Some very impressive and suffocating figurative painting
of what looks like a restricted location, like evidence from a spy thriller.
Paintings of ugly architecture that looks like it was the shining achievement
of a pre-coup Africa government, what could be the inside of a nuclear reactor,
a stairwell, a room with servers in it, a giant room of books, and a night view
of a densely populated city. If the subject matter wasn’t suggestive enough,
everything in the paintings are tightly cropped, leaving the eye very little
breathing room. The exteriors allow for only a minimal amount of sky, and the trees
at the base of the architecturally harsh building are almost shocking, as they
are the only organic material in any of the paintings. It is a world of
paranoia, shown in details that border on the obsessive, creating an image of
the artist as a talented but troubled painter.
Apparently the subject matter is less threatening than it
appears. The nuclear reactor is just the inside of a museum, and the room of
books is an Amazon warehouse (which in a way is still pretty threatening). The
evidential nature of the paintings might have something to do with the work
being based on vernacular pictures found online. You might think detailed
figurative paintings of vernacular pictures would be dull, but from a pure
painterly aspect, when you get up close, details are often layered on top of
details, making the detail appear to be physically lying on top of each other.
Creating sharp edges in the image, as if they’ve been cut out of the painting.
It was explained to me how he does it, I think it involves stencils. But
visually it gives a pretty sexy physical depth to the painting that, combined
with Rich’s wonderful use of color, makes the otherwise dry evidential pictures
come to life. I still think the work is a little crazy, but in the best of
ways.
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Through Mar. 15th
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