Greg Kucera Gallery
212 Third Ave S, 624-0770
through March 27

DARREN WATERSTON's basic visual idea is very familiar to gallery-goers who've seen one or more of his four previous solo shows at Greg Kucera. He paints multilayered, dreamy evocations of swampy landscapes, with wild botanical tendrils, rich watery surfaces, moss-covered land, and a vague sense of decay which you almost expect to whiff as you approach the canvas. He's kind of a prisoner to his own style, seemingly content to work minor variations on the theme without ever airing it out or trying something new, but that's not the worst sin when your work looks as good as this does. Recently, he's brought fairy figures and Orientalist themes into his work, trying to stretch thematically, but his look is so specific that it tends to de-emphasize theme in favor of aesthetics. What do I mean? It's to look at, not think about.