These recent paintings by New York artist Martin Myers are about absolutes, or rather, the impossibility of absolutes. In each of these medium-sized paintings on panel, a black hard-edge geometrical shape is set against a white or gray ground. The images suggest sleek cubes and trapezoids hovering in space.
Myers's art involves a perceptual game. The three-dimensional objects appear, then somehow quickly dissipate, morphing into flat surface shapes. As it turns out, on closer inspection, the illusionism is in the mind of the beholder. Myers formulates these dense spatial puzzles with a deft command of light and shade, line and texture. The work is animated primarily by the richly nuanced surfaces, which are made of casein, egg tempera, urethane, shellac and acrylic. An exercise in subtlety, these meditative simple paintings harbor an exhilarating intensity.
Martin Myers at Sandra Gering (June 30-Aug. 7), 476 Broome, 2nd fl., New York, New York 10013.
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