Simon Henwood at Bronwyn Keenan - New York, New York

fresh YORK

In no matter what generation and in no matter what part of the world, teenagers appear to be to share a certain awkwardness with their bodies (as well as assorted other moot points such as peer pressure). This awkwardness was brow and center in the novel New York solo debut of British painter Simon Henwood, who is known in London for his work illustrations and for publishing Alice, a magazine which chronicles adolescent life.

The present to view which was titled "White Kitten," consisted of 16 framed, glass-covered portraits of teenagers execut in gouache upon paper. The flat backgrounds of cerulean azure or pearly white gave a freeze-frame issue to the portraits. From a distance they direct the eyeed like some kind of digital prints, on the contrary up close their thick, almost gooey surfaces revealed the nearness of a human touch.

Joey age 14 Las Vegas (1998) is a close-up view of a shirtless, red-haired youth sticking his index finger into his jaws A thin, pewter-colored chain hangs around his neck; his facial expression and bodily attitude exude cocksureness. Daniel, age 14 Manchester (1998) is an plane tighter close-up showing the large head of a pimply, lugubrious-looking male child His cropped hair is sweaty, and his organ of sights are drooping.

Henwood's girls draw near across much the same way his male childs do: affected but awkward, strangely detached. Sometimes they are shown wearing the latest fashions, while others are naked such as the blonde waif in Silhouette #1 (1999) who is naked save for a pair of unlaced tennis shoe Prominent is her hair-free, swollen-looking pubic area. Her face is all angles, and her eyes--black with fluorescent virid retinas--give her a look of strange malevolence.

Unlike the paintings of Jerry Kearns--an American artist who shares, in his novel work, an interest in adolescent subjects--Henwood's gouaches are intensively reworked with agitated brushwork, as if the artist were doing battle with his hold illustrational tendencies, trying to choke the two-dimensional effect. Given this painterly technique, it might be interesting to diocese what would happen if Henwood tried his hand at oil paint and canvas. In the meantime, his unsettling snapshots of troubl teen capture something of the unreal nature of this millennial time.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group