Eight Weeks Later …

Adam Malec invested eight weeks into crafting a patterned, reflective wall bursting with eclectic zigs and zags. He constructed it by hand — only to tear it down.

That was the plan all along.

Malec was part of a summer Artists-in-Residence program at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art. He and other artists involved had to move out of the building after a closing party and showcase Thursday night.

Now Malec plans to mass his wall –– tape criss-crossed over itself to morph into a cubist-style concoction of jagged lines –– into miniature three-dimensional statues.

Malec joined eight other artists –– David Brensilver, Bryan the Girl, Robin Green, Sue Knoll, Terrance Regan, Matthew Reiner, Katro Storm and Caroline Tisdale –– to showcase their summer works alongside prior pieces to community members at the Ely Center on Thursday, the final night of their intensive program.

Malec (who transformed an Uber vehicle into a gallery; read about that here) passionately explained his pieces to guests who wandered through his exhibit Thursday night.

“I love the idea of building structure out of these little segments,” said Malec.

Like the other artists, Malec had applied for the right to work in the space. For Malec, the primary attraction to the program had been the building itself.

He draws inspiration from various Dutch artists, specifically Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian. The idea originally germinated in his mind after he watched the documentary Subconscious Art of the Graffiti Removal of City Workers, who depicts efforts to spray paint over illicit graffiti, unwittingly creating art with rough angles and linear structures.

“I started noticing squares and the beauty of rectangles,” Malec said as he strode through his upstairs room, courting viewers and even potential buyers through his craft as well as his amiable nature

When Briah Luckey asked Malec for his business card, he handed her a sheet of printer paper folded hamburger-style with his name and phone number scrawled across it.

“I just love how architectural they are,” Luckey said of Malec’s pieces. She said she was considering buying some of his artwork.

Not all artists at Thursday night’s closing exhibition aimed for sales.

Robin Green claimed a room left of the building’s entrance, flanked by her handcrafted quilts hanging delicately from the space’s white walls. 

At first glance, her pieces look like ordinary quilts. But upon second and third and inevitable fourth viewings, the viewer catches the atypical imperfections of what Green describes as ​“improvisational quilting.”

Green scraps the rulers and templates, leaning into her appreciation for blending colors and playing with the ​“rhythm” of the patterns.

Her parents, a carpenter and a quilter, embedded a love of textiles in her. She aims to to create ​“community quilts,” accepting fabrics from various people with standing rules that she must somehow incorporate all of the pieces.

“I will use everything that I’m given and will try to pull something together in my eye that works,” said Green.

Before attending the summer program, she had already created one community quilt displayed. By Thursday, another blanket crafted from pieces passed onto her from her fellow artists at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art was in the works.

Across the hall from Green David Brensilver, an author, showcased a think board of scenes from the book he is penning.

Sipping black coffee, he drew guests through a tale of mounting idealism as it affects his central character’s relationships.

The book features a protagonist (or antagonist –– the author has yet to decide which one) who has authored the same play –– Music for the Doomed –– Brensilver himself wrote in real life. While the main character is not a version of the author, he stands as one of the modes to discuss veganism, which Brensilver practices.

“The purpose of the piece,” Brensilver said, ​“is to highlight the unimaginable suffering we put other species through.”