I got the cold shoulder today at 303 Gallery. Karel Funk’s (through May 15th) realist works are a sort of portraiture, but his subjects aren’t acknowledging your presence. You know that the works are of people, but in these the figures are only defined by the folds of their jacket and a few stray wisps of hair. It just makes you want to get to know them better, you’re yearning for these people to just turn around.
Each work is a highly detailed and realistic portrait of the back of a figure wearing some sort of jacket or coat on a plain white background. The coat backs become large abstracted swaths of saturated color, with only tiny details of zippers and logos cluing you in to their function. Funk’s failure to title his works continues to impede any identification of his sitters.
Upon entering 303 Gallery’s large exhibition space, one feels as though they’ve arrived at Funk’s opening reception only to be ignored by your fellow party goers. The works are huge in scale and are widely spread out along the walls. This curation is imposing, and visitors are made to feel very small and lonely in this space. As you gaze up at these figures’ backsides, you’re wondering what does he/she look like? And where is he/she going? Making these works your own, enables you to come up with your own answers to these questions.
