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• Indi go artist co-op hosts new music, art

A co-op for artists is what James A. Barham, owner of indi-go, envisioned for his gallery and a co-op it is. A decent crowd of artists and art enthusiasts turned out to hear classical guitarist Rachel Schiff and to contemplate artwork by Tyler Bergfield and Ryan McClure July 1. In addition, indi-go showcased acrylic and pastels done by Michael W. Downs and sheet metal sculpted by Ryan Slater.

"That's how this place started," says Barham. "Ryan Slater was a tenant of mine and had something like 60 pieces made from sheet metal and no place to show them. I knew that this place was opening up, rented it and that's the first showing he did."

Reserved, wearing an orange vest and a bowler hat, Ryan McClure surveys his pieces with a calm eye and explains that the shiny background is due to the spray paint he uses. "I was out of college and poor," McClure says. "Oil paints were expensive and spray paint was cheap." McClure's pieces are colorful, play with vanishing points and feature a signature tree drawn with grease pencils. "They can be viewed as a collection," he says, "or individually." Dissimilarly, another one of his simple but elegant pieces, made from four separate square canvases, painted in primary colors, are pieces of a succinct whole. "All my work," says McClure, "plays with space."

Hanging on a wall downstairs, Tyler Bergfield's "Au," as in the periodic symbol for Gold, is a three-dimensional ceramics piece that Bergfield "threw together" the night before the opening. It was inspired, Bergfield says, by the 70s children's picture book about making gold. Also completed the night before the reception, a three-dimensional ceramics, "Dear China," was composed of several materials including soap dishes and Christmas ornaments. "It was inspired by sculptures I saw while in Cortona, Italy," Bergfield says, "that was half composed of dog bodies that looked as if they were looking straight at you."

"Thursday" is a collage of graphite, ink, stickers and also features a poem Bergfield composed. The graphic stickers featured in "Thursday" are also used in a collection of art pieces Bergfield calls "Conversations With the Snow." "It's a mimic of English," Bergfield says. Black and pasted over distorted photographs of Italy, the words represent catch phrases Bergfield uses.

Also there was acrylic artist and writer, Michael W. Downs. Known for renderings of downtown Urbana and Champaign, Downs says he likes to contemplate the feel of the place before he transcribes them onto canvas. "I just don't want a photograph," Downs says, "I want to capture the true spirit of them." Done with hard and soft pastels, the brilliant colors and thick layering of "East Side of Walnut Street," "The Blind Pig," and recently completed, "Radio Maria," is reminiscent of Van Gogh. "You have to be careful," Downs say, "how much you put on because sometimes the paper will become saturated with pastel. You have to work around the edges."