REVIEW BY FRAN WATSON

"Last Judgment," from the series "Open Graveyards" by Ran Mullins

Summer is a great time to explore little pockets of art which get lost in the waves of winter offerings. Good stuff, like the five artists showing now at Cody's Cafe on Calhoun Street in Clifton. Their work, hung on warm-hued brick walls, is waiting to be savored over food and libations.

These artists are not exactly new on the scene. They work their trade anywhere and anyhow they can, with true dedication. Ran Mullins sold his car and temporarily moved to New York with performance artist Gina Hartmann to check out galleries and make himself known to owners and agents.

It was nearly impossible to get past the reception areas of galleries to speak to the person in charge. Mullins knew that directors arrived before the front desk employees. Someone had to unlock the doors. And he would wait patiently sitting on the doorstep or curb until that important person came with the keys.

"I would often literally force them to meet me that way," he admits, and it paid off in a New York show of eight drawings from his "Open Graveyards" series at the Crane Gallery in Soho. Drawings and paintings in this group of work refer to the characteristics of elephants, which Mullins transfers to similar human philosophies and reactions to life situations. "Last Judgment," dominating one wall with its 10-or-more foot length, depicts a huge elephant on a textured background as part of the series, as does a beautiful little "Cloud Study," shimmering with a metallic ground.

Gina Hartmann displays two props used in her performance, " New Rituals," referring to the traumas of mental injuries. Both are forked branches lashed together by gauze bandages. Impractical for genuine implementation, their very dysfunction reflects the true nature of invisible wounds.

Mullins and Hartmann are joined in the exhibit by Dan Biggs, Jeff Casto and Andrea Hill. Refreshingly, there is no apparent connection among the works of the group. No recurring theme or great common thrust here, just evidence of professional quality and individual concept. Says Hartmann, "(The work) should be strong, well-crafted, and show a purpose." It does.

Dan Biggs' works on paper are the first to be seen upon entering the restaurant. Compactly constructed of interwoven mixed media, they are jam-packed with titillating visual information. Using a petroleum product which lifts and shapes images (much like Silly Putty), rendering magazine graphics and woodcuts, and some methods which defy definition, these small pieces are focused on the figure. One, "Cristy Turlington's Mouth," with bright red lips pushing out from a fragmented neutral background, stands alone on the east wall near the entrance, undiminished by Jeff Casto's nearby dimensional commentary.

Biggs' gentle observations are hung in proximity to the cartoonish 3-D Casto collage, "The Sergeant's Smorgasbord," noisy with textures and gleam, accompanied just around the corner by another in the same style, "The Lonely Gatekeeper." Both are action-filled surfaces, covered with the stuff of modern life elevated to an art form. Casto is a guard at the Taft Museum, making the art he works with simply another part of his everyday existence, innocuously scattered about as if the artist were wallpapering his backgrounds with inconsequential inhabitants of his occupation. "Oh, yes," they say, "and this is how I support my art."

Three rectangles of bark holding shelves and commentary are Andrea Hill's contribution. Tales of enforced circumcision on women of African cultures are reflected here. Just part of a larger work, "Circumcis-ing Shelves," they are testimony to Hill's sincerity and vision. While the subject matter seems far from any of the other work shown, the actual materials and composition seem perfectly in tune with their surroundings.

There are no statements. None are needed when quality is the bottom line. The two curators, Mullins and Hartmann, have high hopes of continuing to place "art in artful places," like cafes and restaurants where people have time to learn art, and by going national via a Web site at www.antenna.org. Joe Fischer, who completed his MFA in Athens, Ga., returns to town with a figurative exhibit at Cody's at the end of August.

E-mail Fran Watson

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