< - Donna Milrany
DAVID GOODRICH
David hails from Kansas City and has a BFA from Oklahoma State. He has had numerous one person shows in Chicago, Kansas City and many other cities. His works exhibit a style all his own which is hard to accomplish these dasy and reward extended viewing with lotds of commentary. Heres what our best local art critic had to say about his show.
| Follies under the brush |
| By Julie Pratt McQuiston |
| Kansas City, Mo., artist David Goodrich, whose paintings are on view at 4 Star Gallery through May 12, looks blatantly at the conflicts of soul and flesh, employing myths to convey these allegorical struggles. Goodrich refers to his approach as "social symbolism." Contemporary people and things are placed in these mythological/allegorical settings, creating an effect that is relevant, yet dark and strange. The licentious/lecherous participants in "Witches' Sabbath" cavort around the canvas, small, beady-eyed and bulbous, churning a witches’ brew afloat with babies. Buns are bared, goats are misused; this darkly mythical scene is disturbing but aesthetically intriguing. Goodrich's style is all his own. His people are emphatic gestures of the brush: rounded, large-eyed, with prominent features. His acrylics are thickly laid on and expertly mixed. In "Youth and Old Age" an old woman clutches onto a young one, grasping for what she has already lost, as the young woman smiles passively, gazing out the window. A man and woman have just bedded in "Icarus Descending"; he's smoking, she's crying. They are at opposite ends of the bed. They have fallen, just as Icarus in his arrogance fell from the sky as his wax wings melted in the sun. Most intriguing is "Venus (in utero)." The woman here is beautiful, clasping herself in the fetal position, a clam in her shell of self-protection. She is submerged, her red hair swirls like a crown above her; the light peers in another swirl at the surface, rays of hope. The greens, yellows and blues that compose the water intoxicate; fish circle, rendered in blue, yellow and red. "Waking War Horse," I'm told, is a self-portrait of the artist. The horse, nostrils flared, attempts to stand amid a firesky. He is tired from battle, reluctant but determined to re-engage in his calling. Goodrich's biblical references are intriguing; his "Song of Solomon" is rich with symbolism, the imagery tightly composed on the canvas. This is the best kind of visual narrative. The scene refers to something familiar and yet the variations and applications are many. Doves fly with roses, lily of the valley, baskets of fruit, lyres and ladies clutched in their beaks as Solomon gazes upon his white-dressed woman ... where can she possibly go from here? Goodrich's paintings are as psychological as they are symbolic. Fortunately, there is also some humor here. The images are almost comic, and in this they are most representative of truth. Self-awareness is not shoved down our aesthetic throats. Epiphanies and Delusions runs through May 12 at 4 Star Gallery, 653-9 Massachusetts Ave., 686-6382. |
Other reviews from previous shows
"Every regional art scene has its cadre of what could be termed 'dreams and visions artists.' They are identifiable first by their choice of subjects- dreams, visions, nightmares, and other fragments of memory and imagination- and second by their choice of style. This generally runs to some form of representation. Although borrowings from symbolism, surrealism, or German expressionism function to distance these contemporary artists' productions from Wyethian realism, the work invariably maintains enough ties to visual reality as to afford ample scope for the demonstration of hard-won representational skills. Quite a lot of this type of work has appeared in Kansas City exhibition spaces in recent years; think of the paintings of...David Goodrich..." - Alice Thorsen KANSAS CITY STAR January 24, 1997
"David Goodrich's show displays a high level of consistency. All the works are figurative and all boast flickering mobile surfaces composed from shivery strokes of paint. Van Gogh is the obvious stylistic influence, but the bawdy spirit of these works looks to the Dutch genre painter Jan Steen. Many of these paintings offer take-offs on art historical themes. A stumpy female figure with reddish hair is a leitmotif; the males issue from the same unappealing family tree. Goodrich's interpretations of his selected themes are fairly literal, if slightly skewed. The presentation throughout is heavy on melodrama and an overdeveloped sense of the macabre...Many of the works in this show showcase the artist's ability to manage multi-figure compositions and his work skill with paint."
-
"a painter with a lot of verve...his sense of character remains always penetrating and concise."
- Peter von Zeigesar
IMAGERY AND FORM
KANSAS CITY STAR February 14, 1993
"Superior. David Goodrich's prominently displayed paintings showed sure grasp of his subjects as well as an adventurous use of paint...in the tradition of Rauschenberg. Writer William S. Burroughs has contributed an addendum to Goodrich's portrait of him by shooting it."
- Peter von Zeigesar
"Goodrich has a strong sense of character and caricature, and an idiosyncratic style. He paints mostly large, crudely brushed portraits of his friends...A portrait of acquaintance William S. Burroughs is ornamented with a splash of color where Burroughs shot through a plastic bag of yellow paint... Goodrich paints from memory rather than life, yet his portraits are uncannily accurate, often enlarging and exaggerating physical deformities and character traits."
-Peter von Zeigesar
"David Goodrich's large paintings are confrontive and distinct...Intense...primarily through harsh rendering and application of paint."- Donna Milrany
< - Donna Milrany
The Narcissist Waking War Horse The Muses (sold) Acrylic On Canvas Acrylic On Canvas Acrylic On Canvas 35 x 50 40 x 55 65 x 48
Prometheus Bound The Temptations of St. Anthony
ARTIST'S STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Don't forget to check out the Gallery's History page.
Return to Gallery-Artists Page
