Max Henry: catalog essay for “Little Corner of the World”
Little Corner of the World
These are strange paintings. They spell mayhem and decay.
Looking like cell and tissue lab specimens suspended in formaldehyde, one is taken aback by the intensity found in these abstract forms. Their loose cartoon-like shapes are drawn with anatomical precision although they are the by-products of a random process.
Using an expressionist painter’s drip and pour technique, the artist Jonathan Feldschuh layers his canvases with a thick build-up of several clear polymer coats which magnify colorful loopy forms floating beneath the transparent viscous surface. Quite heavy and industrial in appearance, these canvases, (stretched over wood panels), show details of organic forms which have been enlarged or reduced thousands of times in scale. With contrary titles like “Little Corner of the World” and “Wash It Till You Get It Clean”, this series has a humorous undercurrent.