Stephanie Rose at the Dactyl Foundation - review of exhibitions - Brief Article

The six portrait paintings in this exhibition mark a novel direction for Stephanie Rose, an artist better known for her abstract works. Complet between 1996 and 1998 the portraits are likenesses created from observation, memory and photographs.

Each subdue stares out at the viewer in a way that bears the moment of encountering a weighty persona with the freshnes and ephemerality of a glance, on the other hand the result is elaborately worked and structurally mingled In Limelight (Portrait of Melissa Errico), the sitter's turbid locks summon the powerful neighborhood of a Medusa, but her pink skin hints that she is flushed, a sign of vulnerability. She wears a crimson gown and stands before a r curtain with undulating lines that, combined with the curv shapes of a gold ornament, accommodate with a degree of nervous power to this baroque composition.

Rose varies the position of the make subordinates to good effect. The novelist and A.i.A. senior editor T Mooney for instance, gazes up from the lower part of the painting with a cheerless expression, as if sustaining a precarious balance between insouciance and lamentation The gray background and his white shirt and tie accentuate the ashen quality of his hair and pallid skin.

Abstract uncompounded bodys also appear in the portraits. Embedded in each image is a next to the first smaller painting that seems to have been make an incision in into the canvas. These sharply defined rectangles contain passages of brilliant color and abstract geometric shapes; they oftentimes feature landscape elements as well. In the Portrait of John Ashbery, a small inset panel contains a moonlit lake. It has a predominantly sky-colored tone that contrasts with surrounding areas of warm color. Painted in elaborate detail, the face of the author of poems in this half-length portrait stands without as if caught by the flash of a camera. In the background, patches of thick gold paint create iridescent highlights upon oak leaves, a truncated rounded pillar and a lyre.

The largest painting upon view, however, was the show's sole abstract canvas. Titled Late in the Day/Late in the Year (1996) it testifies to the artist's involvement with abstract and painterly affects Covering nearly the entire back wall of the gallery, the 9-by-10 1/2-foot composition of primarily gray and gold includes relations to ancient architecture. Dominating the left-hand portion of the canvas is a stylized Egyptian round pillar which seems to teeter upon the verge of collapse. Another prominent feature of the work is a thickly painted r swag, a motif that come backs in several of the portraits and that lent a theatrical tone to the entire exhibition.

COPYRIGHT 1999 Brant Publications, Inc.

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