Daniel Shapiro’s latest exhibit at Arleigh Gallery includes paintings, sculpture and drawings. In the paintings Shapiro compartmentalizes in comic strip fashion a series of biomorphic images based on the structures of human and animal forms. In some instances the color appears local, i.e., flesh tone on colored grounds. The forms are drawn in with charcoal with a kind of lost and found line under, over and into the flat form, creating sculptural illusion. The largest and latest of these works is by far the best in the exhibition. Rich purples and reds as well as lighter hues are painted over each other in successive reworkings making. a final color surface that reflects the other layers of paint. The hollowed plaster figures displayed are the beginnings of further exploration in this direction.

—James Monte