Men of Many Parts

Robin Rice on Visual Art

by Robin Rice

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As a friend and I stood on the step ringing the bell beside the 222 Vine St. door, men carrying furniture from the building drew our attention to the fact that the entire wall fronting the sidewalk was gone. The woman who'd answered the phone earlier said the gallery was open; we just didn't understand how literally.

It is possible to see approximately five paintings by Ryan Beck at 222, but the odg (otto design group) offices where the gallery is located are being remodeled. The paintings must be a fraction of Beck's original show. However, what's there — which includes one piece painted directly on a wall — is worth seeing. Because of his use of occasional fluorescent colors and other texture contrasts, Beck's paintings, though good on the Internet, are better in person.

Linked, rounded color areas suggest a chorus line of brightly painted conjoined Michelin tire men or maybe molecules or even soap bubbles.

These pieces seem to be the result of a specific program. The first, lowest layer is pastel: pale, thin, cloudlike washes, sometimes covering the entire surface. The next, middle, layers of hyper-intense, contrasting hues are the main story. The bubbles do not float freely; they are often anchored by juicy vertical drips documenting a sense of gravity that would otherwise be felt.

The final layer or layers are outlines. They define new rounded shapes overlaid on the bright bubbles. For these, Beck generally uses black but, as in Untitled, Number 17 (pictured, detail), which is painted on pale, unprimed wood rather than a layer of washes, he finishes with a network of thick red lines. It builds a sense of transparency and dimension that feels playful, improvisational and teasingly like a representation of something.

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A few doors down Vine Street, the Painted Bride is showing the recent work of two mature painters who have held on to their zest and their friendship for nearly a half-century. Gerry Givnish and Willy Adler met as students at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1961. They and the late Frank Vavricka showed together in the first exhibition ever at the Painted Bride. All three, especially Givnish, nourished the Bride for many years.

In subject matter, medium and style, the two artists could hardly be more different; portraits of each other tell the story. They are recognizable but also hybrid projections of each painter's own self. Adler endows Givnish with elements of his own angular face and burning eyes. Givnish depicts Adler as a bearded patriarch.

Givnish is mostly a representational painter working in watercolor. Careful observation combined with the speedy execution required by the medium give his work the quality of narrative. One almost hears the gulls and waves accompanying seascapes of Strathmere, among the most appealing works in the show. And the cries of fans and crack of the bat seem audible in a group of vivid baseball pictures.

In contrast, Adler's surreal figure compositions distinguished by brilliant passages of color never existed in real life. They are ecstatic and extravagant with often unfathomable poetic symbolism.

Where Givnish is all about the phenomenological moment, Adler explores painful or grotesque aspects of human relationships or political realities. In You and Me, cobalt-haired Adler floats beside a flame-haired woman, oblivious above a violent physical encounter. In Crossing, regal purple elephants move somberly on a blue horizon against a golden sky.

Three men; three distinctive approaches — how rich the field is.

(r_rice@citypaper.net)

Ryan Beck: Here and There: 50 Days | Through July 28, Gallery 222, 222 Vine St., 222gallery.com

Paintings by Gerry Givnish and Willy Adler: 47 Years Later ... | Through July 20, Painted Bride, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914, paintedbride.org