Maureen Mullarkey, The New York Sun
December 9, 2004
Review of "Nature Abstracted"
NATURE KEEPS ITS HEAD DOWN in “Nature Abstracted,” a group exhibition curated by Emily Berger . The natural world is invoked rhetorically but largely abandoned on canvas. Emphasis is on the thing least helpful in the quest for form: that old deceiver, the artist’s “inner world”.
But no matter. Any excuse is welcome to see Farrell Brickhouse’s small gouaches, astonishing in their transparency. Optical complexity and punch is greater here than in his recent larger oils. The kinetic illusion of Margaret Neill’s dynamic ovoid planes keep growing richer, more painterly. And Julian Jackson’s moody color and silken surfaces, like reflecting pools lit from within, left me wanting to see more. Lois Ellison’s “Table Grave” (2000), a small oil of singular, uncluttered charm, illustrates the autonomous satisfactions of tone and proportion.