Kehler Liddell Takes Its Time

Liz Antle‑O’Donnell’s clock is an older work made new. Those who’ve followed her work recognize the busy circular pattern of buildings and color. Turning it into a clock doesn’t just lend a piece a functional air. The moving hands animate the image behind them. In a sense it can be understood as a clock for our times. The pattern resonates with the way time feels a little different during the pandemic, a little more flexible, as days can sometimes seem slower while weeks slip away. The buildings can be read as waiting, minute by minute, for the busier street life we know before March.

Antle‑O’Donnell’s work is part of ​“Time and Space,” on the walls of Kehler Liddell Gallery on Whalley Avenue in Westville through Dec. 20. In addition to Antle‑O’Donnell, the show features older and newer work by Robert Bienstock, Frank Bruckmann, Penrhyn Cook, Amanda Duchen, Tom Edwards, Chris Ferguson, Brian Flinn, Julie Fraenkel, Jeffrey Gangwisch, Matthew Garrett, Kate Henderson, Sven Martson, Roy Money, Hank Paper, Alan Shulik, Mark St. Mary, Amanda Walker, Gar Waterman, R.F. Wilton, and Marjorie Gillette Wolfe.

“Time and Space” will be on the walls for a few different events that Kehler Liddell has planned for the rest of the year. On Dec. 5 and Dec. 6, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the gallery will host ​“Do You Have a Minute?” which is being billed as ​“a kind of art experiment. Navigating the gallery following a path that will be mapped on the floor, visitors will move from space to space each time a chime plays. Following the experience, visitors will be invited to discuss, at a distance, how the art-viewing experience did, or did not, change, at the conclusion of the guided tour.” On Dec. 17 and 18, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., the gallery will have evening hours that also coincide with its ongoing date nights — where, for $30 per couple, guests can have an evening at the gallery and a visit to Amaru Peruvian Bistro a short walk away. (visit the gallery’s website for more information about that). People can also visit the gallery during its regular Covid-19 hours (see the website for details).

The show offers a broad range of what the gallery’s artists members are up to. In addition to Kate Henderson’s series of vivid encaustics, there is Robert Bienstock’s Road Trip, the title alone given added resonance in a time when travel is ill-advised if not impossible. A few other artists pick up on that theme. Frank Bruckmann’s small oil paintings of places in Europe are titled only by their latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates.

A number of the photographs are documents of previous journeys that serve also of reminders of the future of greater mobility that awaits us. Sven Martson’s photographs take the viewer on a short spin around the world, including to a carnival in Costa Rica, where Martson is able to turn the fact that he was not invisible as a a photographer into a quietly riveting moment.

Mark St. Mary, meanwhile, finds detail and — in his titles — humor in the quotidian details of day-to-day life. His cheeky eye for center-line symmetry (hence the nod to the famous movie director) almost brings the garbage cans on the curb to life. Have cans ever been so orderly? They almost appear to be lining up for a portrait.

And Julie Fraenkel’s small, soulful pieces suggest evidence of a more inward journey that many have taken during the pandemic. The shutdowns have taught us a lot about the things we were attached to before Covid-19 arrived. Some things we may have learned to let go of. Others, we hold tighter than ever.

“Time and Space” runs at Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Ave., through Dec. 20. For hours and more information on KLG’s activities, visit the gallery’s website.