Wet Paint

As artists and critics gravitate toward conceptual, often arcane modes of

expression, what relevance does painting have in

contemporary art? In a review of the painting-sparse 2002 Whitney Biennial in the April

29th issue of The Nation, critic Arthur Danto observed

that “whether someone can paint or draw is no more

relevant than whether they can sew or cook,” but

that being an artist today “consists in having an idea

and then using whatever means are necessary to

realize it.” Younger artists increasingly shun traditional

painting and sculpture in favor of photography,

installation, performance, and every new advancement

in digital technology. Consequently, artists who are

still devoted to the incremental gains of the studio are

often looked upon as stubborn Luddites.

No doubt, much of the contempt arises from

the very notion of the individual artist’s solitary

pursuit of art. In a recent lecture at the Memphis College

of Art, author and critic Suzi Gablik reiterated the

conventional wisdom that governs surveys like the Whitney, championing “socially conscious and

participatory” forms of art and suggesting that the

studio arts have long since exhausted themselves,

even applying PC hubris to the purveyors of visual

aesthetics as the “hegemony of the eye.”

But not every artist or ideologue complies with

that line of thinking, and alongside the reemerging

dialogue regarding beauty, a corresponding esteem for painting

is evident. If the local art houses are any indication

of painting’s status, it certainly shows no sign of

endangerment. The following lists some of the high points:

Jason Story: I asked Story what he thought of

Gablik’s lecture. “Not much,” he grumbled. “But then, I’m

an artist.” Story’s “Reverie” series at the University of

Memphis MFA Thesis exhibit is typified by a palette of

narcotic pinks, peaches, and plums as well as a reeling

flotsam of images. The collision of bubblegum color

and arbitrary form casts a blurry-eyed wink at digital

media and raised-on-TV information overload.

Larry Edwards: Everyone says “Pink

Flamingos and Other Animals” at Jay Etkin Gallery is a

tame show by Edwards’ incendiary standards, and while

no trademark severed heads make an appearance,

dark sentiments do abound. The artist painted this

year’s Memphis In May poster, and considering

Argentina’s financial and political upheavals of late,

perhaps Edwards’ sinister narratives are all too apropos.

The scorching pink and yellow hues of Misstep in the

Flamingo Room raise the temperature of the abject

violence depicted, even as a gaggle of nearby

flamingos passively ignores the aggression. One can only

wonder what issues inspired Abandoned Baby, which

depicts a swaddled infant helplessly lying in the

high grass as a horde of crows descends upon it.

Kathleen Holder: The pictures by Holder

currently on view at David Lusk Gallery are intended to

invite contemplation. The “Temenos” series embodies

elements germane to spiritual symbolism and meditative

absorption: bifurcated symmetry, monochromatic surfaces, and

elusive, ghostlike apparitions. The crimson that glows at the

center of Temenos V is seemingly illumined from within, and

what appears as a navel or nipple that one would swear is

embossed upon the surface of the plane is in fact illusory.

Bruce Brainard: Also at David Lusk Gallery, Brainard’s

traditional brand of landscape painting also invites contemplation but focuses

on the beauty and majesty of God’s creation. The sun dramatically

pierces the clouds at dusk in Evergreen

Skyline, a painting which showcases Brainard’s deft handling of the oil medium, especially with regard to

the simple yet deliberate à la prima technique. The artist exhibits this

same confidence throughout, but the perched orb of the sun in the middle

of Recognition, milking that same bifurcated symmetry, aims for

sacred profundity that comes off more as corny sentiment.

“In Celebration of Spring”:

The present show at Delta Axis @ Marshall Arts is also built around the tradition of the

landscape but much more loosely than Brainard’s work. For

instance, Arista Alanis’ pictures, like Six Blocks

Away, explode with Technicolor brashness and painterly crudeness and could

otherwise fall into the category of Ab-Ex painting but what

gorgeous surfaces. Susan Maakestad, on the other hand,

exhibits intellectual and emotional coolness in the simplification of

the landscape into horizontal sectors divided by a horizon.

John Dilg is likewise cool in Wilderness, in which a fallen tree

and stump are rendered with clinical precision. n

U of M MFA Thesis Exhibit through June 8th; Larry

Celebration of Spring” at Delta Axis @ Marshall Arts through June 18th.