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Figures emerging from a primordial ooze of vivid color are the hallmark of Marg Starbuck’s large paintings. Her gestural, intuitive forms tread a fine line between the chaos of the abstracted unknown and a more recognizable reality.
In style and color these paintings recall the Dutch expressionist Karel Appel. Like him Starbuck packs each painting with wild fervor somewhat held in check by explicit portions. Forms springing from the artist’s unconscious are nonetheless rooted in prehistoric, primitive art and children’s art.
Much of Starbuck’s force lies in her brushwork and the vibrant color mixed on the canvas. When she puts these devices aside, as she does in a multitude of tiny gouache on paper paintings with their surreal imagery of ladders, steps and bridges into the inner depths, the emotive power is dispelled. But for clear maturity with paint handling that can be comfortable letting the gesture define the image, it’s hard to beat the fresh happenstance in the small, square blots of liquid acrylic and rhoplex in the “Riding A Bicycle With No Hands” series of paintings. (Art Space, 10550 Santa Monica Blvd., to Oct. 22.).
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