Review: 'Sampling' at Garvey Simon

J. Ivcevich’s

subjects in his acrylic on canvas painting “Newsworthy”

are a common row of newspaper dispensers lining a sidewalk. These

differently colored dispensers form a horizon line bordering a flat

plane of deep blue sky in which birds are flying.

Ivcevich, a Brebeuf alum, is playing

with perspective here by placing the horizon so close. That is to

say, if you step off this particular sidewalk you might find yourself

falling off the edge of the world.

Throughout this mini-retrospective, you

see this artist taking common street imagery and making it new,

making it strange. But the mediums he uses vary from painting to

painting.

In Street Semiotic #4, he covers a

photographic C-print with resin. He then paints on this surface with

acrylic, using a syringe as his “brush” to squeeze out

the paint and create bold outlines. Then he repeats the process with

another layer of resin and acrylic and achieves a three-dimensional

effect. His subjects here are multiple graffiti tags painted

one-on-top-of another — the kind of thing you might see in any

urban alleyway. But in this painting, the multiple layers of graffiti

seem to lift off the canvas.

Opening reception for this show, which

is currently on view, is May 14 to coincide with Carmel Gallery Walk.