several different corners of the gallery and manages to draw the eye away from someone else’s piece of work to her own.
One of Karp’s sculptures, a mass of cocoons suspended in midair above a staircase that leads nowhere, welcomes the viewer into the house, although it is not the first work on display. The bold colors and glitz of light bouncing off the material add a whimsical element to the room. There is no denying Karp’s careful craftsmanship and use of discarded or found materials as she erases the line between nature and modern civilization, recalling the aesthetic beauty of nature and its usefulness as a creative outlet.
Karp’s other piece, a collection of tools and figurines reminiscent of prehistoric specimens, connects the viewer to a time before modernity. Her contrasting works stand out among other pieces in the gallery and show her maturity and versatility compared to the other artists.
Tim Flowers, a professor at Georgia State’s Welch School of Art and Design, exhibits large, wall-sized paintings in this exhibit. Getting lost in the whirlwind of colors is easy with these pieces. They put the viewer in a trancelike state, if only for a moment.
The artist allows viewers to grok with nature and his art on a seemingly subconscious level for a short time, but his paintings show little variety in form from piece to piece.
Iman Person, a recent Georgia State graduate, hones her craft with paintings in the Grokshowing. Her recent personal discovery of her relationship with nature is obvious in several of her pieces. The ethereal lightness of the watercolor pieces suggests an estranged and fleeting relationship that humans, unfortunately, share with nature these days. The delicacy and transparency of the watercolors is an appropriate medium for Person’s message.
Kibbee, an independent gallery known for its support of the emerging arts scene in Atlanta, caters to a local community of underground art aficionados.
Appropriately situated inside a house directly behind Fellini’s on Ponce de Leon Avenue, the gallery creates a comfortable, homey feel that, during this show, benefited the ability to “grok” with the art. The intimate setting forces people to linger longer on one piece and actually take the time to dissect pieces thoroughly.
As soon as you leave the door of the Kibbee Gallery, your eyes may drift to the ground to see what materials you can weld together into art, à la Karp.
The fleeting thoughts are gone and nature becomes, yet again, a secondary backdrop to the fast cars and bright lights on Ponce.
