Adaptation Syndrome: Painting in Contemporary Image Culture
D. Dominick Lombardi
Courtesy of the artist, Margaret Evangeline.
In the exhibition announcement for "Adaptation Syndrome: Painting in Contemporary Image Culture" curators Dinah and Paul Ryan ask, "When almost anyone can create an arresting visual image, how do painters respond?" This refers to the fact that, in this age of high technology and seemingly unlimited possibilities, "Contemporary culture has become in many respects more creative than visual art. A difficult, albeit real quandary to propose, it is one these two curator/critics answer with some weighty examples.
Scott Barber takes a cue from science, and military technology and blends sound principles of composition with a sort of heat sensitive photography esthetic to produce two untitled alkyd urethane on aluminum paintings which command ones attention, while Jane Callister’s psychedelic landscapes of displaced land masses and reality bending colors charms the subconscious.
Margaret Evangeline’s mark makers are bullets. Her pierced metal surfaces suggest a sort of universal reality that crosses all colors and classes. These two new works, "Polychromaculate #3" (2004) and "Polychromaculate #4" (2004) are a bit different from her more familiar polished metal surfaces because color is added into the mix. Here, she colors the assaulted aluminum with oil paint which enhances the balance between the violent act of targeting the metal a multitude of times, with the intriguing, even alluring effect of the mangled surfaces.
Rosemarie Fiore built and videotaped a carousel sized, acrylic paint pouring pictograph "Spirograph" machine shedding light on the regularity of the limits and the strengths of the man-made, while Shirley Kaneda’s "Smooth Abrasion" (2000), with its satiny white under painting and masked painted edges suggest the subtle realities hidden behind the force fed culture.
Ron Johnson slices thin, strips of canvas which he attached to panels that have pour-painted surfaces. The poured paint gives his art the look of encaustic, while the lines crated by the strips of canvas, and the unruly edges of the poured paints coalesce within the sophisticated palette creating a sublime composition.
Sylvan Lionni’s two hard edge acrylic paintings "Pick 6" (2002) and "WCCB" (2003) are architectural and orderly at their core. Jeff McMahon sucks all the life out of kitsch in his multi-paneled installation. John Pomara’s two enamel paintings on aluminum reminded me of Gerhard Richter’s smear paintings and Daniel Raedeke’s bumpy tablet shaped cast latex works had a very 1960’s feel. Vincent Szarek’s two urethane on molded fiberglass paintings "Flaming Flag" (2004) and "Jasper" (2004) take a page from that Easy Rider, biker, lowbrow esthetic that reeks of cool, and I think, bring a cool edge to the show.
Adaptation Syndrome: Painting in Contemporary Image Culture
Hand Workshop Art Center, Richmond, VA
