9/7/2009 - Photorealistic painting joins photography at gallery - The Birmingham News
SEEING IS BELIEVING: REALISM IN THE NEW AGE.
Jennifer Hunt Gallery. Through Sept. 26.
Mark Bradley-Shoup builds a sense of total isolation with "Conifer Guard Shack in Niagra Mist."
With
pristine clarity and chaste taste, Jennifer Hunt is broadening her
gallery offerings to include paintings along with some of the best
contemporary photography available. The paintings on view are in the
realm of photorealism, yet they often move to certain surreal
qualities that reflect a dreamlike state. Hard edges and knife-edged
forms create exquisitely clean views of objects and figures. In a most
basic sense, they are also good old-fashioned drawings that give visual
realism a good name. Ben Polsky draws with a pinpoint accuracy that is
reminiscent of studies by Albrecht Durer. Polsky concentrates on
details of destruction, transforming debris into remarkable still
lifes of exquisite grace and vivacity. Mircea Suciu paints the image of
a man from behind. The man looks out of a small window of flat blue.
The gentle, surreal and neutral space and the limited color range of
brown hues create metaphysical musings.
Mark Bradley-Shoup paints achingly pristine dumpster containers that
float in space, or a "Conifer Guard Shack in Niagra Mist" with a
precision that builds into a sense of total isolation. "Window No. 8,"
by Gwenessa Lam, is a densely dark space marked by a long rectangular
window, shrouded by a creamy closed Venetian blind that allows just
enough light into the space for the viewer to discern a black leather
bench. Richard Pasquarelli's "5:25" presents a rambling house in black
silhouette with a few lit windows against a vivid blue sky that is
instantly reminiscent of several Rene Magritte paintings. Lindsay
Mound's "Self-portrait as Abraham Lincoln" is a combination of
painting and photography that has the unearthly feel of a Jekyll-Hyde
transformation in progress. As an offshoot of postmodernism, these
works combine photorealism with minimalist allegorical suggestion to
achieve an iconic clarity that is provocative and memorable.
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