Medium in the Middle

Maker, an important Colorado artist, has been exhibiting her work in the region since receiving an MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1983. Over that time, she has been wildly experimental in her approaches. Her saw-cut "paintings" are just the latest manifestation of the many roads she's followed. But every route has broken new ground.

I've long had a lot of respect for Maker's aesthetic courage, but I've noticed that being adventurous isn't always pretty. And coming up with something beautiful hasn't always been her first interest. However, these new works can hardly be criticized on that score, as they are clearly knockouts. In fact, as I turned the corner out of the Ko exhibit and hit the Maker show, I stopped in my tracks. The pieces, nearly all of them made from old phonograph records or jawbreakers, are completely stunning.

The ones made of dark-colored vinyl records, with little touches of bright color from the remains of the labels, have an atmospheric feel and at first glance are reminiscent of etchings. On closer inspection, though, the surfaces are wild and lively. In particular, the effect of the deep voids between the records makes them obviously sculptures.

Very different are the wildly colored works made of jawbreakers em-bedded in cast resin, with lots of acid green, day-glo pink and hazmat orange among a rainbow of strong hues. When cut open, the jawbreakers take the form of circles, and Maker accents the picture with them. Some, like the four square panels from the "Jawbreakers" series, are organized into all-over patterns of circles within circles. In others, Maker scatters the circles over the picture, combining them with long-running three-dimensional drips rising off the surface, as in "Drool," on which white, pink, blue and orange stand out against the sickly green color field that serves as the background. There are four compositions of this type, with each taking an elongated vertical shape. Let me be perfectly clear: Collectively or even individually, these Makers are showstoppers.

Robischon can always be counted on to have something on display that's worth seeing, and Jae Ko — New Work and Terry Maker — Slice are just the latest evidence of that.