Kathryn Dettwiller’s small Tinney Contemporary show dives deep

Off the Page,” works by local artist Kathryn Dettwiller, is a small show, but in the nine pieces, one is treated to an intriguing contemplation of materials and texture, as well as human relationships.

The show remains on view at Tinney Contemporary through March 15, with a closing reception March 1 during the First Saturday Art Crawl.

“Off the Page” is being shown in the gallery’s rear space and begins with a row of small sculptures on shelves. One of these is “Dirge,” a bundle of pine needles bound in strips of canvas atop a wooden block. Beeswax is an integral element in the construction, as it is in the other pieces in “Off the Page.”

Twigs, canvas and cardboard strips are Dettwiller’s materials, cleverly transformed in pieces such as “Pair,” two spheres made of corrugated cardboard strips. The cardboard’s texture and moisture-darkened color are sealed — preserved, almost — in the wax.

Dettwiller’s use of pine needles, thorns and other materials makes this a seasonally apt show; there’s something about those elements and her mostly brown-and-cream palette that suggests the barren, cool landscape of winter.

For “Secrets” Dettwiller put a canvas liner full of cardboard strips into a loosely defined basket made of thin wire and jute.

Dettwiller seems to address wrestling with one’s past in pieces such as “Backwater,” a large wall-mounted assemblage. In this a wrapped parcel tied with string is on one side of the piece; a mirror bolted to the other half reveals small black-and-white portraits suggesting a page torn from an old yearbook. Another page coated in a thick, mostly opaque medium is on top of the panel.

Along with her unusual juxtapositions of warm natural elements and cool metal — not to mention the contrast of spiky thorns and smooth wax in pieces such as “Gift” — Dettwiller’s titles also give one pause. “Tragedy, Ecstasy, Doom and Soforth,” for example, is the name of a piece consisting of a hinged box that opens like a book to reveal a mass of prickly vegetation.

In some ways, “Off the Page” also anticipates Cheekwood’s upcoming exhibition of Japanese bamboo art (“Modern Twist,” opening March 22) and the “stickwork” pieces Patrick Dougherty will construct during his time as this year’s Martin Shallenberger artist-in-residence.

If you go

What: “Off the Page,” works by

Kathryn Dettwiller

Where: Tinney

Contemporary,

237 Fifth Ave. N.

When: through March 15

Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday

Admission: Free

Contact: 615-255-7816 or www.tinneycontemporary.com