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.