This exhibition marks the first showing of paintings by Detroit artist Richard Kozlow on the West Coast.
Kozlow, who calls himself a “romantic, contemporary painter,” uses a variety of methods and materials—casein, watercolor, ink, gouache, frottage, and collage—to render the muted tones of his abstract landscapes. What is truly remarkable about these paintings is the variety of, for want of a better phrase, atmosphere effects created solely through the skillful handling of paint. Kozlow has the ability to capture the changing moods of nature as his landscapes are exposed to such intangibles as moonlight, mist, fog, night, heat. Such a lyrical and dramatic vision of nature suggests that Kozlow might be called a modern exponent of the Hudson River School.
With such paint-handling genius and superb color sense as evidence of genuine talent, the “interior decorator” look of the paintings is especially disappointing. Too slick and facile, each painting looks a little too much like the next. Each seems to be, not the resolution of something in paint, but rather an echo of something already realized. Part of this may result from the plush surroundings and a method of framing that makes the paintings look expensive and slick, but intrudes on their esthetic.
Upstairs galleries display works by Louis Macouillard, Max Showatter, and George Russin.
—Virginia Allen
