'Young & Fun: Abstraction" reviewed in the Philadelphia Inquirer

July 28, 2014

'Young & Fun: Abstraction" reviewed in the Philadelphia Inquirer

“Galleries”

Summer fun
By Edith Newhall

Bridgette Mayer Gallery's summer group show of the works of eight artists, "Young and Fun: Abstraction," lives up to its title.

Clara Fialho's paintings announce a carefree mood immediately. The Brazilian artist brings the same expansive joie-de-vivre to her tiny paintings that she brings to this show's largest painting, an explosion of colorful drips and marks on a hazy yellow background that suggests the smoky aftermath of a carnival.

Arden Bendler Browning also steals the show with her hyperactive abstractions of urban environments that call to mind a collision of Eric Fischl, minus the figures, and Richard Diebenkorn's abstracted landscapes.

Federico Herrero's monumental painting, "11:11 A MI" (2009), defines fun abstraction with its bright, awkward blocks of color, although I would have liked to have seen a more recent work.

Laura Watt makes a strong impression with her paintings of patterns inspired by Arabic tiles, Amish quilts, Buddhist mandalas, Pygmy bark clothes, and Scottish tartans.

As much as I like the Scottish artist Graeme Todd's mysterious landscapes, I was too quickly reminded of Peter Doig's paintings.

"Young and Fun: Abstraction" also includes works by Alejandro Diaz, Nathan Pankratz, and Rebecca Rutstein.

"Galleries" by Edith Newhall and "Art" by Thomas Hine appear in alternating weeks.

Bridgette Mayer Gallery   709 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19106   tel 215 413 8893   fax 215 413 2283   bmayer@bmayerart.com   Site by exhibit-E™