By Michael Paglia
Westword

April 3rd, 2008

But for now, let's leave behind the sordid events of the suburbs and come back to the more wholesome environment of the city, where there are also changes afoot at the venerable Sandy Carson Gallery. A couple of weeks ago, when Sandy Carson herself called to tell me that she had sold her namesake gallery, lock, stock and building, I was shocked, to say the least. But she explained that after 33 years in the art business, it was time to retire.

Carson's gallery wasn't for sale, but that didn't stop Jan and Bill van Straaten, owners of the van Straaten Gallery and Riverhouse Editions, a fine-art printmaker in Steamboat Springs, from walking in and offering to buy it. Within days, a price was agreed on and the sale moved forward. Word is, the van Straatens, who started their business in Chicago before moving to Steamboat twenty years ago, wanted to live in a city again. Carson will stay on at least until June; afterward, she'll most likely serve as a consultant. Gallery director William Biety also plans to stay. The exhibition schedule already in place will be carried out, but there's no word yet on any new direction the gallery may go in. Presumably, printmaking will be increasingly showcased.

"It happened so fast, I feel like I'm on another planet," Carson says with a laugh, adding that the sale is good for everyone: She gets to relax after a long career; the van Straatens get to move to town; and one of the city's great art venues will remain up and running for the foreseeable future.

All through March, the gallery had two photo shows on display as part of the Month of Photography. That event is over, but the exhibits will stay up through Saturday.

In the front is Wonders & Marvels, an impressive and intriguing solo showcasing the experimental techniques of Carol Golemboski. An associate professor of photography at the University of Colorado Denver, Golemboski has exhibited nationally. For this recent body of work, she puts a twist on the idea of "trick" photography by creating images about the kind of magic done by magicians on stage. There's the rabbit coming out of a hat, the woman who's sawed in half, and the card trick, as in "Queen of Hearts."

Golemboski has apparently thought a lot about the relationship between mechanical magic tricks and mechanical reproduction, and her odd photo hybrids are the products of that musing. To achieve her desired results, she heavily retouches her negatives, drawing on them, scratching them and tinting them up with vegetable-based natural dyes. The results, done in gelatin silver prints, look like photos of paintings.

In addition to the magic-themed photos, Golemboski has a show within a show featuring a group of anthotypes that were done using photosensitive fruit juices. This is an archaic technique from the early nineteenth century but was little used even then. The images are dusty two-tones contrasting an ecru ground with the soft purples of the imagery.

Gallery director Biety paired Wonders & Marvels with Exposed, a large group show with eleven artists. His intention was to include as broad a range of expressions as possible, and he did, from Gwen Laine's surrealistic still life shots and Andrea Modica's famous takes on the natural environment to Peter de Lory's shots of lighted neon signs and Rusty Scruby's three-dimensional weavings made of photos.