The New York Times Friday November 1, 2002

Art In Review: Brady Dollarhide

The crisp, expertly made paintings in Brady Dollarhide's first show are beautiful but spooky. They show the black silhouettes of trees, electrical poles and wires against swoony evening skies loosely brushed in deepening shades of blue, lavender and rose. But sometimes the wires seem to bind the trees to the point of strangulation, or the wires are overtaken by creeping moss. Elsewhere, flying leaves suggest a coming storm, or the angle of a wire hints at tensions just beyond the painting's edge.

Mr. Dollarhide's work deconstructs a little too easily into precedents that include Kara Walker, Roger Brown, Neil Jenney and Edward Ruscha - not to mention Magritte and Caspar David Friedrich. In addition, his contrast of sharp-edged forms with washy sky could quickly become pat. For the time being, however, Mr. Dollarhide's reduction of the conflict between the natural and the man-made to barely perceptible treacheries beneath gorgeous yet indifferent night skies is memorable. - Roberta Smith

Back to PRESS