odd man (now) in...

When Rube Goldberg met Saul Steinberg comin' throught the rye...Burleson was a self-taught (can we drop the demeaning "outsider" label already?) artist working in glorious magic marker on paper. Sometimes he used forms from work, which was at Lockheed. His sensibility was complex: compelling, dense, busy and strangely varied; sometimes primitive. He started in
pencil: a small drawing (#35) using wheels and a horn or two has a Monty Python air to it, a cackling whimsy. He then moved on to toucan hues. Number 20 is a fave: all screaming magentas, pinks, yellows, and oranges, with bands of green and red. The composition is supposed to be an interior, and it literally bounces with color. Manaical. Contrapuntal. J.S. Bach.

The invitation to this show doesn't do the artist justice, nor does the ad card ouside. Pity. This is one of those exhibits that gives so much once you take the time to explore it.

Thomas Burleson, "Lone Star", at Luise Ross
511 W. 25 st.
212-343-2161
www.luiserossgallery.com
through Feb. 24