The News Sun, Springifeld, Ohio
july 10, 1982
sculpture, etchings on exhibit
by jim hays
news sun staff writer
An exhibit of sculpture by a local man and etchings by a Seattle resident continues through July 23 in the Springfield Art Center, 107 Cliff Park Road.
Arnold Epp, who for the past 16 years has resided in Springfield, is showing 11 pieces in wood, stone and clay. Ken Akiva Segan, a New York native now residing in Washington, is showing 24 works culled from his recent production.
Epp's figures assert an immediate, silent dominion over the large gallery of the center, a dominance that derives, perhaps, from their energy, whether in action or repose.
His "Sleeping Beauty," and two somberly powerful studies of grief, "In Memoriam" and "Mourner," find Epp in a quietly contemplative mood.
In more kinetic expressions, Epp reveals an eye with sure focus for the nuances of movement that invest most of his pieces with the authority of the laws of physics.
This sort of attention is especially well-remarked in the posture of "Woman in Storm," whose head, shoulders and knees drive muscularly into the wind.
He achieves similar good effect with "Art Critic," a gallery-goer whose obvious puzzlement is manifested by both bent neck and knees as she peers at some inscrutable wall-mounted mystery.
Epp's "Art Critic" would have been well-placed staring into any one of the works that hang on the gallery walls around her.
Segan's etchings, many others of which are gathered under some prestigious roofs, might be the masterly and insightful reductions as they have been acclaimed by those who label themselves connoisseurs.
To me, however, they are generally so overwhelmingly busy that they generate little more than confusion.
Others have spoken of his abundant technical skills, and he does fine with line and tone, but I remain resolutely unpersuaded by much of his work, especiall those anonymous conceits that Segan presents as "portraits," including those of novelist Alan Paton, Freud and composer Bela Bartok.
Bartok is sometimes a bit inaccessible to me to me also, most often for the same reason I cannot warm to the Segan exhibit: I like to recognize the tune.