This is a very important show, and even so more now that the Corcoran’s Biennial has abandoned its focus on painting – not only as a refresher of what is going on in the studios of some of our area’s painters, but also as a re-affirmation that painting is alive and kicking and still king of the hill in a confused art world often thrown off tilt by a never-ending thirst by some art critics and curators for what’s "new" rather than what’s good. This is also a very unique opportunity to see fresh new works by several area artists who have rarely shown work outside of their Universities and studios, and a perfect opportunity to acquire work by young, new talent.
My favorite work was a dizzying painting by Ian Whitmore titled "Glinting," which displays virtuous brushwork and a clear understanding of composition and color. In this work, a series of figures, almost lost in a tornado of movement and color, rise from the lower left of the canvas to the upper right, and fools the eye (by the application and use of color) into seeing color and form, rather than figures, or dancers, or whatever they are. We forget that it is a representational work (and among the minority in the show), and see a painting of forms and color, almost as close to an action painting as realism can approach."Elsewhere in the City Paper, Louis Jacobson reviews Janos Enyedi at Kathleen Ewing. I wrote a mini-review of that same show for the current issue of the Crier newspapers, and offered the following:
"Sometimes artwork is like magic.The Kathleen Ewing Gallery, widely respected as one of the top photography galleries in the world, departs from that tradition and showcases the magical illusions that are the sculptures of Janos Enyedi.
Visitors should be warned: Prepare to be fooled when you enter the gallery and see this show. Titled "The American Industrial Landscape – Reconstructed: Power, Steel, Concrete," the exhibition consists of photographs and three-dimensional assemblages by Enyedi; and it is the assemblages that steal the show.
They will deceive you; let me say it again: be prepared to be fooled. At first sight they appear to be metal and steel, and extraordinarily heavy; but they are all actually paper. It is not just the illusionism that makes this show the best in town this month; it is that plus Enyedi’s unerring eye at capturing what at first sight appears to be boring, industrial eyesores and delivering breathtaking migrations to the realm of fine art.
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