Steven Sachs' "Rock Paper Scissors" at Barbara Archer Gallery

by Jerry Cullum
February 19, 2010
for ArtsCriticATL.com

see it online here

Stephen Sachs’ 30-year retrospective at Barbara Archer Gallery marks the emergence of a wide-ranging artistic talent.

Until now, many people thought the well-known owner of Artifacts just put frames on other people’s art. Sachs, in fact, has made considerable use of the tools of his trade in creating a number of his sculptures. Picture frames are reused in ways by turns funky, elegant, or both.

Sachs, whose formal training in art is limited to a few drawing and ceramics courses, plus more recent study in welding, shows again just how much self-taught artists can teach themselves. Some of his sculptures do show Southern folk-art influences, such as figures with perforated-metal heads or found-wood dogs with pebbles for teeth. Others are the stylistic opposite, tightly fitted pieces that reveal an intimate knowledge of the lessons of modernist design—such as a series of boxes that range in size and materials from a wooden “Tall Box” to a small, square “Silver Box with Pinballs.”

In fact, Sachs has explored any number of opposites.  One 1994 painting is so built up with sculptural layers of paint that it required eons to dry. In contrast are sparely painted, meticulously experimental 1992 symbolic cityscapes best viewed with the 3-D glasses the gallery provides. The spectrum encompasses whimsical near-cartoons and a sober 2009 drawing of the last words of martyred visionary Giordano Bruno.

Sachs’ oeuvre suggests a cheerful soul given to innovative reflectiveness.  Anyone who can recycle film in a beautifully interwoven pattern of the 2010 sculpture “Will It Always Be This Way?” is inventively meditative. Anyone who would combine wood and steel tools in the 2009 “Would Steal Tools” or stone and a pair of scissors in “Rock, Paper, Scissors” is as fond of puns as of the modernist sculptures whose example lies behind these assemblages.

 “Urban Archaeology,” a wall piece that greets viewers at the gallery entrance, may be a key to Sachs’ diverse interests. Consisting entirely of roadway-flattened cans and metal objects that Sachs found particularly fascinating, it isn’t for sale at any price.

Steven Sachs' Rock Paper Scissors

by Susannah Darrow
February 22, 2010
for Burnaway.org

see it online here

Rock Paper Scissors, currently on view at Barbara Archer Gallery, is an all-inclusive retrospective of the styles and techniques explored throughout the career of veteran Atlanta artist and self-proclaimed urban archaeologist Steven Sachs. The exhibition spans everything from figurative found-object sculptures to dense optical paintings that come equipped with 3-D glasses. Thanks to the help of friend and fellow artist Benjamin Jones in installing the exhibition, this jam-packed show of over 40 works is full of well-punctuated surprises and moments of quiet reflection.

Sachs' exhibition is not only a celebration of his self-taugh technique and aesthetic, but also serves as a showcase for his penchant for collecting. The exhibit begins with Jones' installation composed of aluminum cans (one of Sachs' favorite materials) that serves as teh introduction to Sachs' 30-plus-year career of scavenging and creating. Sachs' gathering and hoarding is most effectively put to use in his Cornell-esque curiosity cabinets. Whether it comes in the form of falling 3-D penguins or animal figures constructed from grill grates, Sachs' retrospective reflects a unique playfulness and experimentalism that's at once Southern and urban in its perspective.

Rock Paper Scissors is on view at Barbara Archer Gallery through Saturday, March 13, 2010.