Show celebrates cars
By DOUGLAS BRITT Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
April 22, 2009, 5:41PM
New Gallery/Thom Andriola
Cheryl Kelley’s painting Red Impala looks like a camera shot at first glance.
Cheryl Kelley: Scintillation at New Gallery/Thom Andriola
Walking into New Gallery, where Scintillation, Cheryl Kelley’s aptly named show, is installed, is like entering a room filled with photos taken at auto shows — and in fact, the paintings are based on such photos.
But as photorealistically as Kelley has rendered vehicles like the first finned Cadillac of the late 1940s or a gas-guzzling 1958 Chevy, the cars all but disappear the closer you get to the paintings. What you see instead is an eruption of brushstrokes, smears and daubs of paint.
Up close, the image is deconstructed — to the point of abstraction, in places — so much so that you can’t believe you thought it looked realistic from a distance. You see blobs of paint that almost look sloppy, too cavalierly slathered on. But back away, and your eye puts the image together again, crisp and seamless.
Kelley is clearly interested in the automobile as a quintessentially American symbol of desire. But as a painter, she’s also interested in what all that shiny chrome, steel and glass do best, which is to reflect light. You see nearby cars, gawking passers-by and the lights of the auto show reflected off every car door, window, mirror or headlight.
Unabashedly glamorous, these paintings of sexy cars — there’s not one Prius in the bunch — are guilty pleasures in these environmentally conscious times. But spend time with them, and it’s the guilt, not the pleasure, that fades.
douglas.britt@chron.com