Eric Tillinghast’s recent body of work, Water/Nymph, is both curious and compelling. For one thing, it compelled me to track down the meaning of the names he gives his cohort of bathing beauties—a group of sixties-era women featured on some of the appropriated postcards that the artist used in this show.

Initially conceived in 2008 as a web-only enterprise, LAUNCHPROJECTS has been augmented by a private exhibition space dedicated to emerging artists. Last spring the gallery presented work by California based Eric Tillinghast in a two-venue exhibition in conjunction with Santa Fe’s Center for Contemporary Arts.

A large warehouse-type space, it demands strong art. Most work gets lost. Eric Tillinghast’s ambitious site-specific installation “Rain Machine” is the first exhibition, solo or group, to fully engage the space. It’s fabulous: Tillinghast at his best.

The transformation of Eric Tillinghast’s work over the past several years could be interpreted as a radical departure. As a sculptor working in steel he produces both wall mounted and freestanding pieces that suggest kinship with the aesthetics of Donald Judd, Isamu Noguchi, and Richard Serra.

It is rare, in reading or writing on Minimalism, that the soul ever enters into the discourse. Minimalism can flower into some fairly exotic forms, as is borne out by the enameled steel panels recently created by Eric Tillinghast.

It’s always been easy to exploit Minimalism. This movement made it possible for philosophy majors to graduate from college with a Senior Exhibition. But a number of real artists – Donald Judd in particular – began to produce work that was visually engaging, interesting, even beautiful.