The Georgetowner February 23, 2005
ARTWRAP
Art at Results
By John Blee
Results Gallery at Results Gym (315 G Street SE, 202.669.4226) is one of several
alternative spaces around DC presenting art that is overlooked by commercial
galleries. Here we have an ambitious show with Nathan Richardson, Joan Cox, and
Marcia Dullum.
Nathan Richardson is an American painter who lives and works in Germany.
Although he spent all his formative years in the U.S., his work is definitely
informed by his stay in Europe. Richardson’s pictures are serial in nature and consist of (mostly) three figures (mostly
frontal) in a space that maintains ambiguity. The space could be a room or
cave, but it has an atmosphere that is pressurized as in Rothko.
Richardson has a grave, almost elegiac tone in these works. In "Naked Light,"
you feel the linen ground through the paint. The roughness of the ground
establishes the physicality of the pictures. In "Only a Game," a small game
board is seen off to the side. There is extensive, yet restrained use of pencil
and sgraffito. "Blue Passage" has eloquence in its color like the final moment
in which an ember dies. In all the work there is the evidence of the physical
weight of being.
The light around the figures in these works acts like halos or emanations,
perhaps psychic. There is pathos in these very reductive forms that remind me
of Rothko’s geometry and of Stonehenge. "Snowflake June" has a red that shifts the weight
of the picture. "Fool Anybody" is flatter, more decorative in its spatial
aspect, with more broken passages than the other work.
Nathan Richardson, in speaking about his work, refers to Huxley’s "Brave New World" and says these pictures "are a social commentary on what I
see around us." They are also a personal vision of an inner world.
Joan Cox is an energetic colorist. Her work is often based on flowers seen in
flower markets and has an expressionist edge and delivery. It is never purely
decorative and she is willing to take on subject matter that could throw
another painter such as an up-close, oversize face sucking on a straw. Cox’s "Sweet Pears" have the sweetness of the title. Her "Violette" is jumpy and
fun.
Marcia Dullum’s work is informed by many sources. In "Tribute to Bonnard," one senses more
Diebenkorn than Bonnard. She is best at her non-figurative work that relates
more to landscape. Her "Ricochet in Red" stands out.
Gary Fisher, Art Director of the Results Gallery, who works from the assumption
that “there could be a Van Gogh in any artist exhibiting early promise," is to be
congratulated on his effort. (Through March 27, 2005)
Baltimore Sun, Dec 24, 2002
Paintings would beautify any home
Art: by Glenn McNatt
All images © Joan Cox 2008
