At first glance, Denis Sargent’s large, cryptic pieces look a bit like those Magic Eye puzzles that were so popular 15 years ago. The works, made with pigmented wax on canvas, are dense and dark, with repeating patterns and textures that look almost woven, like cloth.
Looking closer, one can see tiny images within the pieces. “Motherboard,” shown here, contains what appear to be dozens of tiny soldiers, kicking, leaping and shooting at each other. Step further back and they look a little like birds, hidden among the maze-like lines found inside a computer.
“I’m interested in the persistent and obsessive recollection of past images,” Sargent wrote in an artist statement, on view at the James Watrous Gallery. Sargent, an associate professor of painting and drawing at UW-Milwaukee, has named his exhibit “Schemata.”
Schemata, he explains, are “mental structures that we create, unconsciously, in order to make sense of the world. … I am exploring the idea of schemata on a broader cultural level, representing combinations of historical and contemporary imagery that are increasingly global and complex.”
Sargent will share exhibit space in the gallery, located on the third floor of Overture Center, with paper artist Michael Velliquette through Feb. 7.
IF YOU GO
What: "Schemata" by Denis Sargent
Where: James Watrous Gallery, third floor of the Overture Center
When: Through Feb. 7
Info: wisconsinacademy.org/galleries
