by Richard Gleaves


Gray's current show (at Garage Gallery in North Park) consists of 18 paintings on wood panel.

The older works — which make up the majority of the show — derive formally from the 1950's-style geometric abstraction of period jazz album covers and Saul Bass film titles.

As such they are well-made and have retro appeal, but then things get interesting: the paint handling foregoes 50's modern flatness for the patchy quality of do-it-yourself faux-antique finishing, while the colors themselves are escapees from the 80's designer era. In a word the works are asynchronous.

In addition to these works, the show includes a handful of recent paintings which diverge from the earlier work in two ways.

First, their formal complexity is greatly simplified, leaving behind the 50's residue in favor of a pure timeless abstraction.

Second and crucially, Gray introduces black to his palette — flat black — while retaining the faux finish in the rest of the colors. The resulting dual contrast — between black and non-black, flat and faux — makes these works pop.

Photo Larry Caveney