Solstice Installation @ Olio

This is one of the great unexpected surprises of this season. The Solstice installation at the Olio Gallery is the result of a collaborative effort. Saori is a mixed-media artist who owns the Olio gallery in the Crislip Arcade at the 600 block of Central. Her work has been reviewed here before, the last review being the Art On! show at BC Woo's gallery.




 Saori collaborated with Ralph Mc Cutcheon, Gregory Dirr, Yanuary Irasema Navarro, Darien Dirr, Erin Hughes, John Allison, Amber Haley, Dave Allison and Jennifer Kosharek. I see lots of Thought Coalition names on that list.

Solstice View showing window and tree from the inside.

The outcome of all that creative energy is nothing short of excellent. It is deceptive at first, being at one level a winter wonderland kind of thing. It is all in a tiny space, where the doing the work must have been very difficult. Once you adjust to the space and the whiteness, the installation's brilliance emerges. When I saw it for the first time, people were standing around, jaws agape, or wearing these Buddha-smiles, beatific and illuminated. There are many vignettes in the work, starting with the window that was cut into the gallery wall, making it seem like you're at home, in the cabin, and exiting into the Winter Landscape.    

Solstice view, along one side toward the back.

This is the kind of environment that takes you back to childhood instantly...

Solstice, other  rear corner.

This installation may be down already on the Crislip Arcade. But your opportunity to see it is not gone. You see, this is moving to the Morean Arts Center for the holiday. Make the time to see this installation. Take your children -- and all their friends. Decades from now they will remember you bringing them to this, and so will you  It is one of the unexpected hits of the season. To all the aritsts who collaborated in this, and specially to Saori, thank you.

--- Luis