The art in this show, which occupies the largest gallery in the Academy's Hamilton Building, draws its energy from the constant current of renewal and decay of a dynamic urban culture.
The artists remind us how this happens through various media. Arden Bendler Browning is a painter, Ben Peterson makes large-scale colored drawings, Amy Walsh creates installations, and brothers Steven and Billy Dufala are represented by works in two and three dimensions.
The Dufalas, who won the West Collection's grand prize in 2009, might be the best known of the bunch locally, mainly because their entry in the West competition attracted considerable attention: It was an ice cream truck that they modified to resemble an armored personnel carrier by mounting a small cannon on the front.
They created something similar in spirit for "Urbanism" by lining a standard 20-cubic-yard Dumpster with tufted padding, thus converting it into an open coffin. Whatever metaphoric spin you choose to apply is as good as any other, as long as it refers to urban decay.
The same holds for a sprawling wall sculpture, the word Entropy spelled out in eight parallel lines of bent electrical conduit. A lot of work went into this piece, and one must admire both the energy and the skill that brought it off (metal conduit doesn't bend easily). But ultimately Entropy, like the Dumpster coffin and the armored ice-cream truck, is a one-off. Message delivered, no further thought required.
