Two very young painters have a show together at a gathering of the
tribes. Both took their MFA’s in 2009 from the New York Academy of Art
in TriBeCa, where the emphasis is on training students to paint, draw
& sculpt figuratively, just like the Old Masters (and like the Royal
Academy & French Salon painters of the 19th century, and the academic
branch of surrealism in France in the 1930s). Both these young
painters appear to have learned their lessons, as can be seen in
“Philip J. Hardy/Michael Gibson: Language Paintings” (through January
29). Gibson is still struggling to find himself, although some of his
pictures display sound academic technique, among them “Enter the Red
Shirt” and “They’re Year Five Thousand.” Hardy has not only mastered
academic technique, but is beginning to have ideas about how to employ
it, utilizing a blond palette & fanciful themes that resemble an
ultra-contemporary version of say, Rene Magritte. In only one instance
(among the nine paintings on view) would I say that Hardy’s technique
is inadequate to convey his ideas, but many of his images are
haunting, including “Transcendent Cars,” in which small automobile
float amid clouds, “Flying Pig,” a porker with wings, and “Pigggy,”
which shows another pig, this one under a bridge, with a wheelbarrow &
foliage. Most impressive is “Toad Lover,” a symphony in greys and
browns. It depicts a monstrously large greige toad in a greige
landscape with a smaller greige toad on his shoulders, while strapped
to the head of the smaller toad is a little house with light shining
out of its windows.