Manuel De Arce

Manuel De Arce, a Spanish artist having his first exhibit in the Bay Area, is by far the best artist exhibited at Pomeroy Galleries in some time. His thick granular paint surfaces have a genuine obsessive quality lending themselves to the depiction of the Spanish countryside. The heavy paint makes for a stylized drawing quality when the figure is attempted. A bathroom scene where a woman is ascending from her tub while a pajama-clad male is intently shaving presents, deadpan, a very amusing situation. De Arce’s sense of the very appropriate and his subtle sense of humor are lagniappes in many of the works.

—James Monte