“Submughal,” Alex Stein’s new exhibition at Dumbo’s Safe-T-Gallery, consists of ten small paintings that directly address the integrity and beauty seen at the very threshold of vision. The paintings are small mylar squares -- each no more than 6 inches across -- that in turn, contain ten individual, heterogeneous, smaller paintings. Each of the smaller paintings is a completely realized work, work that explores both the romance of vision, (albeit through Stein’s rather mordant personal iconography) while also bringing the viewer into direct confrontation with his or her own limits of perception.
“Submughal” is Alex Stein’s third one-person show at Safe-T-Gallery and will highlight an aspect of his work that has been present in all his paintings and installations but not featured in quite such a singular way. This is his ability to draw and paint on a minute scale, a scale that sometimes seems close to the molecular. The small paintings are complex -- although they depict scenes with recognizable subjects (and most have straight-forward explanatory captions underneath as well) -- because of their size, the boundaries of the paints and colors, the extreme details of brush stroke, and the slight imperfections of medium play immediate roles in the formation and definition of the image.
These small scenes have translucent areas and colors that are often jewel-like in intensity, and the visitor may wish to bring a lens to examine them in detail. But the artist urges all to look at the images directly, the physical experience of observation with this level of vision is an important component of understanding of the work as a whole.
The 10 paintings in “Submughal” will fill Safe-T-Gallery from September 26 to November 1st. There will be an opening reception on the evening of Friday Sept. 26th from 6 to 8, coincident with the opening of the annual Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival, to which all are invited.