May 19, 2022
Download as PDF
View on Artnews
Alan Saret has been working with metal wire for decades now. His fluency with this material is shown in full force in “Allies,” an exhibition of works that span his career. Zinc Cloud (1967) a large, flowing sheet that resembles a metal curtain standing on its own, is the oldest work here; the most recent, Willow Creek (2022), is its direct heir, a sheaf of steel netting that has been arranged in casual pillars, seemingly lacking much intervention. But the real prizes of the show are works like Flame Aura (1986/2005), delicate yet substantial clouds of wire that together resemble a fire or a pinecone, and First Colors Form (1995–2015), in which simpler wire forms become finer and more entangled until they almost look like the end of long, unkempt mass of hair.