September 30 - November 11, 2023
In choosing “Heat Island” as the title for his exhibition, the artist aptly characterizes the manifest content of the work on view. This term, according to Rogers, “refers to the phenomenon of urbanized areas experiencing higher temperatures than outlying areas.” And, just as promised, the two small sculptures and ten elegantly executed oil on canvas paintings (in a variety of sizes ranging from 14 x 16 inches to 71 x 79 inches) on view in this show, though they are cool to the touch, suggest the sensation of heat the artist’s title invokes.
But heat here is presented not so much in the positive sense as a source of human sustenance and protection from the cold but rather as a nagging—if subtly and deeply coded—cause of concern. And the vague sense of unease that begins in the realm of this artist’s content—the gas flames of course, but also an open refrigerator and other suggestive subjects as well—is amplified in the realm of form (and perhaps even exhibition design), as objects and images of markedly different sizes and proportions jostle against one another on the gallery walls, competing in interesting ways for the viewer’s attention.