Susanne Hilberry Gallery
700 Livernois

Ferndale, MI 48220
248-541-4700

www.susannehilberrygallery.com
Nov 15 through Jan 11.


Susanne Hilberry continues to do a great service to the art community by putting on large-scale one-person shows. By doing so, patrons get a rich, in depth examination of the creativity and power of a single artist showcased in a space that allows the work to speak for itself.





“Peony Border”


Former Detroiter and Wayne State alum Ellen Phelan once again receives Hilberry’s spotlight. Phelan’s illustrious career has seen her make her first mark on the art scene with other Cass Corridor industrial experimentalists. Today she uses traditional media to convey images of beauty and feeling. She is certainly not an artist that found her niche and hid there, but has expanded her work as she herself has changed.





“Rose and Obelisk (Orange Room)”


The current body of work on display at Susanne Hilberry consists entirely of oil paintings depicting landscapes and flower still lifes. These are quiet, beautiful pieces, presented as dreams but forcibly real. The paintings are imbued with an ethereal quality – like vision out of focus, obscured by the fog or perhaps a frosted lens. Brief moments of the painting are allowed to come into focus, a moment of life in the stillness. Phelan’s skill with a brush is undeniable – these paintings feel effortless as beauty drips off her palette. She is able to convey a feeling of impenetrable atmosphere simultaneously with a luminosity and lightness that leaps off the canvas.





“Brilliant Water”


The painting “Brilliant – Water” stands out as a stunning accomplishment to hold the viewer’s gaze. The painting depicts in subdued colors heavy clouds looming over the horizon at sea. While much of the painting is grayed and genuinely feels damp, there are brief moments where sunlight has peeked through that burn brightly. She has captured a moment that we know, or have felt when looking at the vastness of the ocean. In “Spring: 1st Drawing” Phelan creates a powerful landscape composition through the simplicity of broad black and white brushstrokes that is eerily photographic despite its looseness.





“Spring:1st Drawing”


For all that is undeniably beautiful and breathtaking about this show, there is the lingering sense that something is missing. This may be due to the inevitable comparison to Gerhard Richter with her more recent works. Perhaps in finding the means and technique to create such extraordinary beauty, Phelan has left an essential element out – herself. Her extraordinary talent and success may actually serve to confine her means of expression. In some ways this restraint is analogous to her paintings – shrouded in atmosphere, the hidden depths are revealed but briefly. Perhaps too, the difficulty lies with an audience that is so accustomed to irony and social commentary that straight beauty presents confusion to our altered sensibilities.



Wherever your sensibilities about what makes art meaningful, Phelan has created an aesthetic symphony to behold. Hilberry provides a great framework for this show that Detroit area residents should be sure to check out.