f(r)acture: divisions in painting at Dorsch Gallery

Published on 21 July 2009 by Onajide Shabaka in Uncategorized

Karen Seapker
Moment, Oh, Mori, 2009
Oil on panel
38 x 50 in.

We can usually expect to see good painting exhibitions at Dorsch Gallery, f(r)acture: divisions in painting, was no exception. With the diversity in styles having the space between works definitely gave them enough breathing room so as to not be a visual (negative) influence on those in closest proximity. However, there is enough similarity, mostly in terms of colour palette, that such an assessment probably doesn’t really fly well.

In particular, I found Jane Parshall’s two works, Mary Kelly 1 and, Mary Kelly 2, subtle, dreamy but, intensely muted colours and, her delicate, sensitive drawn strokes that seem more like a drawing than a painting in some ways. They are smallis, 15 x 14.25 inches however, that also allows for intimate viewing, and that’s what brings these works to life.

With Brandon Oplaka one finds hidden within his abstraction the reality of a world he envelopes and dresses in ways that is very personal. He has taken the little baby’s face in the clouds of intentional fallacy and turned it into a way of seeing that is not a fallacy but, a vision of his own. What you see may not be what he saw but it is what he wants you to see.