Mark Kurdziel

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Mark Kurdziel				Gallery II			Oct 28 - Nov 29, 2006

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	Mark Kurziel Mark Kurdziel’s new paintings reveal the mythological in the ordinary: a party, a fish tank, a domestic cat. His women are hieratic. The flatness of their appearance on the canvas makes them Egyptian goddesses, or Greek Kouroi, or the formal erotic shapes of the sculptures of Khajuraho. These women are his link with the past – his own painterly past and the roots of painting. But just in case you thought to get too serious, there’s a touch of Fat Freddie’s Cat sniffing in the old fish store: mischief amongst the mystery. The ruling goddess is desire. Beyond the claustrophobic frame of a window the city beckons like bright space, while that wild cat is hunting through pretty, elusive thoughts. It’s a counterpoint to those brooding, beautiful women. From jewel-like turquoises to fauve pinks and browns, these paintings have a richness and vibrancy to them that gives his female figures a sense of seduction and danger. The smokiness of these women is tantalizing: spirits with a touch of cruelty about them who are ready to seduce and then drift away into the Western Lands or dissolve in light and colour, touchable but only for a limited time. They’re promising and alienating. Cindy Ball’s Birthday Party conjures one of those moments when the physical dissolves and the archetypal appears, a dance floor apparition of the Three Graces. Like all of Mark Kurdziel’s unique work, the imagist language is his own while being deeply rooted in painterly traditions from the papyri through abstract expressionism. Mark Kurdziel is an American painter true to global roots. This current show is a step into territory that combines the traditional and the contemporary in a way that acknowledges the alienation of the modern without losing touch with the richness of the past. This is powerful work. Desmond Barry Desmond Barry is the author of three novel: The Chivalry of Crime, A Bloody Good Friday, and Cressida's Bed. His shorter prose has appeared in The New Yorker and Granta.