Art review: Albert Contreras at Peter Mendenhall Gallery

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Language and painting are often thought of as two sides of very different coins. It’s often assumed that words convey complex thoughts and that paintings, especially abstract ones, are not up to delivering monosyllabic utterances. Forget muttering or even stuttering, abstraction is often made out to be dumb.

At Peter Mendenhall Gallery, Albert Contreras’ two- and three-color paintings turn such conventional thinking upside down and inside out. Composed entirely of ‘Xs’ – and buckets of juicy, highlighter-bright, sometimes glitter-sprinkled acrylic – the L.A. artist’s exuberant panels mash painting and language into a rich mix that leaves neither one the same and both better for it.

In terms of materials, Contreras is anything but stingy. He paints on a tabletop, piling his specially mixed acrylics on single-colored wood panels the same way my 3-year-old puts cream cheese and jelly on a bagel: until both jars are empty. When it comes to deliciousness, too much is not something to be taken too seriously.

Contreras then uses a plasterer’s trowel he has customized to make his mark: a swift back-and-forth of the wrist and arm that leaves an ‘X’ in the middle of each panel. The 77-year-old artist has cut triangular notches into the blades of his various trowels, so that each swipe he makes packs four, five or six swipes into one.

Gesture-saving efficiency meets hedonistic abandon in Contreras’ colors, which tend toward extremes: Ferrari red, glistening silver, sparkling chartreuse and sumptuous plum. His ‘X’ paintings echo Andy Warhol’s images of dollar signs, making their no-nonsense willingness to negotiate even more open, accessible and expansive.

In terms of language, Contreras is a less-is-more Minimalist. His untitled paintings make Samuel Beckett look verbose and Georges Perec seem undisciplined.

‘X’ is among the most elusive and loaded of letters. It marks the spot, fills out forms, obliterates mistakes, signifies the unknown, names a new generation of sporting events and, at a letter’s end, stands for a kiss. In Contreras’ hands, it speaks volumes.

– David Pagel

Peter Mendenhall Gallery, 6150 Wilshire Blvd., (323) 936-0061, through May 1. Closed Sundays and Mondays. www.petermendenhallgallery.com

Images: Untitled (top) and Installation view, 2010. Photo credit: Courtesy of Peter Mendenhall Gallery.