16 May 2017

Fables of the Reconstruction: Peter Burns, Mary DeVincentis, Lizbeth Mitty, Helen O'Leary

David & Schweitzer Contemporary

Reviewed by Ashley Norwood Cooper

The path of cynicism is well-trod, but it only leads one way. Forging a path toward meaning requires a bold spirit and a sharp machete. The artists in "Fables of the Reconstruction" seek depth through romanticism and the development of a personal iconography.

Helen O'Leary's fragile pieces are cobbled together from the deconstruction of earlier paintings. Frail frames prop up hope in the form of clean, white surfaces of re-gessoed failures.

The fabulations in Mary DeVincentis's "Dark Matters" series are drawn from literary sources, Buddhism, and personal experience. Glazes of acrylic paint over Yupo paper imbue the night-time atmosphere with an inward glow. In Night Visit, a skulk of foxes gathers around a mysterious spaceship that rains coins of golden light.

St. Augustine promised that good conquers evil as light penetrates darkness. These artists, laboring where the light is tenuous, might question his certainty, but they share his longing. They unabashedly seek the light.