Crowded House at Broward College

Crowded House A diverse group of artists and one deft gallery director work wonders with the cramped quarters at BCC (edited review)

BY MICHAEL MILLS

[In the spring of 2001], the Fine Arts Gallery at Broward Community College’s Central Campus in Davie showcased an eclectic retrospective of works by five full-time faculty members. Now the gallery weighs in with the fourth annual “Adjunct Faculty Exhibit,” an even quirkier and more ambitious show featuring the works of 16 artists whose affiliation with BCC is more tentative.

Their works, however, are anything but tentative. The show includes nearly four dozen pieces, and they run the gamut from sculpture and installations to photography and paintings in oil, acrylic, and encaustic. And gallery director Beth Ravitz (who also contributes a mixed-media installation to the exhibition) has done a fine job of juxtaposing the pieces so that they play off, and sometimes against, one another; most of the show evinces a natural progression.

Only Onajide Shabaka‘s Installation, just inside the front door, really seems to inhabit this space. It’s a large section of wall painted black and adorned with sketches in white chalk surrounded by such items as snail shells, skulls, tree branches, and mysterious bundles of straw, leaves, and seedpods.

Ravitz has done an excellent job of assembling this show. And she has done so against considerable odds, because this boxy little gallery has to be one of the least-inviting art venues in Broward County. Given the obvious wealth of talent among the BCC art faculty members, it’s a shame the school doesn’t have a more hospitable place to show off their works.

photocredit: onajide Shabaka
“sacred bundle” (detail)

Adjunct Faculty Exhibit
Details: On display through March 15, 2001
Ph:954-475-6984
Where: Broward Community College Fine Arts Gallery, Central Campus, 3501 SW Davie Rd., Davie

newtimesbpb.com | originally published: March 8, 2001