Michael Flechtner

Neon carries an inherent sense of glowy magic. But in the hands of master neon artists, the magic transcends the medium and takes shape.

Now at the Fine Arts Building through the month of May, Linda Sue Price and Michael Flechtner each offer distinct and different visions of neon as a medium and as art in their latest iteration of Art + Science + Craft.

The two artists have exhibited paired solo shows in the same space multiple times: the alcoves and shadows of the building offer a well positioned and ornate space for honoring and displaying neon in all its lustrous glory.

This time around, the artists present some entirely new elements in their works.  Price, whose work is abstract, geometric, and sinuous all at once, has added natural wood to one piece, “Onyit,”  which includes compelling neon beading added to that wood amid a vibrant orange and red palette. She describes the work as one that “celebrates determined and consistent focus.”

Her “Mandis” is something entirely different, described as a work that”helps to eliminate distractions.” However, this playful piece is plenty distracting. Amid its tangled yellow neon coils, a small black computer tablet repeats a simlar coiled and moving pattern with animated beading on its screen.

Other works here by Price include alchemic looking green, blue, and yellow plant-like neon wall sculptures. A 3-D sculpture, “Montessence,” revealed as supporting connectivity and healing” in its desciption, is both plant and sensuous, growing and burgeoning life-form, reaching toward a sun possibly as bright as its own red, yellow and orange.

Flechtner’s often playful, smart, and amusing works are the literal yin to Price’s abstract yang. Where Price is exploring shape and pattern, Flechtner’s focus is on language, both literal and figurative, as he often uses words within his work. In this exhibition, he employs mechanicals in more than one piece. Gold, black, and white Japanese cats take a mechanized spin around a glowing red neon platform in one piece; in another, three of these cats wave, representing, with dark glasses, cotton stuffed in ears, and a mouth gag, respectively, the see no evil/hear no evil/speak no evil monkeys. Glowing with bright green, the scripted word “hell” pops out from a chroma-blue neon base; on top of this sculptural piece are yen, a collar sign, and black and red darts.  In another work, a pure neon piece, a cat with an open can of fish,waves within a neon circle. Combining mediums again, a golden neon bolt emanates between the eyes of two pink-faced Japanese cats.

In short, both artists create fun and fabulous neon worlds, abstract and mystical in Price’s work; profoundly clever in Flechtner’s. And both are adding new touches and mediums, new forms within their shining neon mastery of their art.

Go see these artists light up a (large) room.  And if you need a little brightness in your life, these gems are the kind to collect.

The Fine Arts building is open daily except weekends, noon to 5 p.m.

• Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis