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Brian Gross Fine Art: Ed Moses - Owlbo; Peter Alexander - To Dive For.

Review by Dennis C. Scherzer: Ed Moses brings us a collection of works that demonstrate his skill with broad brush, liquid paint, and texture created from the interplay of the pigment and the canvas. The brush pulls the paint, the canvas resists. Diffusion is limited, opacity controlled, and shapes, effusions, appear incongruently contrasting the stream and flow of the brush.

My first, most immediate impression of these works is a similarity to Morris Louis. I am a big fan of Morris Louis because I am intrigued as to how he managed to create such flow in shapes on canvas. As I view Louis and Moses side-by-side, it is clear that Ed Moses relies upon the brush to distribute the paint on his canvases, whereas Louis appears to have "poured" his paint.

So... Why all the fascination with thin paint? I can only offer that it is indeed an amazing craft, the ability to move very liquid paint upon a surface that is absorbing it in variegated, yet somewhat predictable quantifications. Factor in that the density of the pigment effects the diffusion of the paint, makes it thin enough to migrate, uses gravity to move it-- and a brush, or not.

Mastering paint migration is not enough to evoke my admiration. I salute the craftsman, yet where is the artist?

Moses' "E+ybab" (good title) answers that question. "E+ybab" sounds like one side of a mathematical equation, say, a constant (E) plus some kind of a blip. The painting is similar in that it portrays a vertical brush-striated blue background with a series of blotted gray areas interrupting it. The gray effusions create a trend in the striations that is perpendicular to the background trend. This is expressed in this work, and in others by variations in opacity rather than a deliberate linear trend caused by the brush.

Genius!

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Also showing at Brian Gross is Peter Alexander, and I find him sharing his work with several amazed onlookers. He encourages them to touch the work, feel its smoothness. This tactile liberation causes me to immediately like the artistic spirit of the man.

This freedom is the brainchild of control. Alexander explains to me that, over his 40 year career as an artist, the psychological space that his art provides in his personal life liberates him from having to rely upon a typical means of making a living. It allows him to step out from being "controlled" by commitments to an employer into a place where he can control the direction of his life.

"Artists don't like listening to anybody else," he explained. His art has become a haven that he can enter at will, most importantly at his pleasure. The "doing" of creating his art, is a pleasurable organization of the impressions, notions, and artistic stimulus that's coming in manifested by the tactile expression created by the craft work of creating the art.

Each of Alexander's works is blue. He grew up near the ocean. "Water is always an issue," he says.

The physical craft of creating Alexander's work is somewhat akin to custom auto painting. He starts with smooth rolled sheet aluminum panels that are painted white. Upon this surface, Alexander then applies liquid phthalo blue oil paint, thinned with turpentine, often squeezed on with a sponge. This method creates the diffusions and concentrations of colors and shapes which evoke the liquid image of the work. Multiple clear coats are applied and mechanically buffed-- just like a custom high gloss automobile finish.

The surface sheen resembles the clear reflective surface of water. Beneath that swim intriguing shapes and light. The invitation to explore is delightful.