DC Art Seen

Glenn Fry, Snap out of it, hand-pulled serigraph on paper, 38” x 30,” edition of 8. Courtesy of Gallery Plan B.

Serigraphs by Glenn Fry
Gallery Plan B
1530 14th Street
Wed – Sat 12pm-7pm Sun 1pm-5pm

Sometimes it seems that the art world has become so jaded that it can only accept work that is depressing and antagonizing. This is not entirely the fault of art professionals; there is a lot in the world that is antagonizing and depressing, and artists as observers tend to notice the problems that exist in this world in a more acute way. Glenn Fry is a rebel against this tradition. Glenn Fry might even be labeled an optimist. It is not that Fry’s work denies the evils and temptations that threaten human existence, but he still has faith in humanity’s ability to overcome such obstacles.

In his current exhibition, Serigraphs by Glenn Fry at Gallery Plan B, Fry presents to us a collection of hand-pulled serigraphs, which look like a combination between advertisements and inspirational college dorm posters. Although it might look like Fry has taken his images from old ads, he actually carefully stages each work with models and then photographs them. Fry then pairs these carefully constructed compositions with his own words. Snap out of it is an image of a young black man wearing a suit and tie, snapping his fingers. The man is blue, the background is brown and orange with a small stripe of bright green in the upper right for balance, the word “snap” is yellow (according to the rules of design this is always the first color we see) and the rest of the text is black. The image is taken from below, making the man seem authoritative and confident. His expression is intense, but concerned and kind. Fry uses every design and advertisement rule in the book, but instead of manipulating us into buying things Fry uses the rules to reach out and offer a friendly slap in the face.

It would be easy to discard Fry’s prints as cheap corporate attempts to make some corny cash… if they were sold in a bookstore. The time and effort put into each of these hand-crafted prints, coupled with the fact that they are exhibited in a gallery, are crucial to classifying these works as fine art. The artist Marcel Duchamp made the point that exhibition in a gallery elevates objects to a godly status that they would not otherwise possess. Most art critics have always believed that this is a bad thing, but in fact, the position that the gallery holds is very important and can be used for good. Love is a framed print that contains a red heart with the word “love” in yellow letters on a gray background. This is a prime example of how Fry’s works share knowledge that might otherwise be written off as cliché and intuitive: many times when we are deep in our own worlds, we lose track of the fact that we do frame “love,” and put it on a wall, and never consider what that means. Duchamp put a shovel in a museum and called it art to remind us that even a shovel has beauty and deserves reflection—Fry offers cliché moments.

-Ophra Paul

Serigraphs by Glenn Fry is on view at Gallery Plan B until July 18.