Dan's Papers - Issue #5 - April 27, 2007

While a description of the current exhibition at East Hampton's The Drawing Room may very well be "Stripes and Circles," there's much more to this lively display from artists Peter Dayton, Robert Kelly, Rex Lau, Alan Shields and Kelly Spalding.

The obvious approach for an interpretation of the works is formal, featuring aesthetic aspects like shape, space and pattern. Instead, this critic leans toward a contextual analysis where the theme and subject are applied to other disciplines, such as philosophy. Thus, the works relate more to world-views than to matters of color, texture and form. At least most of them.

For example, some paintings by Lau recall Islamic influences with images of Moorish architecture or even hooded Muslim women, as already noted in a previous critique of Lau's work. Granted, this "reading" may not be the artist's original intention, but it is natural for a viewer to create his or her own associations. Lau's references to the past make sense considering his tree series, for instance, which evokes his own personal memories.

Alan Shields' circular configurations are also reminiscent of Ancient traditions, like his "High Art Asked Low Art to Put the Worm on Her Hook." While the title gives no hint of any spiritual implications, the work possesses a sense of timelessness where the cycle of life and death predominates. There is no beginning, middle and end in Shields' forms or philosophy. Lau's patterns also suggest that his lines will continue to infinity; they do not end at the edge of the canvas. Shields' circles present a contrast to works by Dayton, Spalding and Kelly where vertical lines promote another worldview. One could argue, of course, that the stripes also seem to extend beyond the picture plane, suggesting eternity as well. But there's something claustrophobic about Spalding's lines that infer confinement and entrapment, elements that are missing from Lau's and Shields' pieces.

Conversely, Dayton's strips are less confining although, again, they do not evoke a sense of spontaneity that Lau's and Shields' paintings do. Kelly's stripes (like "Thicket Assemblage LV11") are lines that are off balance, deliberately set askew yet still vertical. Such works provide playful images that contradict the perfect delineations of other various other on display.