ART NEWS REVIEWS

This is a note I got from ArtNews for the Review I Sent them of the David Dauncy show, photos included. (I'm not sure who sined it,) I actually expected a at least a form letter. ArtNews is still my favorite art magazine. Phoenix deserves and should get more coverage. I since sent by email another (down below), we’ll see what happens...

DAVID DAUNCEY:  

Resent People

{9} The Gallery & Chaose Theory 15

Phoenix, Arizona

Painting has long been hailed as dead by many. If so, portraiture is its long gone, bastard cousin. This despite the existence and popularity of artists like Jenny Saville and Chuck Close. One Arizona based artist that pushes forward with the portrait is David Dauncey Born in Britton Dauncey has lived in the U.S. since 1994.  He has for a number of years displayed his paintings at Chaos Theory, a group exhibit looked forward to each year by the Phoenix art crowd. p Chaos Theory is mounted by fellow artist Randy Slack. In conjunction with this year’s group exhibit Dauncy has a solo show at 9 the Gallery. Dauncey concentrates on the face or a portion of the image painting out sections of the work with a solid neutral color. The offerings in size range from small to large, though none are as big as the offerings of Saville or Close. As a matter of fact some of the best in the show are Max, Vincent and Jasper, all small paintings of children. Two years ago Dauncey’s offering for the Chaos Theory show was a large portrait of his daughter Ruby. His work shown at this year’s Chaos Theory 15 is another large portrait titled simply Steven. Of his recent work this is his best.  Dauncey has stated, “the realm of portraiture intimidates and excites me.” The people of Phoenix can be happy that Dauncey shares his love of the portrait with them. We can only hope he continues to excite us despite his hope to locate to the south of France

 The second emailed review, still waiting for a response…

RANDY SLACK: Retrospective

From The Luhrs Basement and Beyond

Luhrs City Center – December 5, 2014

The Luhrs Building, is where Randy Slack, along with two other artists, collectively known as Three Car Pileup, took on studios in the basement almost 20 years ago. For one night only the Luhrs Building invited Slack back for a retrospective exhibition. In his work Slack incorporates, family, pop culture, lettering, along with icons from art history. One of the larger works in the show, a takeoff on Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Super, titled 7 Deadly Sins, incorporates most of these. One of the strongest works in the show is titled Mother Nature which is done in acrylic and gold leaf. It pictures several cherubic children surrounding, climbing on and feeding at a Central woman. This mirrors the mother and child paintings from the renaissance. Other paintings incorporate Slack’s method of overlapping imagery until what is going on gets obscured or even cryptic, though Slack knows the meaning behind it all. One large piece that is central to the exhibit is an installation incorporating a life-size painting of his grandparents’ living room on gold leaf along with their furniture titled Light without Light that was last displayed at ASU’s Art Museum. The newer paintings exhibit like the others, a take on Slacks interest of the moment. These display classic  Volkswagens and surfing. It was a well-attended show, for those unaqointed with Slack’s paintings, it afforded an opportunity to see his progress and the maturity of his early work.                                                                          Larry Willis