Artists Cover The Changes At Kehler Liddell

The first impression of Brian Flinn’s work may be of humor. Some of his figures have the out-of-proportion features of cartoons, the odd poses, the uneven faces. But there’s detail within the comedy, layers of images on the skins of his subjects. There’s an eye that’s startlingly human. The other eye, upon closer inspection, isn’t an eye at all. The layering makes the skin seem translucent. Or maybe the body is in flux. Take another step back, and the image seems more like a flickering film. Maybe if you turned away and looked back again, it would be a different image entirely.

That effect is part of the point for artist Brian Flinn, whose work, under the title ​“Permutations,” is paired with that of artist Mark K. St. Mary, under the title ​“Static,” for Kehler Liddell’s latest exhibit, running now through Oct. 13.

“The works in this exhibition fundamentally change the original context and order of the found images or objects that begin each piece. They explore combinations and transformations of found pieces of information and added media that are transposed into new sets of elements,” states Flinn. ​“They serve as reminders of the ease with which we can be overwhelmed or paralyzed by minutae, but that we have the choice to embrace alternatives.”

That sense of exploration is on full display in some of Flinn’s images, which are even titled as permutations of the same idea. In following this approach to making art, Flinn manages to avoid the paralysis that can result from what he called ​“the biggest subjective question of them all” — how artists know when they’re done with a piece.

Flinn looks for ​“an innate feeling of balance, where, for me, I have resolved all the relationships within the piece. It’s a building process for me, where, as I’m putting all this stuff together, it’s about relating one thing to another in the composition. In the end, when you’re looking at it, if you feel that relationship’s balanced, that’s when I put it aside.”

But there are many ways to solve that compositional problem, ​“especially when working digitally,” Flinn said. ​“You can come to a couple different solutions, but strangely enough, there’s always one solution that works the best. But there can be leftovers along the way that spawn another journey or search.”

“I’ve realized there’s never any perfect” version, he added. ​“It’s all just steps, and you keep going. The great thing is as long as there’s that impetus to keep creating, it doesn’t matter if it’s perfect.”

Even though Mark K. St. Mary’s side of the exhibit is titled ​“Static,” the works in it embrace that same sense of change. You can see it in the way he revels in the variations on a theme, even if that theme is streaks of wear and tear on some manmade object, which St. Mary has rendered just abstract enough to make us look again.

“Fixed: This concept only exists through the construct of time,” St. Mary writes. ​“Everything eventually moves. Objects, no matter how massive or solid, will deteriorate into something other than what they were through the forces of nature, unless man takes on the Sisyphean task of trying to preserve them. I have put together a collection of photos that capture the beauty of deterioration, where man has created something intended to remain, yet not maintained it.

Flinn’s and St. Mary’s attitudes toward making art help complicate a common perception of artists as trying to make something for the ages. In Flinn’s and St. Mary’s cases, they’re as interested in making art that documents movement and change. It’s worth it for us to stop and linger. But they’ve already moved on to making the next thing.

Brian Flinn’s ​“Permutations” and Mark K. St. Mary’s ​“Static” run at Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Ave., through Oct. 13. Visit the gallery’s website for hours and more information.