There’s an eclectic mix of old and new in Grimaldis Gallery’s summer group show. Some early Grace Hartigan paintings and collages, several Leake paintings from the 70’s and 80’s, and a handful of Raoul Middleman landscapes hold court with some newer arrivals. Rene Trevino’s grid of black-and-rainbow drawings, Hidenori Ishii’s video game inspired paintings, and Don Cook’s Street Mystery watercolors all provide a sense of energy, offering up fresh ideas and new approaches. Other highlights of the show are in photography – color saturated and aluminum-mounted, Dimitra Lazaridou and Sofia Silva both exhibit works which are technically beautiful and conceptually rigorous.
Dimitra Lazaridou’s photos with Jonathan Silver’s Bronze
There’s lots of paintings in this show, too, and a complete range – from a flat, tight, graphic style to thick and crusty oils. Karl Connolly’s grid of six small oils – ‘Landscape with Car’ show off his skills as an expressive and technical painter. Using a window composition in each, Connolly is able to use value to make the space within the window, and around it, believable and integrated. Connolly is a painter known for several different bodies of work, often switching subject and style – from abstract to figurative – and these six, despite being diminutive in size, do not disappoint.
Karl Connolly’s ‘Landscape With Car I- VI’ are solid. I think I like them better than stripes!
Paul Jeanes and Costas Grimaldis
Grace Hartigan’s ‘Oil and Collage’ on Paper works from 1958 & 1957 are my FAVORITES from this show.
Beverly McIver’s ‘Watching Mammie Sleep’ 2003 – another favorite
Erin Cluley and Sofia Silva
Don Cook’s Street Mystery 1 and Street Mystery 2
Tim Horjus embedded in a Leake landscape
I’m not sure about David Brewster’s ‘Panoramic Manger’ and ‘Mantle of Course Debris.’ They’re definitely an interesting mishmash of painting genres – sort of a combination of Bob Ross and Fiona Raye- without the cartoons.
Rene Trevino’s grid of Acrylic on Mylar Paintings
Paintings by Hidenori Ishii
