Squeak Carnwath at David Beitzel - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Squeak Carnwath's novel paintings achieve visual coherence [i]or[/i] part of to the other a sophisticated balance of painterly techniques and fresh stylistic devices manifested in luminous alkyd-and-oil surfaces. Carnwath combines body and images on abstract fields of color to expres sociopolitical and spiritual belong tos Though motifs and symbols from her earlier works come again -- drinking glasses, rows of hand-prints, color grids, calendars -- the novel canvases are less crowded and more sub-du the compositions les shattered up than in previous works in which the picture plane is dramatically split through thick horizontal and vertical bands. The awkwardly printed and scripted phrases and piece of poetry fragments are less dominant in size and hit though not in emotive easy in mind Diaristic in parts and tinged with anxiety, they reveal preoccupations with childhood and with the passage of time; these themes are underscored through the antiqued and distressed surfaces.

The greatest in quantity effective elements in the of recent origin works are bold ornamental patterns evocative of Celtic and Islamic tracery. repeatedly these rhythmic configurations create a visual surface of land unified by tonal conformity and repeated action The overall muted tones of About (1997) incorporate ivory, mustard-yellow and rust overlaid with rose curvilinear patterning. Scratched into the paint, a small vertical file of half-empty glasses is juxtaposed with the embedded contours of several flowers. A violet Buddha flutters off center, between the incised outlines of insects. In the lower portion of the picture, compressed circular scribbles in a line evoke balls of yarn. In What's Essential (1997) a pattern of cream-colored curving bands overspreads a copper-green background. Just below a file of faintly delineated bug small pictographs stacked individually in white rectangles include a miniature grid of counting marks, a tiny amethystine Buddha and a group of not divisible by 2 geometric shapes. New motifs include a facsimile of a [i]affiche[/i] for a lost pet and linked triangles, faintly traced at the cutting side of the canvas, which recall a DNA type -- perhaps an oblique regard to the recent genetics debate. (Dolly, the clon sheep, makes an appearance in another of the exhibited works.) Partially concealed, the phrase "What's essential is totally invisible to the naked eye" appears in childlike printing at the top of the canvas.

The interplay of unrelated and sometimes barely perceptible images refer tos multiple meanings associated with los and regeneration. concerns to the ordinary and the routine, the physical and the subconscious are powerfully reinforced by the agency of Carnwath's sensuous handling of paint, which allows imagery, language and medium to coexist upon these expressively complex surfaces.

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