Artists exhume ghosts of the past for new group show at Blockfort

Laura Allison, owner of Rivet Gallery, said she doesn’t necessarily believe in spirits, but she still loves ghosts. She also believes that everyone carries something that haunts them – a past relationship, the memories of a childhood pet, a deceased loved one.

It’s these lingering echoes Allison invited artists to consider while curating “Chasing Ghosts and Shadows,” a new, multidisciplinary group show opening at Blockfort tonight (Friday, Oct. 6). The exhibit collects contributions from more than two-dozen artists working in mediums ranging from oil paints to ceramics, each of whom puts their own, unique stamp on the theme. A paper cut by GirlSpit, for example, pulls inspiration from the mixtape era, depicting an unwound cassette tape labeled “Love Bites Vol. 2” – an image that suggests a romance come brutally undone. In contrast, “Closing In,” an ink drawing by Lee Di Cintio, shows a man curled up in bed and beset upon by vine-like shadows, appearing as if he’s on the verge of being consumed by grief, regret, or some combination of the two. 

Then there’s “The Gathering of Bones and Spirits,” an eye-catching oil painting by Columbus artist Daniel Ferlan in which a skeletal harvester reaps the soul from a departed corpse. The painting – along with a pencil drawing also by Ferlan that depicts a ghost pursuing a gaggle of terrified children – both emerged during an early pandemic outpouring by the artist during which he completed more than 60 paintings, a majority of which addressed the concept of mortality.

“As I’m getting older, a lot of my work has been sort of consumed by death,” said Ferlan, whose previous show at Sharon Weiss Gallery sprung from the passing of his mother, with whom he was close. “I’m also a parent of a 9-year-old now, and you watch them, and they’re young and strong. And then you’re not feeling so strong in being able to keep up with them. I’m reaching that half-century mark myself. … But I don’t want to dwell on the theme too long, because it can get a little macabre. I want to be a little more optimistic about life in my newer stuff. But we’ll see how it goes.”

“Chasing Ghosts and Shadows” is the first show Allison has curated at Blockfort since moving back to Columbus from Cleveland and opening a smaller, more curated version of Rivet Gallery within the downtown art space. (Rivet existed in the Short North for a decade beginning in 2007, with Allison shuttering the gallery when issues related to ongoing neighborhood improvement projects made business untenable.)

While Allison said parts of her were ready to walk away from the business when she initially closed Rivet in 2017, there were aspects of the loss that (in the spirit of the season and the new exhibition) continued to haunt her.

“Two or three months after it closed, I really hit a depression about it,” said Allison, who added that this sense of grief lingered for the better part of a year. “Realizing everything I had accomplished there, it was hard to let go, but I had to learn to kind of close the door on the place.”

Now, almost five years after she finally let go, Allison is working to reestablish Rivet, which opened within Blockfort in May. With the collectible landscape altered by the pandemic and the rise of big-box retailers, Allison said she’s learning to take a different approach this time around, focusing on smaller companies producing original figures while learning the ins and outs that come from operating in a new location. “Foot traffic and car traffic work on a different sequence over here than it did over on High Street, so that’s taken a little getting used to,” she said.

Allison said she’s also trying to shake the rust accumulated in the six years she was away from the business, which has left her feeling anxious and timid in these early months of operation. “I’m hoping that subsides some with time,” she said.

This idea of turning the corner on a challenging stretch is something with which artist Daniel Feran is familiar, having worked through a more than 60-painting purge following the death of his mother and the ensuing pandemic, which he said has left him with enough artwork to sustain at least two or three more solo shows. But perhaps more importantly, it’s allowed him to move forward with a clean slate from which to pursue those ideas that have started to arise in the absence of grief. 

“The newer ideas I have are more based on parenthood. It’s fatherhood, watching your kid, and watching the world through your kid’s eyes. And then also knowing what the world really is and wanting to protect them,” he said. “But, yeah, the other stuff I’ve purged. And I’m really excited and really itching to move on to what’s next.”