Kenney Mencher New Paintings at Klaudia Marr Gallery

Friday, 03 November 2006 19:46

Santa Fe, NM - This November Klaudia Marr Gallery has a solo show of new paintings by controversial figurative artist Kenney Mencher.  A unique aspect of this show is that much of the work does not blatantly shock the viewer.  The narrative and formal complexity of Mencher’s work has ratcheted up a notch and now the main focus is humor and sardonic narrative.

Kelley Vance’s review of Mencher’s work describes the Bay Area artist’s work as “a whiff of Edward Hopper, a blast of Mickey Spillane, a rrowf of David Lynch.”  One can see a world of humor and double entendre in his paintings in which “low rent gigolos” steal cash, beautiful blonde bombshells offer forbidden apples, and psychoanalyze characters straight out of Edward Hopper’s world.  Even so, one is still left with a riddle that San Jose Mercury’s art reviewer Jack Fischer describes as working by implication.  “Something is happening in the picture that gives you the willies, but it can be hard to decide whether the cause, dear Brutus, lies in Mencher's depiction or in what you've brought to the party yourself.”

Visit Klaudia Marr Gallery, 668 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501 at www.klaudiamarrgallery.com and http://www.kenney-mencher.com/