Barbara Garber’s work draws its energy from the wedding of disparate and often surprising elements. Alliances are forged between industrial materials and lyric line; stillness and motion; spontaneity of gesture and control; space and flat plane; machine-made and handmade. The gestation of these pieces is like a wrestling match that turns into a dance. Elements remain separate but held in a tenuous equilibrium, with inked grid on mylar acting as a base for the shapes and lines that soar and layer space.

The pieces that comprise the current exhibition interact with one another in this particular room on these very walls. The initial impulse to create circular forms Garber said, came from the space itself which is dominated by two round columns imbedded in one of the walls.. Movement and ephemerality are the operating principles.

At the core of Taking Shape is movement. A large piece called Turbulence seems to move out in all directions at once. The swirls of “Turning a Corner” spin off onto another wall . The energy of the line, which is both casual and spontaneous, spirals, curves and swoops making the work feel slightly out of control. Yet in the face of all this activity, one of the strengths of Garber’s work is the quality of containment. The movement pulls against a taut inner axis, adding tension and another level of interest