Contributed by Zach Seeger / One day, the polyglot, not-quite-formed figurative painter Alfred Jensen was sitting at his desk in his studio mulling over what to do next. A world traveler, he had a bounty of books, cutouts, and sketches of glyphs, logograms, symbols and signifiers nesting in his studio. But he was stuck. Then Mark Rothko knocked on the door for a studio visit. After a few long drags from his cigarette, Rothko gestured to the byzantine bric-a-brac on Jensen’s wall and said, “You know, Alfred, that’s your work. Paint that.” From that point forward, Jensen changed how and what he painted. Via sticker-book color and flourish, “Gritty Rituals,” a thoughtfully energizing group show at Equity Gallery, recalls the schematic proto-pop that Jensen teamed with imagist distortion and tantric and somatic references.
Curator Peter Schenck’s own work in the show is an ordered, reflective ensemble of his usual studio nature morte. It features brushes, squeezed tubes of paint, and donuts, plus saggy-sad faces painted with Saul-like acridity, but forms are stacked and ordered in a way that conveys their fate in storage. Schenck has taken an inventory and has arranged the iconography predominantly within a rectangle, suggesting a hierarchy as well as directional order.
Lauren Comito’s work comprises diagrams of body parts, interiors, and architectures, inlayed with culture-jamming references to temples, idols, pinball machines, and Judy Chicago. They resemble mind mazes and puzzles. It’s irresistible to link her work here to the Met’s current exhibition “Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet.” Both shows are, in a way, schematic existential instructions, booklets for being. While Comito’s work lacks any palpable spirituality, it does activate the imagination as the stillness of an artifact, or a board game sitting in the cupboard waiting to be picked up, might.
The seasoned veteran of the group is John O’Connor, the text-based Brooklyn painter who channels late Jensen at times but with the visionary verve of a dosed Mel Bochner. O’Connor serves as the link between the two other artists, combining the intense routine of painting with the daydreamy notebook of a bored student. It is both whimsy and autobiography, exotic still lifes and pictures of the artist’s mind.
Bottom: John O’Connor, Odilaes, 2023, colored pencil and graphite on paper, 14 x 11 inches
“Gritty Rituals” provides exemplars for painters looking to incorporate figuration as well as post-slacker formalism into their work. More broadly, in its zesty embrace of the complexities and vexations of contemporary life, it’s a shout-out to artists who soldier on undeterred by trying times.
“Gritty Rituals,” Equity Gallery, 245 Broome Street, New York, NY. Through September 28, 2024. Curated by Peter Schenck. Artists featured: Lauren Comito, John O’Connor, and Peter Schenck.
About the author: Zach Seeger is a painter working in LIC and upstate New York.
