Quirky, pixilated paintings by Daniel Aksten are the highlight of this inaugural show, “Difference and Repetition.” Uniform metal panels explore a restrained palette (red, grey, yellow) with taped grids and squares with rounded corners. Featuring both what the artist refers to as “portraits” and “landscapes,” each work is a result of calculated construction and arbitrary randomness determined, literally, by a roll of dice. Interestingly, the carefully masked and unmasked marks of automotive paint refer not so much to the future as it once might have, given that the computer byte metaphor has ceased to arouse such associations. Even the subtle basket-weaving texture of the paint layers points to craft and the artist’s hand in a way that makes one think about how the word “modern” has come to seem “old-fashioned.”
Published courtesy of ArtScene ©2010
