I am not a fan of Kehinde Wiley or Amy Sherald paintings, both known for their individual portraits of the Obamas. Their subjects stand so distinctly separate from their settings, as if they were pasted on. I am a big fan of Henry Taylor and his painting of the Obamas. I find too much of that disjointed quality in Hugo McCloud’s paintings on display now at MAG. The one above, “For A Moment,” worked best for me.
McCloud’s paintings, mostly oil paint and single-use plastic mounted on panel, are pasted on, or more accurately, ironed on. A short video in a side room at the MAG shows the artist ironing pieces of plastic onto his surfaces. I don’t like thinking about the smell of melting plastic.
When we first moved here, our neighbor, a retired dentist, asked us if he could occasionally put some garbage in our cans because he didn’t have a contract with the disposal companies. He used to burn his garbage in a fire pit near the side of his house. Just writing that sentence I can recall that odor. Even encaustics turn my stomach. Maybe it was all those years of working next to a waxer, that essential tool of any graphic artist.
Phyllis Bryce Ely’s new paintings will be up for just a few more days at the Little. Chris Schepp took a nice photo of the band playing in front of some and on Saturday we heard Debby Kendrick’s band perform surrounded by Ely’s beautiful abstracts.
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