“Review, Joe Segal, Virginia Miller Gallery, Coral Gables”
ARTnews
by Carol Damian

There are multiple and complex associations that occur with the use of wood in art, since that particular material lends itself to burning, polishing, sanding, splitting, cutting and carving for a variety of surface effects.

Joe Segal exploits these possibilities. In this exhibition of recent works, wood is presented with formal simplicity in geometric shapes dominated by circles and broken ellipses. Burnt surfaces and notched edges play with the limitations of minimalism, while embedded aluminum bands create the stark contrast of opposing materials.

In Totem, the rough sides have jagged protrusions that seem to interrupt the work’s essential shape and further contradict the sleek metal bank nestled inside the wood. The disparity between the rough-hewn naturalism of the wood and the industrially manufactured metal creates both a physical and a conceptual tension. The result here—as in all the pieces in this show—is a visually provocative experience that deftly and forcefully challenges the interaction between objects and the materials from which they are made.