BRENDAN
CASS: EUROPE
JOE BRADLEY
showing in Upstairs Space
May 12 through June 14, 2003
Tuesday-Saturday 10-6, Sunday 11-6
Opening Reception: Monday May 12, 6-9pm with music
by Hoof
Kenny Schachter ConTEMPorary
14 Charles Lane, NYC 10014
t. 212 807-6669 f. 645-074
www.RoveTV.net schachter@mindspring.com
Between West
and Washington Streets Perry and Charles Streets
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kenny Schachter ConTEMPorary is pleased
to present a solo exhibition of the painter Brendan
Cass, his fourth in his young but distinguished career.
Cass’ current exhibition is entitled
“Europe,” and consists mainly of large
paintings of stereotypical European landscapes and
scenes done in his particular Art Naïf style.
A gigantic medieval castle set amidst the forest and
mountains recalls the historical grandeur of France
or Germany. A windmill and steeple in the background
of a brightly colored tulip farm could only be Holland.
There are also paintings of cabins perched in the
Alps, a multi-domed church sitting by the water, and
a rainbow over some picturesque coast.
Cass’s canvases have a double
nature: at first glance, they appear to have been
executed quickly, yet there are overt signs of Cass’s
working and reworking the picture to his liking. Underlying
the surface of the paintings there appear to be layers
of paint poured and clumped, giving an earthy or fleshy
texture to the canvases. There are also ghost images
underneath the top surface- sometimes congruent, sometimes
clashing with the final painted surface. With minimal
mixing, Cass applies quick brushstrokes to create
his forms, and spats of paint frequently pepper the
picture.
Imagine a giant’s child doing
a whirlwind tour of Europe. Now imagine he decides
to paint his own postcards and he sends them back
home to his family in Brobdingnag…Brendan Cass’s
paintings would be the result.
Bon Voyage, little giant!
JOE BRADLEY
Joe Bradley is an artist whose works
usually exhibit some kind of intervention or conscious
meddling with otherwise simple canvases. There is
something always slightly askew as with a white painting
which seems to be pried between the stretcher and
canvas, a round silver painting lined with thick rope,
or a long silver canvas that looks to be stretched
unevenly. Though not as extreme as the slashed canvases
of Lucio Fontana, Bradley’s works bring our
attention to the transience of the painter’s
medium, and perhaps that is his message.
by Benjamin Berlow
