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Tuesday, January 9, 2007

In the Bathroom at Catherine Person Gallery

posted by on January 9 at 13:00 PM

During Artwalk Thursday night, I stopped in to see the show of 2003 abstractions by the late Drake Deknatel, who moved into figuration after that year. The movement is already afoot in pieces such as this marvelous potatoes portrait:

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Some of the paintings are harsh in their sense of color—there’s too much of it, simply put, so much that it hurts—but another minor annoyance is that two of the best pieces up in the gallery, both later self-portraits by Deknatel, are hanging in the restroom, instead of someplace like, say, behind the desk. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen great stuff hidden in the back of Person’s gallery.

The gallery is open Tues-Sat 11-5. I’d say check it out. If you like the self-portraits, like me, then ask Person to bring them out front. Maybe she will. The better of the two shows the artist as a smoky presence emerging from a brushy, greeny yellow background like a faded photographic subject. It’s a mature, gorgeously restrained piece. And the sign beneath it refers to the toilet.

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