PARALLEL THEMES
Clearly, Wisconsin-based ceramicist Wayne Branum has his way with clay. Sophisticated yet playful, grounded yet dynamic, his sturdy sculptures and functional pots exist comfortably in conflicting states of animation and stasis. Numerous pieces, which appear slightly inflated like weightlifters, suggest domestic structures with gabled roofs and chimneys and bear titles like "Harry House," "Red Striped Square Hut" and "Out House." Others have transmuted into a species that is part architecture, part figure. But buildings with feet? What makes Branum an alchemist, however, is his keen understanding of how abstract decoration -- and color -- enliven and define form, sometimes changing it before our eyes. A bull's-eye motif has joined his familiar vocabulary of cross-hatches, stripes, X's and triangles, making the work visually sprint off the pedestals. That Branum is a principal at SALA Architects is no surprise. Enlivening the gallery's walls are the architecturally driven paintings and drawings by former Twin Cities' artist Peter Presnail.
