Comment: Praise the Lord! The art famine's finally over at Big 49. Chester Arnold captures crowd power with intense, overwhelming, and even scary compositions. Simultaneously abstract and representational, the best epitomize self surrender to mass mind, reminding us what havoc the perfect Nazi can wreak. If crowds aren't your thing, visit the ruins or the miniatures. Merge your intellect with the giant floating brain or take a walk around the prison yard if you need fresh air. New media mavens may prophesize the death of painting, but Arnold convincingly demonstrates that you can still achieve effects with paint that you can't achieve with anthing else. The show's press release states that Arnold's "environment was tempered by the natural perfection of the fir forest at his back door." I don't know about you, but if I had a fir forest at my back door, I'd be lookin' over my shoulder.

Artist/Artists: Chester Arnold.