From Gun Metal Grey to Golden Brown - Color and Mass Communicate

The works of Sharon Kopriva and Ed Wilson are steeped with the juices of belief. Unfettered by solely commercial or esthetic criteria, their works plumb the soul through honest reflection of their individual beliefs.  Both artists are inspired by nature. Their works connect central themes of faith and fear through spiritual longings. They each share contemplations regarding the use of power in the world.  Wilson’s sculptures possess metaphysical aspects such as machinery of war and its impact on nature.  Kopriva’s installations, sculptures and paintings resonate with the brutality of ritual and myth while connecting nature with her own spiritual sojourn.
 

Kopriva said that it is relatively easy for an artist to find their truth, though much more difficult to defend and cultivate one’s own territory of conceptual belief. Both Kopriva and Wilson are at the center of global creative currents reflecting religious, political, environmental and cultural fractures so evident in our splenetic world. Peter Plagens, noted art critic, once stated that, “…artists, like the rest of the population, also pay subconscious attention to the culture as a whole. They know, at some level, about the momentum that’s going from antiquarianism to barbarism.” Kopriva and Wilson clearly reflect this momentum.  This shift is evidenced in their use of humor, brutality of fact, honesty, and spirituality. When reflecting on the power and originality possessed by both of these fine artists, the political and the absurd nature of violence are illuminated.

In their creative oeuvres we see our own fears for the misuse of power as well as the manifested results in our surrounding world.  

In a time where so many art trends reflect “high art esthetics,” where process becomes content, both the works of Kopriva and Wilson are refreshing because they combine excellence of process in collaboration with art about the human experience.  Each of these artists develops their techniques to the limits of technical perfection.  The subjects matter, however, are rooted in internal and spiritual forms.  These subjects question the very nature of our rituals relating to faith and to cultural power.  Their works question the abuse of power in our society. Kopriva questions the traditions of the church through the practice of religion.  Wilson investigates globally rooted power aspirations. Both artists’ works possess quixotic sub themes, which are often balanced with rye humor and sublimely quirky figuration.  As we find ourselves surrounded daily by brutal global aggression their works become even more timely and as a prescient reminder of our need for respecting humanity and fostering individual spirituality.


In the works of Sharon Kopriva there exists a humanistic center permeating as a sense of art about life and the spiritual longings shared by so many. During our current time of doubt and unbridled cynicism, her works, growing from an imagistic center, deals with complex associations of the cerebral and political. They remind us that our feelings and emotions have a place in the structure of faith. The depth of mystery seen in both her paintings and sculptural work is complimented by her shrewd sense of humor and pathos.  Her religious expressions are loaded with questions rather than resolute declarations.  If declarations appear they are enforced by our own concerns and uncertainty regarding the big ideas in life that we are so often sold in our pop cultural surroundings. Understanding that birth, life and death are central elements in all great art, her works stand as honest beacons at the end of pop cultural celebrity. Where so many are at a loss for ideas and moral truth, Kopriva’s art whirls with the heavy water of concern and truth that rupture the glib and cynical postulations for the death of painting. Indeed Kopriva has returned to painting over these past few years finding fascination with the romantic relationship of darkness and light. Her paintings are composites of both found and painted subjects that often reflect the mysteries of life and the importance of individual spirituality. Her paintings connect her growing concerns for both mass and surface so eloquently realized in her larger sculptural incantations.  Her three-dimensional creations are connected inexorably to the energy also found in her paintings.  They are both parts of a vital poetic sentence equally needed in order to fully communicate the sublime and horrific aspects of our shared humanity. A similar and equally foreboding mystery often plays out in the works of Ed Wilson.

Ed Wilson’s works are rich with delicate patinas of grey and subtle colors underscoring the somber nature of his thinking expressed powerfully through his sculptures. There exists a sense of potential menace and a price to be paid for our shared cultural greed.  As with the works of Otto Dix, a certain powerful grotesquery exists in his works. Wilson’s use of a surrealistic sense of space and form commingle to foster a mysteriously metaphysical presence in his bias relief’s and large sculpture.  Perspective is distorted in his shallow relief landscapes further isolating the viewer in city spaces emptied of the human presence.  There exists a horrible beauty in his subject that is contrasted by the elegance of his precise and well crafter process.  His sculptures invite and repel with the power of suggestion and the horror of a darker presence of humanity.  Even in their playful appearance there lies a connection to the turret and blade of conflict so prevalent today in our global conflicts.  Wilson states that “As much as I am attracted to the idea, I am also impassioned by the sheer beauty of the metal and cast surface.  To move the materials towards the most beautiful conclusion possible is an urgent goal in all of my works.” As one moves through this array remember that some of these small sculptural maquets stand for the many large wall and room sized works. With this scale shift in mind one begins to feel and sense a mystery possible in his art.

In closing, the works of both Kopriva and Wilson stand as impassioned reminders to the value of both heartfelt content and masterfully resolved process in a work of art.  The truths of their respective voices have been protected over time through the love, gestation and perseverance so vital for all artists.  In the still of isolation each of these artists has found their own well of inspiration, deep with conviction and ample with focus. The fruit of focused and intelligent repetition has, for both artists, developed honesty of vision and curiosity through purpose. Each of these artists works stand as exclamation for the vital sense of belief so missing in a large part of recent contemporary art.  Their works are stunning examples of the process and content existing in soulistic harmony beyond the banality of erasure.  Their works stand in heroic opposition to the shallowness of art found to reflect only the means of its process and not the soul of the maker.

Michael Collins
Artist/Associate Professor of Arts and Humanities
Houston Baptist University