David Barnes

From my review of Newport painter David Barnes's exhibit at 5 Traverse Gallery in Providence

David Barnes presents oil paintings and watercolors that the gallery says are inspired by news photos of calamities. "Bali" (2008) uses a range of greens and blues to depict a crowd on a narrow city street under glowing nighttime signs. A light in the distance could be an explosion or a bright marquee, you can't tell.

What's most attractive here is his expressionist manner — loose, washy, brushy, with drips — that recalls the figurative version of Abstract Expressionism that percolated out of California's Bay Area at mid-century.

Read the rest here (at the end).

David Barnes, 5 Traverse Gallery, 5 Traverse Street, Providence, Aug. 21 to Sept. 13, 2009.

Pictured: David Barnes, "Bali."