All The Way.

Sharon Butler

Sharon Butler's paintings in On Display, a show curated by Hrag Vartanian at STOREFRONT Gallery, are a microcosm for the entire show. When I first looked at the paintings, I wished that Butler had pulled back a bit. The more time I spent with them though, the more they started to come together. Her instincts had been right. Mine, wrong. In the end, Butler's overdrive minimalism worked for me.


Joy Curtis

And so goes the show. The onslaught of conversation among the pieces is almost too much at first. But then, settling in, getting used to the language, it opens up. Joy Curtis' floor sculptures serve as a lynchpin for the show, adding infinite angles on top of the ones already chatting away on the walls in Butler and Cathy Nan Quinlan's paintings.

The gesture of the "project space" in the front of the gallery is a nice touch. It's a quiet space of invention, letting the viewer in on the original secrets. It's the moment before the artists and the curator all decided to go too far, but as Bryan Ferry said, sometimes "All the way is far enough."

I've posted more photos over on my tumblr site.

Sharon Butler

Cathy Nan Quinlan

Joy Curtis

Installation

From 4-6 today, there will be an artists' discussion AND a birthday party for Abstract art at the gallery.