Local Artists Caprice Pierucci and Charles Heppner Open Joint Exhibition at the Davis Gallery

Art Pick: …Of Warp and Weft

Ever wonder why we use so many metaphors? The “roller coaster of emotion” that you went through at the movies was in most ways nothing like an actual amusement park ride: no grinding metal, no G-forces, and likely less screaming. So what is it that makes this sort of figure of speech so effective? The same can be asked about art, with valuable comparisons to be found in the unlikeliest of places. Beginning June 9, with a run into July, the Davis Gallery is presenting “…of Warp and Weft” a side-by-side study of two Austin artists whose methods could hardly be more different but whose creations share visual and conceptual themes in wonderfully unexpected ways.

Caprice Pierucci’s wooden sculptures defy the dry stiffness of their medium through their modeling into smooth, interlocking strands — they suggest motion but are frozen in time. Charles Heppner takes macro photos of cheesecloth on black backgrounds, revealing the individual fibers and the way they condense, expand, and overlap when crumpled and torn. Separately, each individual’s art attracts its own comparisons. Pierucci’s sculptures sometimes appear as networks of blood vessels, the porous insides of bones, or the convoluted bodies of organs and organelles. Heppner’s photos often look as though they map out terrain — mountains or deep faults, as if from above — or sometimes clouds and ocean currents. But together, it’s easy to see how these images of the world both inside us and around us are made from the same elements, with both artists making use of organic lines in complex systems. One possible takeaway: Maybe there’s more value than we realize in the connections we make between one another and the world around us.