Concrete Playground

"Painting, like art, attempts to fill holes in hearts and minds wrought by life, work, politics and culture." Okay? So, yeah, the basis of this show is a bit, um, 'hol[e]y shit'. Forgive me for that, but honestly? A concept that presumes that painting has been "repeatedly killed by the middle of the 20th century" sounds a little bit risible. But this is actually a legit, serious issue given that it is striking at the basis of what painting is, is about, and might be for.

The works in Extended Painting, by artists Tom Loveday, Mark Titmarsh, Sean Lowry, Mark Shorter and Andre Brodyk, collectively consider the act of painting itself by way of works of which some are paintings and some are not. The issues at stake are of the purpose and function of painting as techne rather than how a painting manifests a technique. What did Minimalism do to painting? What about Abstract Expressionism? How does appropriation as a thing change the status of the art object and how does the difference in the way we can represent and experience duration via newer media impact upon what it is to look at a painted work? Again: holey shit.

Image: Tom Loveday, Video Stills "Polar Bear 002," 2011