Art Review: A Review Of "The Boys Are Back In Town" At The Romo Gallery

The Boys are Back in Town, The Romo Gallery (February 22 - April 12, 2008)

The group show presents a series of recent paintings by ten talented young artists living

and working in close proximity in the enclaves of Brooklyn. The group of artists include John

Brainard, Jamison Brosseau, John Copeland, Joseph Hart, Wes Lang, Eddie Martinez, Brian

Montuori, Russell Nachman, Ryan Schneider, and Brett Wilson. The main theme of the exhibit

was to feature contemporary abstract artworks focusing on present social order and politics.

The featured art works of Paul Brainard at the exhibition were mostly abstract

representations of contemporary elements and events. Many of his artworks features contents

such as politics, religion, media, and to large extent the female pornography.

This first painting, is titled, The President of the United States of America, 2008. This was done

using oil on Linen, and its size is 55 x 40 inches.

This composition is a very stylized representation of his view women in society. The emphasis of

the painting is a large scaled stripping prostitute front and center in piece. In the background, we

see a smaller painting of a portrait of popular icon, politician and first lady Hillary Clinton.

Other distinct images include two skulls seen around the prostitute. The rest of the painting is

filled with a variety of subordinate and oddly random shapes and objects.

Another piece is a drawing done by Brainiard follows on the same theme of politics and social

order.

This piece is titled, “Decision 08” done by Paul Brainard in 2007. This was done using graphite

on paper, sized 22 X 30 inches. This drawing bears striking resemblance to the painting seen

before. Again there is a prostitute positioned as the emphasis and the subject of the piece, with a

smaller portrait of politician Hillary Clinton in the top left corner of the composition. The skull is

also recurrent, this time, drawn translucently over the naked prostitute. There also a similar array

of random letters, numbers and shapes. New images include junk foods and snacks, being a

doritos bag and a box of donuts.

Comparing both of Brainard pieces, some consistent elements come out. Both had

prostitutes as the subject matter, although the titles make implicit references to Hillary Clinton.

Both had small portraits of Clinton and an ever recurring skull. Just by looking at these

similarities, one could imply that the artist is trying to paradox the possibility of a first female

president in a society where women are commonly viewed as sexual objects. The repeating

image of skull could imply death, fear, sin or corruption.