RICO GATSON | THE NEW CRITERION

Art:

“Rico Gatson: Above and Below,” at Miles McEnery Gallery (through October 26): Up, out, in, around—Rico Gatson’s abstractions certainly point the way in “Above and Below,” his latest solo exhibition at New York’s Miles McEnery Gallery. The question is just where they are directing us. Reprising the color-filled and at times blinding contrasts of Op Art, the 1960s movement of optical art that pushed visual perception to its limit, Gatson’s acrylic compositions on wood function as both targets and bomb radiuses, rainbows and knives, attention seekers and camouflage. Reducing his iconography to its minimum, Gatson has honed his push-pull dynamics to a sharpened edge that can be alluring and cutting, attracting and distracting, all at once. 

—James Panero