No Smarties

Blade Wynne’s paintings are the most lovable, least pukey

"Veil" 2008. watercolor and gouache on paper. 10"x13"

Whew, we’ve sure been looking at a lot of slick stuff lately, haven’t we? You know what I’m talking about: the squeaky clean stuff like this, and this, and especially this. Not that I don’t totally love that shit, but quoth Roberta Smith, “we cannot live by the de-materialization — or the slick re-materialization — of the art object alone.” Right? Oh, Roberta <3

So if you will, please allow me this opportunity to present to you how much I love Blade Wynne’s stuff. Blade is a No Smarties BFF, he’s both a sweet painter and a Totally Nice Guy, and obviously has one of the most ridiculously badass names you’ve ever heard.

His stuff tends to be modest in scale and maybe humble in content, but hugely ambitious in color range and thoughtfully plotted out spaces. His paintings feel like they happen really slowly before your eyes, and make me so excited that I want to run into the woods live in a tent and look at leaves and live like a crazy woman and do nothing but draw for weeks. Ummmyeah. He makes some of the best observational work I ever see around these days; a tradition that, lets face it, gets clogged with a lot of pukey painting.

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