REVIEW
Adrian Tans at Muddy Waters
“You have to learn the rules before you can break them.” This advice is sometimes given to would-be artistic iconoclasts (for example, to discourage really bad poetry masquerading as experimental). Adrian Tans, an award winning illustrator and painter of portraits, landscapes, and everything in between, has a firm grasp on both the “rules” and the value of straying from the status quo. This balance is all the more impressive given that Tans is self-taught.
Sometimes an element of the unexpected, a slightly jarring detail, becomes far more compelling than “mere” beauty. To be sure, Tans’ oil paintings--gorgeous, ghostly blurred seaside scenes, ethereal country lanes, lush still life--provide no shortage of plain old fashioned Aesthetic Appeal. But it’s the humor and irreverence threaded through his work that truly illustrate the artist’s versatility. His portraits often combine classic, precise formality with the sudden presence of pop consumer products like a jug of Clorox bleach, or incongruously modern items like an oscillating fan.
In Shout! (60”x48”, oil on canvas), two young girls languish on the interior stairs of a posh house, one gazing off the frame in a sailor dress, the other clutching a velveteen rabbit. It could be a glimpse of buttoned-up Victorian childhood, but for the titular bottle of cleaning fluid given pride of place on an upper stair. Nationalism (48”x48”, oil on canvas) immortalizes a young American who poses, reluctantly clad in a festive dress, waving the Stars and Stripes with an uncertain expression. She brings to mind Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird, giving the impression that she’d rather be wearing cutoffs and climbing a dangerously high tree. Unlike more traditional portraits, Tans’ subjects invite the observer into a conversation, rather than staring imperiously from an exclusive two dimensional void.
Tans’ work was recently featured at Muddy Waters in a collaborative show with friend (and fellow snow sculpting champion!) Michael Nedell. The self-referencing show is part of the merry pranksters’ “April Fools Art” venture.
G. BLAKE MACPHAIL
Art Map Burlington is a publication of Kasini House, Inc. info@kasinihouse.com
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