Critical essay by Hamlett Dobbins, Director of the Clough-Hanson Gallery:

Gary Komarin does in his paintings what acrobats do on the high wire: there is a constant balancing act between sophistication and simplicity, between cartoon-like expressionism and eloquent abstraction. His images at first seem simple and even awkward, but given enough time, the complexity of the parts reveals itself and the viewer begins to see Komarin's relentless artistic cunning. The gritty surfaces have a sense of urgency that is conveyed by the way he uses quick-drying materials: tempera, waterbased enamel, graphite, or whatever happens to be at hand. This groping, scratching, addition, and subtraction serve to document the struggle between chaos and control. The process points to this artist's ability to not only use 'painting-as-noun' to describe the place he finds, but also how 'painting-as-verb' got him there. The image that survives the process is determined by Komarin's search for an indescribable "rightness." By relentlessly pushing himself in the studio, he challenges the viewer with fresh paintings that feel pure and unrehearsed. They are at once truthful and daring.

Each painting's unique palette extends the notion that a particular quandary must be met with an ever shifting array of solutions. The colors of certain expanses are arrived at by mixing one pile of paint into another, directly on the canvas. His more labored-over surfaces have dense, savory planes while either super-graphic-black or sharp, vibrant hues are used to describe the most direct, unrepentant stroke. Komarin's mix of rich, subtly shifting colors and the hot, acidic pigments help each painting produce a specific combination of hues to create its precise flavor.

Like a vigorous game of Pictionary between Guston, Twombly, and Motherwell, Komarin deftly uses shape and form to play with the moment of recognition: when does a mark stop being a mark and become an object? The viewer is left with the enviable task of sorting through the signposts in this painterly landscape. The reoccurring shapes in his work - the wig, the cake, the vessel -- lend themselves to different levels of interpretation. At the same time, these images create a sense of absurdity in the painting: they are imprecise, quirky, and even romantically fanciful.

Komarin's stalwart images have an epic quality that grips the viewer with the idea that he or she is looking at a contemporary description of something timeless. Even his smallest paintings have a monumental presence. Along with other important painters, his work brings optimism to contemporary abstraction, pointing to a blithe spirit in the house of beauty. Gary Komarin's paintings are a celebration as well, highlighting a particular view of the world and inviting us to re-evaluate our place in it.

Hamlett Dobbins
Director, Clough-Hanson Gallery
Rhodes College
Memphis, Tennessee.

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07.03

Art in America, July 2003 - Sarah S. King reviews the work of Gary Komarin:

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Excerpt of Tandem Press review of the work of Gary Komarin: