Time to reevaluate Mary Engel ?
Hm, no, not me (although I suspect I could use a dose of reevaluation myself). It's just that I loved this headline. Sounds so dire.
Source: Visual Arts in Atlanta
It's Time to Reevaluate Mary Engel
The intelligentsia of the Atlanta art scene has consistently dismissed the canine sculptures by Mary Engel as more craft than art, lacking any real conceptual depth. I've always had a much higher opinion of the work in that certain crafts when executed in an extraordinary fashion, transcend the world of craft and enter the world of fine art (the quilts of Gees Bend are a fine example). At her latest show at Marcia Wood Gallery Engel erases any doubt that her sculptures belong in the realm of fine art. In past shows her works were highly sentimental, while this time around they seem to be more about sentimentality itself. The postures of her dogs weighed down by dozens of porcelain figurines of birds, cats dogs and other animals evoke more of an intellectual than emotional response. It seems that the figurines are in conflict with the dog itself leaving the viewer the task of reconciling this conflict with his or her internal reaction to the separate elements of the dogs and their adornments.