Arts Agenda - Memorial exhibition

Cartography of Dusk, a thoughtful show at Raymond Lawrence Gallery, pays homage to David Pettrow. A young Atlanta artist who took his life early this year, Pettrow was a figurative painter born in Brookville, Pa. After he earned his BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 1996, he lived and painted with fellow artists in the Ballroom Studios downtown.
In this exhibition, the three rooms offer the occasion to notice the quiet poetic darkness that edged his art. Works include “Equus,” a painting from Monologues, his first solo show at the gallery, as well as his last drawing and a painting that he had started at the time of his death. His father contributed a sensitive black-and-white photograph of David brushing paint onto canvas.
Pettrow’s meditative art was about being alone. The solitary figures that he always placed in horizonless empty space seem to contemplate spiritual and psychological questions that must have haunted the artist himself. A woman on a chair in “Cage III” communicates her submission to an emotional trap. “Italian figure” evokes a tragic ennui.
Many of the nude forms in Pettrow’s paintings have a modeled clay aesthetic, so it’s not surprising that the artist had begun to make sculptures. Two marble pieces are shown here. Gallery owner Shelly Dollar plans a small ongoing exhibition of the artist’s work. Like the rest of us, she has been profoundly touched by the creative force expressed in the young life and work of the late David Pettrow.
Cartography of Dusk continues through Nov. 4 at Raymond Lawrence Gallery, 75 Bennett St., Suite M-1. 404-352-5058. info@raymondlawrencegallery.com.