NYAB Event - Martin Mugar "Ekstasis of Repetition: Oil & Wax Paintings"

masterful work. art as a craft. refreshing. a must see.

These paintings of Martin Mugar are our return to innocence; they are our twilit dream; they are the hand of a child leading us into that sun-blinded field of daisies and butterflies. Martin Mugar isn't happy to lay anything less at our feet. He leads us to water; we just have to drink. It is his salvation, and our peace.

This is as solid a painting experience as you're going to see this year. Martin Mugar is a heavy-weight painter. This work delivers on a dozen levels and keeps on giving. This is surefooted painting that nonetheless walks on thin air. Sublimely. It is that mind-expanding, spirit-elevating poetry we lost and chased and lost again in our youth. Made flesh. Made to touch and drink in and breath in. There is not a tin or sour note in this symphony of paint, of color, of light. Every mark is true; every sculpted piece of paint, every glowing stroke of tint and hue restores us, brings us home. If you're lucky enough to see this work, experience this work, then Martin Mugar's gift will be your gift.

Where to begin:Mugar's painting evokes a childhood dream of Coney Island: cotton candy and candy dots.Or is it an evocation of time and change a marking out of times remnants and traces?Does deKooning's statement that paint becomes flesh help in understanding his intentions.Maybe it takes seeing as far as it can go to where it becomes the very rods and cones that see the painting in the first place.It is probably all of these and depends on the viewer's needs.It is overflowing with all these gifts for the any visitor who is patient enough to look attentively.