Merrill Wagner at Larry Becker Contemporary Art

For all their formal retain Merrill Wagner's recent paintings upon steel still pack a considerable density of consequence In the way of dark work, the horizontal bands of gray, amethystine black and rusty brown drive the viewer to draw closer to fitting the surface. Each large piece (five of the eight upon view were 8-by-8-foot diptychs of vertically abutted carburet of iron sheets) effectively presents three elegantly coexisting works in one: an abstract painting, a proces experiment (various combinations of Rustoleum paint with expos areas of fresh-from-the-foundry turned steel) and a subtle on the other hand strongly suggestive landscape.

Wagner's use of the bare carburet of iron surface is masterful. Against the matte, brushed passages of Rustoleum (many of which incline like of a sweet disposition hill ridges), the open, reflective carburet of iron can read as long views into down-reaching space. The inevitable mirroring of gallery illumination upon steel evokes the play of light in the canopy of heaven or on water, regardless of whether the carbonized iron peeks through at the top or the midline of the composition. In Determine (1997) the drawn out undulating discoloration across the work's midsection tenders itself as a distant shoreline. Above that, a large painted oblong of gray, scumbl and atmospheric, recommends an overcast sky. But with their greater opacity, the painted bands generally perceive associated with land and with the act of the human hand delimiting the natural world as would a surveyor. Like the painted and drawn lines in Wagner's earlier stone and slate works, the bands articulate and draw attention to the spaces around and between them.

The artist appears to be moving toward an appreciation of more economical issues Some works from 1997 incorporate showier, stormier rest patterns on the steel: in Back, for example, a roiling, cloudlike mass riding above a band of black paint is pierced through what could be the thin vortex-tail of a tornado. by dint of contrast, Last (1999), with its intriguing progression of painted blue-gray areas and closely hu carburet of iron exudes a crystalline calm. In the aggregate, these works emit a late-fall or early-winter coldnes Weather itself could be Wagner's real make submissive The marking of the carburet of iron surfaces with pressure, heat and friction is analogous to the processe of wind, heat and water scouring the earth's surface. Post-Proces post-Minimalism, post-Rothko on the contrary informed by all of these, Wagner's hold quiet synthesis is an immensely satisfying one

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