Maritime-inspired exhibit brings Columbia's Sager Reeves Gallery out to sea

Pieces in the current exhibit at Sager Reeves Gallery sound a siren song, pulling viewers past the breakers and farther into the deep. Their salt-kissed melody and stratified harmonies won't dash art lovers upon the rocks, but instead calls them to an appreciation of the wildness within and without us.

At Sea, on display through April 27, gathers a remarkable collection of ancient and modern art, detail-rich representation and the atmospheric abstract, testifying to the forces that send people to sea — and what they encounter there.

The sea, wild and serene

The untamed majesty of sea — and the romance between wind and water, how they flirt themselves into fury — comes through in Stephen Gammell's series, which shares a name with the exhibit.

In pieces like "At Sea No. 1" and "No. 5," viewers might make out rushing falls, harried boats, the intimate and electric touch of sky and sea, the very elements in which seafarers may be found and lost. Or they may surrender to a baptism of black and white, blue and gold. Either way, the sense of being at the cusp of something practically omnipotent is present.

Standout local artists Scott McMahon and Amy Meyer present other perspectives on this elemental beauty. McMahon's own "At Sea," an archival pigment print created from a pinhole negative, obscures the sight of a lone sailor, creating shades of gray and lending the image an almost puckered texture.

Meyer's paired "Red Sky at Night" and "Red Sky in the Morning" capture the seemingly impossible horizon in all its color and mystery.

Casting characters

Those people formed by and for the sea appear here, perhaps most beautifully rendered by Sofia Bonati and Zoe Hawk. Bonati, an Argentina native, captures her "Cordelia" amid the swirling geometry and shaded green of sky and sea. "Cordelia" seems to fuse with the ocean before our eyes, pulling up a ripple as if it were a fashion accessory.

Hawk, one of Columbia's own, brings her peerless unity of innocence and interrogation to "Mermaids Waiting," as three young women seem to rest against artifice, wearied and waiting to play their part in some sort of performance.

More: How Columbia's Zoe Hawk reaches back into the world of girlhood, one painting at a time

Arriving from a completely different time and place, a set of antique Chinese scrimshaw Shunga plates displays an innate proximity to the sea and the things of the sea.

Drops — and details — in the ocean

To sail is to test the fates and the winds, and to be constantly recalibrating by degrees. To love creatures of the sea is to progressively understand the details which compose their strange and wondrous natures.

Pieces in the exhibit ask viewers to come alongside and examine these finer points. E.W. Cooke, a British artist from the 19th century, continues to contribute with etchings of fishing boats, barges and more ornate vessels.

Cooke's excellence comes through clearest in his renderings of humble boats and of the rope houses and huts that make their voyages even possible.

Irish artist Edward Donovan, born ahead of Cooke, introduces a remarkable gallery of fish. Again, the stranger and more beast-like species entice, but there is an affectionate quality to Donovan's renderings of patterns and angles and the speckled bodies of fish who seem more ordinary, but harbor particular glories.

At Sea runs through April 27. Visit the exhibit page at https://sagerreevesgallery.com/exhibits/at-sea/.

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at [email protected] or by calling 573-815-1731. He's on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Get your sea legs at this Sager Reeves Gallery exhibit