“Objects are commonplace and overlooked, but they are beautiful. I want people to see the beauty in objects. I want people to look at objects in a way they never have before. I want them to walk away with an appreciation for life.” This is Lawrence Webber’s dream for his exhibition titled “Pun Intended”.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines realism as “The representation in art of objects as they actually are, without idealization or presentation in abstract form.” Lawrence Weber’s exhibition at the Mahan Gallery in the short north makes that definition of realism come to life. The exhibition includes a small number of contemporary still life paintings and drawings, including two drawn using a Bic pen.

Webber chose to put a small number of works into the show to give people the opportunity to spend more time on each piece. Something viewers may have noticed as they walked through is the apparent attention to detail, and this is due largely because the goal of realism is to try and replicate real life as close as possible. Webber prides himself on his brushstrokes. The strokes that make the object what it is. It is important to him, however, for it to look like a painting and not a photograph. Although he wants to record an object onto a canvas as he sees it in real life, he still wanted his viewers to see the brushstrokes, the intense color and the technique that goes into creating a work like those in his show.

The works in the show do resemble other artists, like Claudio Bravo. Webber interned at the Marlborough Gallery in New York City where many of Bravo’s paintings are. Webber said he would skip his lunch breaks and stare at Bravo’s paintings for hours; he was blown away by his work. In fact, Webber even said he learned more from staring at Bravo’s paintings then he ever learned in school. The influence of Bravo’s work can be seen in Webber’s work. Bravo’s recent paintings of crinkled papers and various household items resemble Webber’s paintings titled “Still Life with Tire”, “American Beauty” and “When the Shit hits the Fan”.

The objects Webber chose to include in his paintings are not unique; they are objects you see every day. What makes the paintings unique is the place that these objects have on the canvas itself. For example, in “Still Life with Tire”, a plain, black car tire is featured as the centerpiece. It’s draped with long, colorful cloths and petite, green flower pots. Who could see the beauty in something we see every day without giving it a second thought? Apparently Lawrence Webber can.