Looking back at the I Want to Believe Show

Dominique Ovalle and Frank B. Tabarez's joint show "I Want To Believe" at Nihon Gallery showcased two artists whose works express intensely visceral yet intelligent--and at times, specific--perspectives of the boundless environment inherent within the human condition. The show opened on May 6 and closed Saturday, May 22.

Dominique Ovalle's oeuvre is typified by exploded colour pallets and mixed media choices, often converging into works that become three-dimensional, with found objects and fabric scraps destroying the typically defined boundaries of the two-dimensional canvas.

For a majority of her work in "I Want To Believe," Ms. Ovalle's strength was found in constraint of this methodology, as specific works that were framed and behind glass forced rigid borders for her work to flourish within. Those constrained works saw Ms. Ovalle reflecting on life through different sets of eyes: her own, as in "Happiness" and "XXX" (2010); the eyes of other cultures, beautifully captured in "Life" (2010), and the eyes of nature, as in "Sing, oh Barren One" (2010).

When Ms. Ovalle's work is outside of framed confines, she explores environments that exists in our natural world outside of human interference, and does not allow the constructs of canvas dimensions to interfere with her portrayal.

Frank B. Tabarez's work, according to his artist's statement, is a reflection on the people and environment of his hometown of Fresno, and a majority of his work is mired in intense contrasts. Stark color pallets and a reserved use of mixed media materials create bleak, encompassing canvas spaces that evoke engrossing psychological landscapes.

When Mr. Tabarez turns to the human form, his portraits are of barren figures, where details and expressions become obscured or even seemingly defaced. The figures float about in the space of the canvases, demanding the viewer's attention while offering few distinct answers as to their being. When Mr. Tabarez states that his work is about the "human condition and human psyche," the art itself crafts those questions and offers the mysteries to the viewer, evoking a nearly spiritual conversation about the self within the canvas.

That intensity of questioning is inherent in the works of both artists; as the desire to believe is never one to be taken lightly, here both Ms. Ovalle and Mr. Tabarez have produced works extremely dense, never taking on the issues of belief lightly, or in a flippant nature. The density of their individual crafts displays a dedication to this question of belief, and their works together showcase two sides to this universal, timeless query.

Writing by Daniel Schultz and images by Terrance Reimer