I found the perfect silver lining to the chainsaw buzzing around my studio – an escape to San Francisco for a day of galleries with a girlfriend. First on my list was Alex Kanevsky‘s Unstable Equilibrium at the Dolby Chadwick Gallery. It turned out to be the only gallery I could bear to visit as I felt I couldn’t mar the experience with seeing anything else!
M.S.S.
M.S.S. (detail)
I’ve been following this artist’s oil paintings online for a year or two but this was the first time I got to see his work in person and I can say, without hesitation, that he is absolutely my favorite contemporary painter (and I’m kicking myself for not making his reception where I heard he gave a great talk)! There are so many virtuoso elements that make up his work. His figures and interiors seem to dissolve and reassemble before your eyes, as immaterial as ghosts and just as haunting! He uses exquisite color palettes, punctuated with vibrant stabs of pigment. There is often a segmented quality subtly dividing up the work, which for me, evokes a feeling of passing time. On top of all that there is a masterful, gestural looseness in the application of the paint that is pure genius!
Don’t take my work for it though – the exhibition runs until Halloween or you can order a fantastic book of his work from the Dolby Chadwick Gallery’s website (mine’s on the way).
The Conversation
J.W.I. in Her Room
Two Days and Two Nights on the Farm
Two Days and Two Nights on the Farm (detail)
Two Days and Two Nights on the Farm (detail)
Two Days and Two Nights on the Farm (detail)
I couldn’t find the title for this piece but I love how he returns to the same subject again and again like trying to work out a dream or an alternate reality.
Hollis. Here’s the same girl in the pink kimono. I love the way the light falls on the nape of her neck, the broad, thinned brush strokes and bits of teal.
Night. Stunning dark and gorgeous.
Night (detail). I love how some areas are carefully modeled and others loose, but also controlled.
Fishing in America
Monks at Sea
Burning of Leaves, Pink Room, Jumper, Professor Gallagher Vacationing in New England.
J.W.I. Reflected
J.W.I. Reflected (detail). I just marvel at the restraint and wisdom he had to stop at one aqua eye! One of Alex Kanevsky’s considerable talents is knowing how to let the painting become what it needs to be knowing when to put down his brush!
So much to learn!
