A handsome selection of paintings by four artists associated with the gallery. George Miyasaki is represented by several tastefully menacing oils in which pastel, compartmented forms brood delicately in the center of the canvas. Two paintings by Lee Mullican from 1958 Mirrors and California Landscape show the artist dealing with realistic forms beneath his slatted yellow surfaces, creating a fascinating interplay between two definite planes of focus. A later painting The Burning Bush is less concerned with the literal, concentrating solely on an involved modulation of the yellow splinters for themselves alone. Becoming less of a paradox, it is possibly less cussedly interesting. Ynez Johnston is represented by more recent glyphic surfaces in which the canvas is covered, warped, scored, and generally treated to give the appearance of having lived a life. The results have a beautifully authentic quality but skate very close to the archeological. As always, Miss Johnston shows her ability to make a delightfully casual and breathless pattern. Nathan Oliveira’s Seated Woman with Fur Coat is an excellent example that radiates the sense of a living person, characteristic of some of his recent work. It is “painted” in the most specific sense of the word, the brilliant brush handling moves in and out of the exciting color flux delineating and activating the figure in a rather special sweet-sour color range. The earlier Seated Man with Wrap, truncated and depersonalized by collage seems strangely indirect in comparison.
––Doug McClellan
