Monday, August 31, 2015

Scott Greene's Beautiful Dystopia at Catharine Clark Gallery



The Catharine Clarke Gallery near Potrero Hill hosted a closing reception on Saturday afternoon for Scott Greene's show, Deep State.



The 57-year-old artist above was a local boy who studied at the SF Arts Institute and Oakland's California College of Arts and Crafts before moving with his artist wife to New Mexico a couple of decades ago.



The sheer quality of the classical style painting is breathtaking...



...while the dystopian subject matter of a world falling apart, object by object, is paradoxically disturbing.



Jesus and other classical figures occasionally appear as characters, and in one case it is Mitt Romney on horseback complete with Groucho Marx nose and moustache riding through the ruins.



If I had any money, I would have bought a painting immediately from Ms. Clarke above, who was hosting a roundtable discussion about "scale" in different mediums.



Outside the gallery on Utah between 15th and 16th street, the scene looked like a Richard Diebenkorn or Wayne Thiebaud painting with the addition of street people camping on the hilly, sun-drenched sidewalk.

1 comment:

Hattie said...

You have such a good eye. The photo is perfect. I like the paintings, too, but probably can't really judge them without seeing them in person.