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ESSAYS
Kevin Fey's works are monochrome paintings with a single drip-spot in the center. His process is distinctive. A layer of paint is applied to the canvas and dried. Another layer is placed on top; solvents are poured over this layer, texturing the painting. While still wet, a mixture of resins is poured in the center of the canvas. The resins are allowed to partially dry; then, the canvas is tipped on-end, causing some of the resin to drip out.
The chemical effects of the solvents and the dripping resin take on much of the work of composition. By sharing the duties of composition with the material itself, the artist's own creative prerogative is forfeited. The paintings, freed from the tyranny of intention, are allowed to take their own shape. They do not represent or fail to represent. Uncoupled from the artist, the paintings do not aim to communicate anything at all.
Nevertheless, inkblot-like, images rise to the surface unbidden. In Unititled (Black and Red 07-2), one cannot help but see a leering face; in Untitled (Pink and Gray 07) a dancing woman; in Untitled (Red 07-4) a bleeding wound. Perhaps art--like the universe, like life--cannot in the end be meaningless. But its meaning need not be due to the artist's intention. Kevin Fey's work demonstrates, not the meaninglessness of art, but the impotence of the artist and the futility of communicative intention.
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