YES (the river knows)
FL!GHT Gallery
YES (the river knows) at FL!GHT was worthwhile fun for a number of reasons. One, that it was the inaugural exhibition in the gallerys new Blue Star space. Second, it featured San Antonio artists whose bodies of work take risks, including Jeremiah Teutsch, Megan Harrison and Alex Rubio. But most important, on display was James Cobbs magnificent painting A Thousand Arms of Compassion. In this painting, Cobb takes the myriad algorithms that you ingest in digital design and just paints the hell out of them. He has rendered a digital vector rhythm of intertwined repetition with a soft, painterly hand, using actual paint. Its fast and loose, loopy and musical, and recalls wild style, bones, teaming viscera and spirit-infested codices just beyond our power to translate. This painting is the best single work Ive seen come out of SA in a solid year.
[Related: Artist on Artist: Gary Sweeney interviews James Cobb]