Continuing through December 12, 2013
Originally from California, Patrick Palmer has been living and working in Houston for many years, but because he chooses not to work with a gallery he is only infrequently exhibited here. This rare solo exhibition includes paintings and prints from many phases of his career, all of it focused on the human figure. Palmer has a truly distinctive style. The show is a collection of portraits of what appears to be friends, along with an assortment of mythical and magical characters. In most of the paintings, massive heads with distinctive faces fill the picture plane. Some confront the viewer with a steady gaze, while others gaze into the distance. Some suggest Picasso’s Cubist portraits, their multiple eyes, noses, and mouths depicted from several angles simultaneously. Others are more like Picasso’s neoclassical portraits or those by Ingres, executed with a delicate but firm line that captures what one assumes is a photographic likeness. Some suggest Renaissance-era portraits, while others are more like those of Francis Bacon.
Palmer’s portraits are layered and embellished with all manner of drips, splatters, washes of color, intricate patterns, stripes, and even calligraphy or numbers. Occasionally a bird or animal appears. The artist’s approach to painting hair is to render it highly stylized, ignore it completely, or cover it with a hat or crown. These portraits convey a wide range of emotions, from serenity to sadness, impassiveness to amusement. The male figure with a blue whale balanced on his head seems to be thinking, “Why?”, while the girl with a red brick wall on her head seems not to notice. One senses intriguing stories behind these paintings, but it is more entertaining to conjure up your own narratives.
