In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, art critic David Bonetti picks a couple of abstract shows in St. Louis. “Max Cole is a nonobjective painter; her work is determined by the components of its making: the linen surface, the acrylic medium, the pigment restricted to tones of black and white. The image � a composition of horizontal and vertical lines and bands � is not dependent upon anything outside the canvas. It is not an abstraction of either objective or subjective reality…Light and time are really what these paintings are about. Light experienced, captured, released, reflected. And time. You can imagine the amount of time required to complete even a small work. All that time and the energy expended in making the painting are contained within it. That’s why they seem so alive. And it explains why you want to spend so much time looking at them.”
“Eva Lundsager paints nature-derived abstractions, primarily landscapes, and although we’ve seen this kind of gestural abstraction based on Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell before, she brings a distinctive sense of vivid color and a personal touch to them that makes them her own. In a talk a couple of years ago at White Flag Projects, Lundsager spoke about how she was influenced by the Venetian rococo painter Giambattista Tiepolo. You can see Tiepolo’s clouds in several of her paintings here….In any case, they are surreal little worlds that reward the exercise of imagination.” Read more.
“Max Cole,” Schmidt Contemporary Art, St Louis, MO. Through Nov. 29.
Eva Lundsager, Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, St. Louis, MO. Through Dec. 12.
