The ability to curate and install a good exhibition has a lot to do with innate ability; after all, it is just true that some people are born with "the eye" to select fine work and hang it in a way that creates a knockout show.
But there is learning to do, too, and that is much of the point of an exhibition that opened Thursday in the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery at the University of Denver.
"In Limbo" involved a class of about 15 undergraduate and graduate students who viewed hundreds of slides of work owned by Vicki and Kent Logan or promised by the Vail-based collectors to the Denver Art Museum.
Led by faculty member Gwen F. Chanzit, students in the Marsico Curatorial Practicum in DU's School of Art and Art History developed themes for several potential exhibitions, made presentations in class and to various committees who have to sign off on exhibitions in the Myhren Gallery, made a mock-up of the show using a model of the gallery and miniatures of the pieces eventually chosen, and produced a catalog. (Chanzit also is curator of modern and contemporary art and the Herbert Bayer Collection and Archives at the DAM, a veteran of a long-time relationship between DU and the museum.)
The theme chosen: "In Limbo." According to grad students Elizabeth Kellogg and Kathleen Ludwig, the initial title was the ethereal but impractical "Absence and Presence." To that end, students selected 14 works, including two photographs by Cindy Sherman and one by Rut Blees Luxemburg, two paintings by Bo Bartlett, a sculptural piece by Mona Hatoum, and a stretched vinyl piece by Julian Opie. Most of the work comes from the more than 200 pieces promised to the DAM.
The back story here, naturally, is all about collaboration and philanthropy: DU and the DAM, the 2001 gift of $300,000 to the school's gallery from Victoria and Trygve Myhren, a slice of funds from the 2002 gift to DU's arts and sciences students from Tom and Cydney Marsico, and the Logans' agreement to open their own collection for study.
But the real issue is the show, and, though small, viewers will find it for the most part cohesive, and in some instances a vehicle for stunning work. As a long-time student of angst, I can say that playing off the universal and timely issue of "limbo" is a good choice. As someone who has seen enough of the Logan collection at the DAM to know that not all the works will prove timeless in their relevance, I can say that much of what is on view packs some impact. And though a couple of pieces do not immediately hiss "limbo," there is enough ambiguity going on here, in a show of predominantly figurative pieces, to hold attention.
The theme is immediately set by the work that greets a viewer upon entry: Su-en Wong's 2000 painting on linen Hale Navy; in this work, Wong depicts a young woman (herself) suspended from a rope painted across the large-scale, deep blue background. Clad only in panties, the subject looks more abject than afraid, somehow beckoning the visitor into a space where, happily, more questions are asked than answered.
That is especially true of Opie's Imagine You Are Driving 3, with its unlimited and unclear horizon and its super-flat surface; Bartlett's beautifully painted and quite chilling The Wedding Picture, where a bride and groom look as if they are already on separate paths; Ron Mueck's Untitled (Man Under Cardigan), with its creepy rubber "skin" and almost smell of paranoia; and Luxemburg's C-print image of a murky staircase, Nach Innen/In Deeper, which is the stuff of bad dreams.
On the other hand, two large faces - Gottfried Helnwein's Head of a Child and Richard Phillips' Brandbild (Sunburn) - hold our gaze, as they gaze at us, though I'm not sure just what they say about that state between whatever and whatever, be it heaven and hell, action and inaction, or plain old fretful stasis.
Still, the use of a structured and relevant theme, the inclusion of unsettling work and the introduction of more pieces from a collection in our midst bolster a small, but telling exhibition. This show does more than pass the test.
• What: Work from the collection of Vicki and Kent Logan, as well as from the Logans' promised and fractional gift to the Denver Art Museum; curated by students at the University of Denver's Marsico Curatorial Practicum• Where and when: Victoria H. Myhren Gallery, Shwayder Art Building, University of Denver, 2121 E. Asbury Ave.; through March 11• Information: 303-871-2846