James Auer
The Milwaukee Journal
Sunday, April 7, 1985

Englander show fascinates

Control and refinement are two of the words that can easily to mind when one considers the watercolor paintings and collage – drawings of Lisa Englander.

And delicacy. And resourcefulness. And a sensitivity to the uses of paper in all of its manifestations.

The former New Yorker, now living in Racine, truly has a way with materials, as her current solo show demonstrates. The exhibit runs through April 18 at Bradley Galleries, 2565 North Downer Ave.

Whether she is working solely in transparent watercolors or mixing painting, drawing and collage in her single, tiny rectangle, she puts her own, indelible stamp on the result.

Neither an overt feminist nor a creative neuter, Englander would seem to be slightly to the right of the mainstream of today’s dominant thought about women’s art and artists.

Her basic imagery – fans, flowers, and quilt like mixtures of patterns – is closely associated with woman’s role in Western society as it has developed over the last few centuries.

More universal

At the same time, she somehow manages to surmount the narrower definitions of feminist art -  its obsession with gender, sexual oppression and the physical apparatus of reproduction – and emerge with a symbolic content that has a broader, more universal appeal than the more abrasive product of, say, Judy Chicago.

It is, in short, pattern painting, with strongly humanistic aspects just as it is, at the same time, humanistic painting with strongly patterned aspects.

It is also, alas, so compulsive in it’s reiteration of certain rigid predetermined design elements that it succeeds in appearing repetitious when, in actuality, it isn’t.

New for Englander this time around are silhouette vase forms into which she has packed a colorful patchwork of randomized elements that appear to be collaged together, but, on closer inspection, aren’t.

In actuality, as it turns out, all are painstakingly rendered on paper in that most unforgiving of all fluid media, watercolor.

More familiar to followers of the regional art scene are the tiny, mixed-media compositions that are in many ways, the best thing Englander does.

Generously matted, for separation and impact, they are immaculately assembled arrangements of exotic tissues and twines, stuck together and painted over, then given a touch of pencil.

The result is richly orchestrated and enjoyable – the moreso, because it is not, like so much of the art once sees today, overblown in scale or handling.

Less can be said of the larger watercolors, which impress with their precise, brushwork and design integrity, but seem as a group to be intellectually inbred, even incestuous.

What we have here, in a number of the big, symphonically developed wall pieces, are no fewer than nine separate watercolor paintings within a single frame, enunciating and restating themes from area to area.

Almost inevitably, Englander finds herself working with negative fan forms, into which she has piled blossoms that might be living, might be fabricated, might be simply imaginary.

The execution, in virtually every instance, is flawless, reminiscent in its precision of linoleum block printing. And indeed, one is reminded that Englander got her start as a printmaking major at the UWM School of Fine Arts.

Unfortunately, the show as a whole is so rich in similarly gridded paintings, made up of similarly integrated fans and related cascades of blossoms, that no single work is likely to receive the concentrated study it deserves.

In the end, however, Englander has put together a consistently interesting body of work – one that demonstrates once again her amazing gifts as a manipulator of a highly personalized, and instantly recognizable, design vocabulary.

Tiny, found objects

It points up, too, just how well adapted her visual shorthand is to miniaturized use, and how accomplished she is as a blender of tiny, seemingly worthless found objects.

In a way, this curious but consistently interesting exercise in veiled self-revelation – so painstakingly and affectionately wrought – as much of the appeal of a wildflower garden.

Just as with wildflowers, you must look closely, pause periodically and most importantly of all – breathe deeply to inhale a perfume that may, at first, seem rather to subtle to sense.

The artist will be present from 2 to 5 p.m. today to discuss her aims and techniques with the appreciative, the curious and just plain puzzled.