Laura Watt

Laura Watt. Inside the Rabbit’s Ear, 2006, Oil on canvas, 56” x 34”. Courtesy McKenzie Fine Art, New York.

Valerie McKenzie Gallery - New York

By Lara Taubman

Upon entering the gallery, Laura Watt’s artistic paradigm clings to the traditional. Yes, there are paintings on the white gallery wall, canvas stretched and primed by the artist, but they distinguish themselves by being substantial - and okay with that. There is no embarrassment about being intent or intense or dedicated, but there is also no hubris, pretension or didactics within these intricate, studied and remarkable paintings.

Inside the Rabbit’s Ear (2006) glitters in an overwhelming array of multiple latticeworks of painted webs. It is as if Watt lays one web layer on top of the other. The viewer’s eye is not sure where to begin and end in this highly detailed, though confidently smooth, paint surface. The space becomes palpable giving these lines a potent physicality. The painting is sculptural without being a safe haven from the frustrating world of the two-dimensional that typically stymies the resolve of so many painters.

Color and form are sexy bedfellows in all of Watt’s paintings, and this one is no exception. She uses a restricted palette, a brown that ranges from a reddish pink to a deep rust, light blue in several shades, creating a light source from behind and within the painting simultaneously. A resourceful use of a muted Naples yellow cools and balances the painting’s visual heat. Watt’s revelry in color and material is apparent, but it never seduces her enough to make her forget her visual or intellectual intentions.

Each painting is a webbed gem of color undulating within and without of forms and ideas. They appear effortless; the mistakes that are undoubtedly there are rendered seamless. The messy effort of the labor is spent first in Watt’s mind and drawings, where the visual schemes are mapped out in gouache, ink and pencil. The road Watt is traveling, by the time her paintbrush touches the canvas, is paved with instinct but never with anticipation. The paintings are more like a surgeon’s strategy, where the operation is memorized beforehand, but he is well prepared for sudden changes during surgery. They possess the focused devotion of a nun at the rosary, or a meditative monk. Every repetitive step is a fresh start whether Watt paints it or the viewer experiences it. The paintings are so alive that one might imagine it self-generating long after she has finished.

Here is the rare “painters’ painter” who does not take herself or history too seriously, though her range of knowledge is evident. The deeper one engages with these works, the more radical Watt’s personal stance becomes. When the viewer finally begins to dissect the layers in her paintings, they are like clever riddles that must be correctly answered to pass the dragon. Once inside the cave, Watt insists without posing an argument, that the most radical thing to be is yourself.

(November 19 - December 19, 2009)

Lara Taubman is a freelance international curator and art critic based in Los Angeles. She is a correspondent for international renowned art journals such as ARTnews, Contemporary, Modern Painters and Sculpture Magazine.

Filed Under: Reviews