Before the First Friday shows really opened, I stopped at Artists House after looking in the window and seeing some nice portraits.
They were done by David Palumbo, Anthony Palumbo’s brother (see posts on Anthony here and here).
But David’s got different fish to fry. His portraits, which have an old masters sheen, take place in the quotidien world of unremarkable spaces–the office file room, the vacant suburbs, the streets filled with stores and signs.
And the people seem uneasy and waiting. What they’re waiting for I can only speculate–the shutter to snap; the shoe to drop; life to begin.
These are not the entitled and confident posers of traditional portraiture.
Not as edgy as Anthony, but surely worth a look at how Rembrandtian lights and darks and rich painting illuminate everyday life and everyday people and their worries.
Some woodblock prints by Daniel Miller of struggling trees had a Japanese and eco feel to them. Only their scraggly and scrubby look kept them from falling into preciousness (sorry about the reflection). He also had huge, fierce woodblock portraits of literary and other cultural heroes (I remember Eudora Welty, for one). I did not see the other work in the gallery because I jumped the gun.
