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Art Review: The Function Of Form

Emily Brookover

This Final Friday, Go-Away Garage on South Commerce offers the show The Function of Form: New Works by Emily R. Brookover. The show is an eclectic collection of intimate drawings small enough to be doodles-- but they are so highly rendered, it would be a shame to call them that.

As an entrepreneur and artist, Brookover’s professional artistic practice found its way into the rare, uninterrupted moments of putting graphite to paper. Working in a small, portable sketchbook allowed her to draw when she could, where she could. The result: forms of pebbles, crystals, floral shapes, landscapes, and naturalistic animals emerge from the quiet spaces of her pages.

The fine detail of Brookover’s drawing is sumptuous and generously offered to the viewer on a pristine, nearly blank page. Don’t be deceived by the abundant white space. This negative space is as important as the drawing itself. As counterintuitive as it might be, maintaining clean white space is hard, meticulous work – like keeping a Zen garden.

Brookover’s figure-ground relationships are symbiotic. The blank space activates every detail of the drawing, and the drawing, in turn, emphasizes the material beauty of the white page.

With so much breathing room, there are no ironic insertions, no loaded images, no insisted-upon narratives – just sincere offerings for intimate connections. This is the joy of Brookover’s work. It knows when to speak and knows when to be quiet. By putting pencil to paper during those few quiet moments of the day, she has created a body of work that is elegant and engaging.

Closing reception for The Function of Form: New Works by Emily R. Brookover  is at Go-Away Garage, 508 S. Commerce St. on Friday November 30, 2012 from 7pm – 11pm.