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Artist Review: Charles Ladson

Posted on 2010/03/18, 10:00, by Donnelly.

My husband and I were spending some time down in Asheville when we stumbled upon a gallery showcasing mainly Southern artists, called Blue Spiral. This airy, voluminous, three story gallery was breathtaking both architecturally and in the quality and variety of work shown- but my favorite discovery was of a Southern painter named Charles Ladson. I was forcibly compelled across the room to stand immediately in front of his work, literally inhaling the texture and composition with my nostrils. These are large paintings: they are strange. The color quality is off-key, the texture is both chalky and luminous. The subject matter seems to be equally about architectural space, color composition, and erased portraiture. There are obvious references, of course: to Diebenkorn, to the Leipzig school (particularly Matthias Weischer). But there is also something muscularly unique about them- warm not bleak. Continue reading and see more images here: (Read More)

During our trip, my husband and I were discussing how hard it is to find anybody doing work that seems utterly individual these days. There are so many artistic styles to source, that it seems we have become confused by the choices. We (I am speaking of us painters) either cave in to the churning out of successful styles (whimsical en-caustic painting with a few circles submerged at different sedimentary layers, anyone?) or in the over-conceptualization of a piece so that the artist becomes a thinking factory and loses any grasp of the craft. Or: the craft becomes only about the process- so there is an entire gallery wall filled with thirteen paintings that look mostly alike- the artist showcasing the arduous process of how he or she journeyed through the making of the work. I don’t know. I am so bored by so much of it. But Charles Ladson!! I feel like singing to the heavens when I see his work. I want to eat it. I feel, when looking at his fuller oeuvre, that I am journeying into a strange, relational world. Similar to ours and completely convincing- but just very different. And that- that is interesting.