| `JACK` 66 1/2" x 61" x 3" made from found old barn wood, plywood, and painted with exterior latex semi-gloss house paint. $5,000
HIT THE JACK POT By Kyle MacMillan Denver Post Critic-at-large. Friday, October 31, 2003, The Denver post/ WEEKEND ENTERTAINMENT section, full page color. Take a gamble on a sure thing with frightfully good Halloween art exhibit. Some people think contemporary art is frightful enough as it is, but that didn`t stop Jerry Simpson. He asked artists from around the area and across the country - friends, fellow cooperative members and old schoolmates - to offer their creative takes on Halloween. It didn`t take much arm twisting. In fact, the longtime Denver artist had to put a lid on the number of participants for fear that the resulting works would overwhelm Zip 37's small gallery space. "I could have gone up to 200 people if I would have wanted to," Simpson said. "It just could have snowballed. For some reason, I stopped at 30, because I didn`t know how big the art was going to be." The resulting exhibition, which opens today with a 7 p.m. reception, is titled "JACK: The Art of the Jack-O-Lantern." It celebrates one of Halloween`s oldest and most popular customs: carving sometimes scary, sometimes humorous faces into pumpkins. Simpson considered black cats and devils as possible themes, but the jack-o'-lantern just seemed right. "I just think it`s orange," he said. "It`s cool. It`s a good symbol for Halloween." Visitors need not worry about getting spooked. Yes, a little blood drips from a menacing knife in Bob Clayton`s collaged drawing, "This Night Is Mine," but, like Casper the ghost, this is a friendly exhibition overall. Many of the pieces depict the jack-o`-lantern more or less literally. Mark Friday`s "Cat`s Eye" is a 3-inch-thick, hollow metal sculpture with light spilling through its triangular eyes and nose and its mouth studded with appropriately zig-zagged teeth. But others, such as Shawn Shea`s painting, "Just Jacks," take on the theme more figuratively. With a jack-o'-lantern hovering in the background, it depicts the character Jack from the TV show, "Will & Grace," popping from a jack-in-the-box decorated with an image of Jack Nicholson from the horror film, "The Shining." Other pieces ignore the jack-o'-lantern altogether and tackle other Halloween staples, such as Howard Sokol`s "Jack Scat." This color photograph, which is just 1 1/4" inches square with a wide black mat around it, portrays a single kernel of candy corn. Other notable pieces: One of the only socio-political pieces in the show, Robert St. John`s hand-colored relief print, "You Don`t Know Jack," confronts American views of Muslims. A blond woman recoils at the sight of a jack-o'-lantern crowned with a fez. One of the most show's unassuming works is Bill Amundson`s skillfully realized colored-pencil drawing. As its title suggests, "Seated Nude with Halloween Head," portrays a seated female nude with a contrasting jack-o'-lantern head. Janey Skeer has crafted a convincing clay jack-o'-lantern, giving it an angry face with vampire-like fangs. The handsome if slightly scary dark-orange piece is titled, appropriately enough, "Mad Jack." The cartoonish imagery of the Clayton Brothers is a big hit in Los Angeles, where they will soon open an exhibition at the La Luz de Jesus Gallery. Two small, suitably macabre paintings on panel are on view. Other participating artists include Phil Bender, who was included in the recent Colorado biennial at the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver, and Darrell Mayabb, the nationally known automobile artist and illustrator. Among the artwork on display during "JACK Art of the Jack-O-Lantern," at Zip 37, clockwise from top left: "Bat Pilot" by Gene Hoffman; "JACK" by Jerry Simpson; "Luke" by Rob Clayton; "Anakin" by Christian Clayton; and Angry at the Jack-O-Lanterns," by Frieda Gossett. So set aside those tired, mass-produced Halloween decorations - at least for a moment - and enjoy a fresh, one-of-a-kind visual celebration of this increasingly popular autumn holiday.
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