Martha Pace Swift Gallery

Martha Pace Swift Gallery. 2820 Roosevelt Road.

I’ll admit, I had a hard time finding this gallery. It is located at the former Naval Training Center in Point Loma, called the NTC Promenade (www.ntcpromenade.org), above the ARTS (a children’s activity center). Less of a gallery, and more of art displayed in a hallway surrounded by offices, the Martha Pace Swift Gallery was hosting an exhibition entitled The Party Whites and Other Works by Larry Caveney. His works are abstract sculptural forms, composed of fabric and paper. My impression in person was that the works were all white, and the white walls detracted from the interesting forms, but looking at the photo above, I see more of the subtler hues. Still, the white walls made the flesh-colored squares stand out, which are pasted in a sort of collage on many of the works. I even found a couple erotic bits, which was very unexpected. The discovery heighten my feelings of dirtiness that the thick works gave me, and made it feel like the morning after a Pabst beer party. 

The exhibition was described as “a continuing process of aesthetic inquiries,” meaning that the artist continually added layers of fabric and paper to the works (since 1998), a technique which provided the most interest to me. That considerable effort makes any of the pieces a bargain for the prices listed.