Capps' sculptures have a subtle way of letting us see what's actually going on

By Robert L. Pincus
ART CRITIC

July 3, 2008

Kenneth Capps' sculptures don't look precisely like weaponry or surveillance devices, but they make you think about both.

CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune Kenneth Capps' sculptures, spanning his output from 1984 to 2007, occupy floor and walls throughout Cannon Art Gallery, and scale changes considerable from work to work.

The title of his exhibition, “Metered,” has its origins in “Meter XII” (1989), which stands a dramatic 12-½ feet tall and resembles something you might come upon in a parking lot, an industrial park or along a street. There is a high steel pole and the upper portion looks as if it contains a hidden camera, an audio system or a more sinister instrument. (If you squint a little, the sculpture also begins to resemble a faceless creature with long, protruding ears.)

The notion of a hidden function is a recurring conceit in Capps' sculptures. So is exacting craftsmanship and the wedding of geometry to symbolic and, on occasion, anthropomorphic form. These works can be broadly categorized as post-minimalist and Capps is one of the most unwavering and distinct practitioners of sculpture in an industrial mode.

He emerged in the 1970s, and his way of working is rooted in that era. But the work isn't stuck in time; he's continued to hone and refine his approach.

Capps, who has lived in Carlsbad for two decades and shown on both coasts, has offered up many memorable exhibitions in local venues. But there has been no solo show in his own backyard, until now.

The William D. Cannon Art Gallery isn't large, but it works well for the sort of installation that the artist and gallery director Karen McGuire have devised. There is also a handsome exhibition catalog with an informative essay by critic David Lewinson.

DETAILS “Kenneth Capps: Metered,” a solo exhibition When: Through Aug. 17 Where: William D. Cannon Art Gallery, 1775 Dove Lane, Carlsbad Tickets: Free Phone: (760) 602-2022 Online: carlsbadca.gov/arts/4cannonart

Though the artist favors simple shapes in steel, bringing them together in a compact space underscores the impressive variations that Capps creates. Seen en masse, the examples, spanning 1984 to 2007, reveal how continuous his concerns have been.

On the gallery floor are sculptures like “Emit” (1984) and “Convert B” (1984) that evoke missile heads or bombs. Capps' four “Equator” works (1996-2007), are inspired by celestial bodies; each resembles a fragment of a planet with a broad ring like Saturn's and there is one of them in each corner of the room. Some floor works, like “Axis 4” (1984) – a ribbed semi-spherical contour – are solid forms, while others such as “Purge A” (1988) are hollow and you can peer within. Capps mostly uses muted color but he isn't beyond using a brilliant color, as with the red in “Equator 337°” which works so well that you wish for a couple more flourishes in the exhibition.

There are an almost equal number of sculptures on the walls, and they are just as well conceived. “Purge C” is snoutlike, with a circular grill that resembles an eye. “Meter X5” (1988) is a pole with two sharp ends, each with a slit in its surface; and like other work, its form hints at multiple connotation – a sleek industrial spear or perhaps another instrument for measurement. What it might be calibrating is left to your imagination.

This notion of measuring or monitoring, as the wall text in the gallery makes clear, is a persistent interest for the artist. There is something sinister about this quality of his work, particularly at a time when the Bush administration has instituted widespread surveillance as an anti-terrorist tool.

Capps' sculptures are, then, abstract objects that have social and political connotations. They make no overt statement but reveal how a loaded metaphor or symbol can convey more than mere message.

 »Next Story»