Metal, materials and process bond the largely abstract landscapes of Timothy Kadish (New Paintings) and Jessie Morgan (Night Tides) in this month’s intriguing show at the Clark Gallery, 145 Lincoln Rd, in Lincoln, MA.
Both sets of works provoke the viewer to ask–“What is this made of? And how did the artist do that?”
Morgan’s elegant abstract, monochromatic work appears, at first, to be photographic or film-based but the explanatory materials attest that it is acryllic painted on aluminum or plexiglass–with wide brushstrokes seeming to form landscapes-sky, ice, water, snow, trees exhibiting a shiny, reflecting (and reflective?) quality. A few of the works use vibrant blues and greens.
Kadish’s colorful paintings– primitivistic, childlike and seemingly whimsical, are full of 
suprises–geometric shapes, animal figures, thick goopy coils of oil paint, metallic oraments painted, glued, stapled, pressed or otherwise attached to the canvas…which isn’t necessarily canvas.
Neophotosynth – 2009, for example, is an 80 x 60 oil including all of the above,
as well as gouache, silver and gold leaf on silver-colored lead on copper that completely covers a frame .
The longer I stood in front of each painting, the more I found in it and the more I enjoyed it.
Both artists involved me in a process of discovery that allowed me to absorb, one step or stroke at a time, how their concepts and motions brought their work into being.
The exhibit is worth seeing. It will be up through January 30.
—Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA. We also publish HarrisComBlog and Ithaca Diaries Blog.
