Joe Goode
at Greenfield Sacks Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Recommendation by Michael Buitron
From his earliest efforts, Joe Goode’s work has nodded towards both pop and conceptual movements, yet his sensibilities can’t be nailed down by either. Like a boxer ducking and weaving, Goode’s work moves in and out of artistic camps; with his painted and torn sky/cloud works or shot-up paintings, he both builds up and destroys to produce his finished pieces. Perhaps this model of continuous constructing and tearing down can be seen as a model for the subject of Goode’s latest show, “Golden Dreams.” Through the continual cycles of real estate boom and bust, the architecture around Hollywood and Vine has been both lovingly protected by the preservationist’s hand and unceremoniously slapped down by the wrecking ball. More recently, the new W Hotel and Towers in Hollywood approached Goode and asked him to create something iconic for their new lobby. Having lived some thirty years ago just up the hill from the famous Walk of Stars neighborhood, Goode’s photographs that underpin his paintings are both nostalgic and, because of changes to the neighborhood, unfamiliar and new.
From his earliest efforts, Joe Goode’s work has nodded towards both pop and conceptual movements, yet his sensibilities can’t be nailed down by either. Like a boxer ducking and weaving, Goode’s work moves in and out of artistic camps; with his painted and torn sky/cloud works or shot-up paintings, he both builds up and destroys to produce his finished pieces. Perhaps this model of continuous constructing and tearing down can be seen as a model for the subject of Goode’s latest show, “Golden Dreams.” Through the continual cycles of real estate boom and bust, the architecture around Hollywood and Vine has been both lovingly protected by the preservationist’s hand and unceremoniously slapped down by the wrecking ball. More recently, the new W Hotel and Towers in Hollywood approached Goode and asked him to create something iconic for their new lobby. Having lived some thirty years ago just up the hill from the famous Walk of Stars neighborhood, Goode’s photographs that underpin his paintings are both nostalgic and, because of changes to the neighborhood, unfamiliar and new.